New Dream coach Michael Cooper said many times during the preseason that championship teams are built from the inside out.
Center Erika de Souza continued to prove that she can be a focal point by scoring 23 points and grabbing 11 rebounds to lead Atlanta to a season-opening 79-75 win over San Antonio on Friday at Philips Arena.
“Cooper is always asking everybody to play inside so this helps me a lot,” de Souza. “This is going to be the year for us.”
De Souza wasn’t the only player to step up.
Shoni Schimmel, who earlier in the quarter hit an important 3-pointer, hit two free throws with 6.4 seconds left to give the Dream a 77-73 lead. She went to the line after Atlanta’s defense forced a turnover by Kayla McBride. The ball rolled to Schimmel, who picked it up and took off before being fouled. She finished with seven points and a game-high and team-record 11 assists.
“Shoni Schimmel is a star in the making,” Cooper said. “I told her after the draft that went down that is the perfect team for her. I’m going to allow her to make some mistakes but she does more good than bad. That was a big 3 she hit. We knew that was in her.”
One more assist and she would have tied the record for the most in a WNBA debut.
“It was a little nerve-wracking at first but after a while I went into my just-play-basketball mode,” Schimmel said.
The Dream will look to make it two consecutive wins at Indiana on Saturday. Atlanta’s next home game will be May 25 against Indiana.
Before Friday’s game, Atlanta unveiled on Friday a white banner with blue letters commemorating winning the Eastern Conference last year. The Dream went 17-17 last year and were swept by Minnesota in the WNBA finals. It was the third time in four years Atlanta lost in the finals.
Atlanta was in danger of losing Friday’s opener to a San Antonio team that won just 12 games last year.
Trailing 56-55 heading into the final quarter, the Dream tied the game at 62 on a 3-pointer by Schimmel and then tied it at 66 on back-to-back layups by de Souza. The first came off a steal in which de Souza sprinted more than three-quarters of the court. The second came from an assist by Schimmel with 6:05 left.
“We had some issues guarding de Souza in the post, but give credit to Atlanta,” San Antonio coach Dan Hughes said. “They are a good team – a team coming off being in the finals and you see why.”
Later trailing by four, the Dream tied it at 72 on back-to-back baskets by Angel McCoughtry, the last on Schimmel’s 11th assist, with 2:28 left.
McCoughtry, who along with teammate Sancho Lyttle didn’t rejoin the Dream until Monday after competing in Europe, finished with 21 points, including 13 in the final half. Her shot in traffic with 42.9 seconds left gave the Dream a 75-73 lead.
“I can always get mine, that’s not an issue,” McCoughtry said. “It’s about being a team player and letting everybody else get there’s first. If you see me not being so aggressive it’s about letting the team gel. We have to figure everything out.”
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