2014 Atlanta Dream and WNBA Previews

[lethalweapon3]

Maybe a change of venue will do the trick for the Chicago Sky, this evening's opponent for the Atlanta Dream (6:00 PM Eastern, at Georgia Tech, No Local TV, "The U Too" network in Chicago). One day after their most impressive road victory all season, Atlanta (14-5) will be going after their second sweep of back-to-back games this season, their fourth straight win and 12th victory in their last 14, and at least a momentary edge over the Sky in the head-to-head series (1-1).

 

• Missing would-be-All-Stars Elena Delle Donne and Courtney Vandersloot despite getting Sylvia Fowles and Epiphanny Prince back, the Sky (8-12) have dropped four straight and are scrambling to avoid New York, one game behind them, at the bottom of the Eastern Conference standings. Philips Arena was a House of Horrors in their last visit to the 404, a 97-59 shellacking at the hands of the Dream that was perhaps the first sign something wasn't quite right with EDD. Chicago dropped consecutive home games to Washington and sudden-juggernaut Phoenix this past week. Still, they're merely a half-game out of third in the East, and a win today could be a boost in their spirits heading toward the All-Star break.

 

• The continued injury/illness bugs are not helping Head Coach/GM Pokey Chatman, who may be on the hot seat at season's end if they fail to reach the postseason one year after earning the East's top seed. One silver lining with Chi-Town's latest losing skid is they're keeping opponents at-or-below 80 points, something they'll want to accomplish tonight. Atlanta climbed to 11-0 last night when they've reached or exceeded 80 offensive points, and they're 3-5 otherwise. Chicago's 81.1 opponent points per game on the season is the second-worst in the league.

 

• In Vandersloot's absence, Chatman has relied upon her 2014 3rd-round rookie selection Jamierra Faulkner to key the playmaking. She's doing as well as one could expect (14.6 PPG, 5.0 APG, 2.6 TO/G, 86.4 FT%) in her five starts so far, although she routinely runs into foul trouble (4.6 PF/G). Big Syl has rounded right back into All-Star form (20.3 PPG, 13.0 RPG, 3.0 BPG in her last three games). But Prince has struggled with her shooting (4-for-26 FGs in her last two games) while the already-thin bench has failed to provide the offensive boost the Sky needs to keep up for 40 minutes. The Sky will need Fowles and feel-good-story Jessica Breland (1.83 BPG, 2nd in WNBA) to help reduce the league-high 10.7 opponent offensive rebounds per game, a category the Dream leads the league in (12.0 team O-Rebs per game).

 

• When Atlanta's shooting free throws like a normal WNBA team and hitting timely three-pointers, as they did last night in Indy, they're a hard team for anyone to stop. While the Dream's starting forwards held back the Fever's Tamika Catchings on defense for as long as they reasonably could, last night they got major help on both ends from Jasz Thomas (11 points, 4 assists, no turnovers), Shoni Schimmel (10 points in 12 minutes), Tip Hayes (season-high 21 points), newcomer DeLisha Milton-Jones (7 points, 3 blocks), and, in her first significant offensive showing, Celine Dumerc (9 points, 6 assists, 3 steals, no turnovers). The quintet combined to shoot 8-for-13 from downtown, and 12-for-14 from the free throw line, relieving Angel McCoughtry and Erika DeSouza the burden of carrying the offense for 40 minutes. Even half of that firepower from long-range should be enough to outlast the Sky today.

 

 

Go Dream!

 

~lw3

[Gray Mule]

Can't get any closer than this one.  Dream by 2 in overtime!

 

Local coverage, but not on TV but on computer.

 

GO DREAM !!

 

[lethalweapon3]

All-Star Starters (selected by voters)

 

East:

G - Shoni Schimmel, ATL: Popularity pick, for sure, but Shoni ranks 3rd in East in 3-pointers made, 6th in total assists.

G - Cappie Pondexter, NYL: Top scoring East guard, also tied for 4th in East in assists with teammate Anna Cruz. Struggling with Achilles and may play limited minutes.

FC - Tamika Catchings, IND: Veteran-honor pick, but just returned and immediately picked up the slack for Fever.

FC - Angel McCoughtry, ATL: East's top scorer, leader in steals, 2nd among active East players in assists, on conference's best team.

FC - Elena Delle Donne, CHI: Inactive due to lingering illness and unlikely to appear.

FC Replacement (for Delle Donne, selected by ATL Coach Cooper) - Erika DeSouza, ATL: Tops East in rebounds per-40, 2nd in BPG and FG%.

 

West:

 

G - Skylar Diggins, TUL: Taking league by storm in sophomore campaign, 2nd in league for PPG, 3rd in West for APG.

G - Diana Taurasi, PHX: Top 3-point gunner in the West and leads conference in APG, sparking Merc to the top spot.

FC -  Maya Moore, MIN: League scoring leader, career-highs in points, boards, steals, assists, carrying Lynx w/o key teammates.

FC - Candace Parker, LAS: 3rd in West in scoring, also 5th in APG. Sole WNBA player averaging 2+ steals and 1+ blocks.

FC - Brittney Griner, PHX: Blowing away all-time records in BPG. Much improved on offense, too.

 

My All-Star Reserve Picks (selected by Coaches, who can't pick their own players):

 

East:

 

G - Courtney Vandersloot, CHI: Won't play due to injury, but deserves a nod. Led league in APG despite a lot of moving parts.

G - Anna Cruz, NYL: Rookie revelation, undrafted but 1st among rooks in SPG and 2nd in APG.

FC - Erlana Larkins, IND: Held down defense for Fever without Catchings around. Tops league in FG%, tops East in RPG.

FC - Tina Charles, NYL: 2nd in East for scoring, 3rd in East for RPG.

FC - DeSouza, ATL: Replaces Delle Donne in starting lineup.

Wild Card - Briann January, IND: Also deserves to go after helping carry Fever without Catchings, but questionable after knee injury. Leads active East players in APG.

 

Replacement (for Vandersloot, chosen by ATL Coach Cooper): Tiffany Hayes, ATL: Leads all WNBA non-centers in FG%. 

Replacement (for Delle Donne, chosen by ATL Coach Cooper): Chiney Ogwumike, CON: Leads East in Offensive RPG, tied with Tina for Double-Doubles.

 

West:

 

G - Lindsay Whalen, MIN: Still the most dangerous ballhandler in the game. Leads league in assist-turnover ratio.

G - Danielle Robinson, SAS: Helping the Stars surprise out West, 4th in West for APG, leads active players in FT%.

FC - Candice Dupree, PHX: League's most effective all-around glue player. 6th in West for PPG and FG%.

FC - Courtney Paris, TUL: Liz Who? Ex-Dream makes good, leads WNBA in RPG, 2nd in FG% and Double-Doubles.

FC - Nneka Ogwumike, LAS: Sister Act II, Highest FG% among West's top six FG makers.

Wild Card - Crystal Langhorne, SEA: Soldiering on for low-scoring Storm, 5th in West for RPG.

 

Snubs:

 

East: Sancho Lyttle, ATL; Jessica Breland, Sylvia Fowles and Epiphanny Prince, CHI; Emma Meesseman, WAS; Katie Douglas, CON

West: Glory Johnson and Odyssey Sims, TUL; Seimone Augustus, MIN

 

~lw3

Edited July 14, 2014 by lethalweapon3

[lethalweapon3]

Speaking of this week's Player of the Week...

 

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...don't you kinda miss this guy already?

 

http://instagram.com/p/qcLGw5xOGC/

 

~lw3

[lethalweapon3]

Well, that was fun while it lasted!

 

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~lw3

[lethalweapon3]

No Local TV for the WNBA's version of Breakfast at Wimbledon, as the Atlanta Dream get a morning matchup in Manhattan against the New York Liberty (11:00 AM Eastern, MSG Network in NYC). It's the final run for first-place Atlanta (15-5). Losers of two straight, the Libs (7-13) want to go into the break on a positive note and move into a tie with Chicago at the bottom of the Eastern Conference crab barrel.

 

• DMJ will be missed, as she contributed more in her two (maybe final) appearances than Swin Cash did in her tenure with the Dream. Still, Atlanta has been awfully fortunate as far as the injury bug goes this season. New York has a far more pressing issue. Cappie Pondexter went scoreless (0-for-5) in just 18 minutes and the Liberty sputtered to just 54 points versus L.A. on Friday. Head Coach Bill Laimbeer rested Cappie, who is playing through a nagging Achilles and other injuries, and DNP-CD'd Essence Carson, who apparently isn't all the way back from last season's ACL injury. As I mentioned in the season preview, the Liberty is essentially a three-legged table, and Tina Charles can put up a quintuple-double and it still won't matter if Pondexter and Carson aren't producing.

 

• On kids' camp day, Pondexter (23 points and 8 assists in New York's win over the Dream last month at MSG) will give it all she's got while going up against her Turkish teammate Angel McCoughtry. For the Libs to keep up offensively, she'll need help from wing Alex Montgomery, playmaker Anna Cruz and reserve guard Sugar Rodgers. Meanwhile, Charles and Plenette Pierson have to play a bruising game to slow down Atlanta's fearsome frontline, trading in easy baskets for trips to the free throw line.

 

• Milton-Jones' season-ending injury leaves Atlanta thin behind their stalwart starting frontcourt. For Head Coach Michael Cooper, this will mean a greater reliance on Amanda Thompson and Aneika Henry, the latter not appearing for over 10 minutes in a game in the past two weeks.

 

Go Dream!

~lw3

[lethalweapon3]

ALMOST Escape from New York! Cappie showed up for the Libs just in time. Who cares, though. 15-6 going into the break is a good deal!

 

~lw3

[lethalweapon3]

ASG today at 3:30 PM Eastern. Only certain things are (1) Brittney WILL dunk at every opportunity, and (2) Angel will try to dunk at least once, too.

 

~lw3

[lethalweapon3]

 

 

 

 

So, yeah... that ended kinda well, huh?

 

~lw3

[NBASupes]

http://www.wnba.com/video/wnba/2014/07/19/ASWschimellpostgamemov-3332360/

[Dnice]

I missed the game, and especially the ending.

Edited July 20, 2014 by Dnice

[ATLHawks3]

Shoni Shimmell is a beast. Looks like the Atlanta Dream will bring home a championship to Atlanta as long as she, McCoughtry, and deSouza are leading the way.

Edited July 20, 2014 by ATLHawks3

[lethalweapon3]

The Atlanta Dream got through the All-Star Break with few significant injury issues. There are a few key accomplishments the Dream (15-6) can reach around the time the WNBA calendar turns to August:

 

• Two wins away from securing sixth-straight season of .500-or-better, something no current WNBA team has accomplished in this timeframe; the legendary Houston Comets had seven-straight winning seasons at the start of their existence, while the L.A. Sparks had eight-straight seasons of .500+ ball from 1999-2006.

 

• Six wins away from their best franchise single-season record, topping their 20-14 record in 2011.

 

• Magic Number of 6 (Dream Wins and/or Indiana losses) to clinch their sixth consecutive playoff spot.

 

• Magic Number of 8 (Dream Wins and/or losses from the better of Connecticut and Chicago) to clinch the #1 spot in the East, their first-ever regular-season conference title.

 

Starting with a tough clash on Tuesday at Minnesota and concluding at home on August 3 versus New York, a six-game run coming out of the All-Star break would allow the Dream to knock down all of those pins.

 

Atlanta will not want to be reeling, and having something important to play for, going into the toughest stretch of their expedited season, a four-games-in-six-nights stretch that starts in Western Conference-leading Phoenix and follows with back-to-back nights at Seattle and Los Angeles, before playoff-hungry Chicago gets one final shot at the Dream in their house.

 

Rather, locking down the top-seed target early would allow Atlanta a chance to render the final quarter of their schedule an exhibition, allowing Angel McCoughtry, Erika DeSouza, and Sancho Lyttle greater opportunities to rest and for Michael Cooper to instill new wrinkles into the offense as the postseason approaches.

 

The offensive focus can be shifted more heavily toward All-Star Game MVP Shoni Schimmel and improve her role in balancing the backcourt alongside Celine Dumerc. Cooper will also get more opportunities to see what Aneika Henry, Matee Ajavon, Amanda Thompson, and Nadia Gomes Colhado can bring to the table in games against teams that will still likely have something to play for. Depending on what the team is looking to acquire, Henry and Ajavon, in particular, may get more usage as the trade deadline approaches.

 

Atlanta’s split-second loss in New York before the break dropped them to 5-4 on the road, and only five of their remaining 13 games are in Atlanta. However, they’ll have a chance to boost confidence in their championship aspirations if they can get a couple big wins on the road, specifically against the hyper-competitive Western teams. The Dream is 5-0 so far against the West, but only one of those wins came on the road, prevailing by just two points in San Antonio last month.

 

~lw3

[lethalweapon3]

Poor Carol was probably like: "I got rehired for this?"

 

http://espn.go.com/los-angeles/story/_/id/11240347/los-angeles-sparks-coach-carol-ross-fired

 

~lw3

[lethalweapon3]

Just awful news. Best wishes to Coach Coop going forward.

 

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~lw3

Edited July 21, 2014 by lethalweapon3

[lethalweapon3]

Karleen Thompson will capably take the reins for the next couple of weeks, at least, while Cooper undergoes treatment at Emory.

 

~lw3

[Dnice]

Keep hanging in there, coach.

[lethalweapon3]

The back stretch of the WNBA season begins for the Atlanta Dream tonight at the Target Center against the defending champion Minnesota Lynx (8:00 PM Eastern, Fox Sports North Plus broadcast on SportSouth). To earn a season-sweep of the Lynx, Atlanta will be targeting their first victory in Minneapolis since July 2009. Thus far, the Lynx (17-6) are 10-1 at home this season.

 

• It will be a tall order for the Dream (15-6) to duplicate the success they had last month holding MVP candidate Maya Moore in check. The league’s scoring leader at 24.1 PPG, Maya was hounded by Tiffany Hayes and shot just 2-for-11 from the field (2-for-9 from three-point distance) on her way to a season-low 10 points. Atlanta needed all those misses to hold off the Lynx at home, hanging on after building a 20-point first-half lead to prevail by an 85-82 score.

 

• Seimone Augustus led the charge for the Lynx’s comeback in Atlanta, but within two weeks she would be sidelined to deal with persistent knee pain. The revolving door of injured key Lynx players has put the brunt of the pressure on Maya (2^nd on the team in assists and blocks; team-leader in scoring, threes, rebounds and FT%) to compensate and keep the Lynx within arm’s length of runaway Phoenix in the Western Conference. The Lynx remain just two games behind the Mercury despite the latter team rattling off 12 straight wins. Finally for Moore, reinforcements are on the way.

 

• The Lynx get their leading rebounder back, as Rebekkah Brunson makes her season debut tonight after recuperating from preseason knee surgery. Her return takes the pressure off of Moore (8.3 RPG, 8^th in WNBA) to dominate both ends of the floor. Augustus is unavailable for tonight but is hoped to return later this week.

 

• Minnesota’s modus operandi on defense is to force opponents to settle for tough shots. So far this season, it seems as though those opponents have little trouble making them. Lynx opponents are connecting on a league-high 6.4 three-pointers per game, shooting 35.7 3FG% (3^rd-highest in WNBA). That volume is significantly ahead of Atlanta’s second-most 5.3 threes-allowed per game at 36.2 3FG% (2^nd-highest in WNBA). By result, Reeve’s traditionally strong defensive crew has been just mediocre this season. It only helps their cause tonight that Atlanta’s top three-point threat, Hayes, has nailed just 12 of her last 43 three-pointers. Brunson, a perennial All-Defensive Teams selection, will help tighten things up at least on the interior.

 

• Out on the perimeter, Moore has been the Lynx’s sole threat in the starting lineup with 1.9 treys per game, although she is shooting them at a mere 32.3% clip (6-for-28 in her last 5 games). Only Tan White and lightly-used reserve Tricia Liston make more than one triple every other game.

 

• Minnesota could use more offensive firepower off of their bench. They almost got some on Draft Night 2013. “We were thinking Lindsey Moore,” Reeve told the Minnesota Post recently, after cutting the backup point guard in favor of Nadirah McKenith. “We spent a lot of time on Lindsey Moore and Alex Bentley. Sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn’t.”

 

• Turnovers and transition points may be the name of the game tonight. Atlanta (15.3 TOs/game most in the league) gives up a league-high 9.0 turnovers-by-steal, while Minnesota (11.6 TOs/game, fewest in WNBA) allows the fewest steals (6.9 opponent SPG).

 

• With Assistant Coach Karleen Thompson serving on an interim basis for Michael Cooper, look for a lot more plays to run through Sancho Lyttle. Lyttle first became a regular starter back in 2008, while Thompson was at the helm of the Houston Comets. It was on this floor last year when Lyttle went down for the season with a fractured foot, turning the Dream’s 2013 regular season topsy-turvy.

 

• Celine Dumerc was brought on, in part, to provide enhanced ballhandling and defensive backcourt help against supreme talents like Minnesota’s Lindsay Whalen. Yet Dumerc (in just her third WNBA game), Jasmine Thomas and All-Star Game MVP Shoni Schimmel could only hang on for dear life as Whalen had her way in her last matchup (team-high 22 points, 7-for-16 shooting, 10 FT attempts, 5 assists, 1 turnover). Dumerc contributed a team-high 7 assists off the bench, but it will be interesting to see if she’s benefited from a little more scouting time when she goes head-to-head with Whalen tonight.

 

Go Dream!

 

~lw3

[Randy]

Wow - I've been gone for too long.  Just got back from vacation, where web and email were not readily available.  I picked this period of time on purpose because I only missed on home game that way.

 

I've still missed a lot, including what may be the Dream career of DMJ.  I was wondering what happened in the all the games and the All Star game.  I did get to see email a few times, and greatly appreciate the fact that (since I was following this thread) I could read all of the posts.  Thanks to all, and esp. lw3 for keeping me as up to date as possible.  I didn't find out about the ASG until yesterday morning and was pretty shocked at what happened.  I'm a huge Shoni fan (guess you couldn't tell) but even I was surprised to say the least.

 

First thing I did last night was to watch the All Star Game (even before unpacking and taking a shower).  Shoni was truly awesome - esp. her 180 spin hook shot over BG.  It almost seems like she is Tony Hawk using Griner as her half pipe for new tricks.  However, it seems that the competition between her and Griner is actually becoming a sort of friendly rivalry.  So are we going to go for Jude in next year's draft?   Since it looks like Shoni was not playing much in the last few games, this may be a needed boost for her.  Angel and Erika played great as well.  Was really cool to see 3 Dream starters.  (One could justify having Tip and Sancho in the game as well, but I think the final East Squad we just about right.)

 

So sad that our coach is fighting a battle with cancer now.  But you don't become a winner like him without a lot of fight within.

 

Now, I've got several games to watch. 

 

BTW D'nice - there is a solution.  You can buy Live Access now for $9.99 and see the All Star game and all of the remaining Dream games, as well as every other WNBA game played.  And, all the games played already, so that probably works out to about 5 cents a game.  (Of course, some are worth more than others.)

 

Finally, I have a spare ticket to the Friday game at GA Tech against the Sky.  If anyone is interested please PM me, and I can arrange to mail it to you.  Its an e-ticket so I could probably email it, I think. 

[Dnice]

I think they have the wrong matchup on espn2!