After dropping both games in their recent road trip, the Dream return to action in Philips Arena on Saturday night, hosting the Chicago Sky (7-7) at 7:30 p.m.
The Dream (3-9) have lost four of their past five games and sit in fifth place in the Eastern Conference standings, 6 1/2 games behind first-place Indiana. Their three wins have come in two games against the New York Liberty and one contest against the Chicago Sky. In those games, the Dream outscored the two opponents 237-207.
However, the Dream’s recent back-to-back road losses came at the hands of those teams. On Wednesday night, they lost to New York 91-69. The 22-point defeat is the team’s largest this season.
To rise from the bottom of the standings, the Dream will need well-rounded performances from their leading scorers, Angel McCoughtry and Erika de Souza. On Friday, McCoughtry was named a starter in the 2011 WNBA All-Star game. The Dream’s Marynell Meadors will coach the Eastern Conference team in the game, scheduled for July 23 in San Antonio.
Although Sancho Lyttle has returned from Eurobasket Women 2011, she has missed the past two games with a sore back. Without Lyttle’s presence in the paint for the past eight games, the Dream have found themselves without their second-leading scorer, who averaged 12.5 points per game before she left to play with Brazil.
