Dream-Liberty Preview

By KATE HEDLIN
Posted Jun 13 2011 2:34PM

In just their third season, the Atlanta Dream reached the 2010 WNBA finals. Three games into 2011, they are hoping they haven't regressed.

After blowing yet another second-half lead in their last game, the Dream visit the New York Liberty in the teams' second meeting of the season Tuesday night.

Atlanta (0-3) was swept in three games by Seattle in the WNBA finals in September, but the fast improvement had the club excited heading into this season.

The Dream, however, are the only winless team in the Eastern Conference, having suffered overtime losses in their first two games - one of them by a 94-88 score to New York in their opener June 5 - before an 86-74 defeat at San Antonio on Saturday.

Atlanta led that game by 10 when the Silver Stars went on a 22-10 run in the third quarter. The Dream have failed to protect second-half leads in all three contests.

"We have to finish. I would say we panicked, but I don't know," said forward Sancho Lyttle, who had 12 points and six rebounds. "We settled down and we didn't go on a run but they did. They went on a run and we needed to stop it before it got too bad. We didn't stop the bleeding."

The Dream are giving up a league-high 92.7 points per game and were outscored 31-18 in the fourth quarter by San Antonio.

Even having Angel McCoughtry play her most significant minutes of the season wasn't enough. McCoughtry, who scored a team-high 19 points in her first start of the season, missed the first matchup with the Liberty with a sprained left knee and logged three minutes in a 98-90 OT loss to Washington on Thursday.

New York (2-1) hasn't been much better when it comes to holding second-half leads, as it failed to protect a 13-point advantage late in the third quarter of an 86-80 loss to Indiana on Saturday. That followed the opener of the teams' home-and-home series Friday, when New York blew an 18-point lead before pulling out an 81-80 victory on Cappie Pondexter's jumper with 8.1 seconds left.

"We've relaxed in all of our games," coach John Whisenant said. "I'm going to watch this film and give them tomorrow off, see if fatigue maybe was a part of it. We had a hard training camp, we had 17 days without a day off."

Pondexter especially seemed to struggle in the second game of the back-to-backs. She finished with 21 points Friday, but shot 5 of 13 and scored 13 points while committing three turnovers Saturday.

The guard averaged a career-high 21.4 points and 48.3 percent shooting last season - her first with the Liberty. She is off to a slow start this year, averaging 15.3 points and 42.2 percent from the field.

McCoughtry leads Dream to 79-58 win over Liberty

By VIN A. CHERWOO
Posted Jun 14 2011 9:16PM

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) Angel McCoughtry scored 18 points and the Atlanta Dream used three big runs to cruise to a 79-58 victory over the New York Liberty on Tuesday night.

Erika DeSouza had 12 points and Sancho Lyttle added 10 for Atlanta (1-3), which earned its first win of the season.

Essence Carson scored 21 points and Kia Vaughn had 16 for the Liberty (2-2), who have lost consecutive games at Prudential Center - their home for the next three seasons - after opening with two road wins.

New York, which had a 94-88 overtime win at Atlanta in the season opener on June 5, was held to its lowest scoring output after averaging 85 points its first three games.

McCoughtry, who missed the teams' first meeting, shot 6 for 11 from the field.

The Dream, who swept the Liberty in the Eastern Conference finals last year, put together runs of 11-0 and 9-0 in the first half and led by 12 at the break. They maintained their double-digit advantage throughout the second half.

DeSouza's layup stretched the lead 48-32 with 7:24 to go in the third quarter. Pondexter made a jumper and Nicole Powell hit a 3-pointer to pull the Liberty within 11, but they got no closer.

Sandora Irvin's two free throws with 6:24 left in the fourth capped the Dream's 10-0 run for a 69-48 lead. Alison Bales made two from the line about 1 1/2 minutes later give Atlanta its biggest lead, 73-50.

Atlanta scored 11 consecutive points bridging the first two quarters to take a 25-16 lead on Coco Miller's jumper in the opening minute of the second.

Carson, who scored 17 in the first half, made two free throws and had a layup, and Pondexter had a steal and fast-break layup to get the Liberty within three with 8 minutes left in the quarter.

Kelly Mazzante's 3-pointer with 1:37 left started a 9-0 run and McCoughtry capped it with two free throws 1:20 later to stretch the Dream's five-point lead to 44-30.

McCoughtry had 16 points in the first half and DeSouza added 12.

Liberty players Plenette Pierson, Alex Montgomery and Jessica Breland and assistant coaches Monique Ambers and Lady Grooms were involved in two separate traffic accidents on the way to the arena. None of the players or coaches was injured and all arrived before the tipoff.

• Dream: --
• Liberty: --

• Dream: --
• Liberty: --

• Lead Changes: 3
• Times Tied: 3

• Arena: Prudential Center, Newark, NJ
• Officials: #39 Michael Price, #9 Denise Brooks, #24 Tony Dawkins
• Attendance: 5725
• Duration: 1:48