Home, sweet home. But not really.
In their first home game since July 5, the Dream (7-13) lost 71-68 to the Phoenix Mercury (12-7) Sunday evening. It was Atlanta’s sixth loss in the last seven games.
“I thought we did a great job defensively against a team that can put some points on the board,” Dream head coach Michael Cooper said. “But until we solve our problems for our scoring and stop having those droughts, (that’s) when we’ll be able to get back on the winning side.”
The Dream led for only the first 1:43 after Angel McCoughtry’s 3-pointer. That’s all the time they spent on top. Helped by a 13-0 run to start the second quarter, Phoenix dominated the first half and led 43-31 at the break.
The Dream trailed by as many as 18 points but trimmed the lead to 52-50 with 1:53 left in the third after two straight baskets off turnovers and Shoni Schimmel’s 3-pointer.
Schimmel then tied the game at 53 with another 3-ball seconds before the end of the quarter. Atlanta outscored Phoenix 22-10 in the third.
“We just realized in the first half we kind of started slow,” Schimmel said. “And then for us to come back in the second half and take advantage of just scoring, I think that’s exactly what we did. It’s something we’re putting together as a team and it’s going to carry over into the next game.”
Neither team scored in the fourth until Phoenix’s Leilani Mitchell knocked down a midrange jumper to put the Mercury up 55-53 with 8:48 left. Atlanta tried to respond quickly in transition, but Brittney Griner blocked Aneika Henry’s layup attempt. It was Griner’s fifth block of the game.
The Dream trailed 71-68 with 0.5 second left and had the last possession. Out of a timeout, Schimmel inbounded to Damiris Dantas, who couldn’t get a shot off in time.
“The game wasn’t won or lost for me there,” Cooper said. “It was more like the last two or three minutes. I think those two crucial plays, we had a couple of bad shots down the stretch when we were trying to come back. Angel’s turnover when we (were) down by one and doing what we do well, which is transition play, we come up with a turnover.”
McCoughtry led Atlanta with 16 points and Candice Dupree led the Mercury with 27 points.
The Dream’s DeLisha Milton-Jones checked into the game late in the first quarter. That marked her 490th game played, just six shy of Tina Thompson’s record for games played in a WNBA career.
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