The Atlanta Dream’s first practice back was filled with laughter and those on-the-court dance moves after the much-needed Olympic break. It’s a new start for the Dream since it’s eight-game losing streak in July.
Assistant coach Vickie Johnson, who is filling in as head coach for Tanisha Wright upon her return from Paris, is confident in the team’s readiness for what she says is a whole new season.
“We look ready, we’re ready to play. Our goals during the Olympic break were to get into better shape, shoot the ball and our defensive rebounding basketball,” Johnson said. “And I think we did all that.”
The team was facing multiple injuries the first half of the season, leaving them without its complete starting squad. Rhyne Howard and Jordin Canada used the time off for their recovery so they could get back on the court together again.
“We had a lot of injuries; we have never played with a full roster,” Johnson said. “JC (Jordin Canada) and Rhy (Rhyne Howard) have not played together, so I’m excited about that.”
Forward Naz Hillmon enjoyed the time off to visit family and rest, but she missed her team and is determined to fill in those spots that are needed to win games.
“I feel refreshed, there was obviously a little bit of time to go home and be with my family, take a small break from basketball which I feel sometimes you need,” Hillmon said. “My past two years I hadn’t got an Olympic break so kind of that difference of usually you’re with your team the entire summer but with the little break you miss them, and you want to get back into the gym with them.”
The second half of the season starts on Friday for the Dream against the Seattle Storm, a team they lost to 81-70 last month. According to Hillmon, learning from the beginning of this season but not forgetting the tough losses is what keeps the team motivated to achieve the wins one game at a time.
“We haven’t forgotten about it because we have to learn from it,” Hillmon said. “We have to know that those mistakes we made in the first half of the season we can’t continue to do that. We’re using that as motivation to get better.”
The goals for the rest of the season: stay healthy, build on what the team learned over the break and play winning basketball.
“I think we’re in a good place, trying to make a run for the playoffs so it’s going to very important that we stay healthy one, and we continue to build on what we worked on in Olympic break to get us where we need to be,” Johnson said.
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