Dream: See, What Haffened Wuz…

[lethalweapon3]

Well, after a torrid 13-4 start to the season, the Dream limped into the playoffs with a disappointing 6-11 finish, including just one victory in their final seven games. Two of those games were home losses to the Washington Mystics, who seized the conference title and will be their first-round opponent for the WNBA playoffs (tix on sale now for Friday night’s Game 2 contest; it’ll be at Philips this time around)

In a nutshell, in the first-half of the season, the Dream featured an uptempo rebound-and-kickout offense, which had opponents on their defensive heels anytime they missed a field goal (Meadors’ bleep-works tagline: They Can’t Defend What They Can’t Catch). Well, those teams have all adjusted by getting back on D after missed FGs, resulting in a need for halfcourt magic from the likes of Angel McCoughtry and Izi Castro-Marques to save the day. They’ve also begun giving the Dream a taste of their own run-and-gun medicine, forcing starters to sit long stretches to conserve fouls. The Dream lead the league in fouls committed.

The team also failed to get any outside shooting help, and remain easily the league’s cellar-dwellers with 28.9% shooting from the arc (as a team!!! Fortunately, opponents are only shooting a league-low 32% against them). The Dream guards are being forced to drive inside for their offense AND (now) get back on defense quickly after turnovers and misses. Further compounding the team’s inefficiencies, they are also the league’s worst free-throw shooters (70.9%), and as you might imagine, the Dream also lead the league in getting fouled.

Any chance the Dream have of winning games in the playoffs will involve offering up a steady diet of Erika DeSouza and Sancho Lyttle. They must log major minutes and help the Dream, still the WNBA’s rebounding leaders, dominate the boards on both ends as they were earlier in the season. They need their point guards (Shalee Lehning, Kelly Miller, Armintie Price) to take care of the ball and get it where their scorers are most effective. They need someone from the bench to step up their production in something other than turnovers (Coco Miller? Yelena Leuchenka?). In crunch time, they cannot leave free throws on the table. And they need Angel, their leading scorer, to display a motivating tenacity and compassion behind her play (sound familar?) that seemed to be invisible (my opinion) all season long.

GO DREAM!

~lw3