Dream-Sun Preview

By ALAN FERGUSON
Posted Jun 09 2012 4:25PM

Aside from a loss to the reigning league champions, the Connecticut Sun have proved difficult to contain this season.

They'll seek another high-scoring performance Sunday and some revenge against the visiting Atlanta Dream, who swept them out of last year's playoffs.

Connecticut (5-1), off to its best start since 2008, is tied for first in the Eastern Conference thanks largely to owning one of the league's top offenses. The Sun are producing 84.7 points per game and have averaged 91.5 in back-to-back wins following an 85-72 home loss to Minnesota on June 1.

Seven Connecticut players scored in double figures in an 89-81 victory at Indiana on Friday with Kara Lawson's 18 points leading the way. The Sun managed to win even with leading scorer Tina Charles shooting 4 of 14.

"We kept our composure, which allowed us to win," Lawson said.

Charles finished with 12 points to drop her season average to 20.7, but she had 14 rebounds to remain second in the league with 11.2 per game.

The future U.S. Olympian also struggled to make shots in last year's playoffs against Atlanta, missing 22 of 32 attempts during the two-game sweep. However, she wasn't alone as the Sun shot 38.7 percent in that opening-round series.

The Dream went on to reach the WNBA finals despite opening that season 3-9, and they're off to another slow start. Atlanta (3-4) managed to avoid a third straight defeat Friday by holding off visiting San Antonio 60-57.

"Even at the end of the game, our strongest suit is to run and get them on their heels," guard Lindsey Harding said. "We did that in the second half, which led to us being successful."

Harding had a team-best 21 points in last season's 89-84 playoff win at Connecticut and all five starters scored in double figures. However, one of those players, Erika de Souza, has not played for the Dream this season as she prepares for the Olympics with the Brazilian national team.

De Souza's absence in the frontcourt could make it difficult to slow down Charles this time. Even with De Souza in the lineup, the Dream have had trouble keeping the Sun in check during recent visits to Mohegan Sun.

Atlanta allowed an average of 94.7 points in three games there last year, losing both in the regular season before its playoff win. The Sun have claimed six of nine all-time matchups at home, but the Dream lead the overall series 10-7.

They pulled off last year's playoff sweep even with Angel McCoughtry, currently among the league leaders with 21.4 points per game, totaling 28 points in the series and shooting 9 of 33. She shot a season-worst 6 of 18 on Friday and had 16 points.

Sun beats Dream 92-73

Posted Jun 10 2012 8:59PM

UNCASVILLE, Conn. (AP) Tina Charles set another WNBA record on Sunday. More importantly for her, the Connecticut Sun got the win.

Charles had 22 points and 11 rebounds and the Sun used an exceptional shooting performance to beat the Atlanta Dream 92-73 for their third consecutive victory.

``(I'm) just playing hard,'' Charles said. ``(I'm) just trying to get a win. That's just my motivation out there. Just trying to get a win and doing what I can each possession.''

Charles became the fastest player in WNBA history to reach 50 career double-doubles, accomplishing the feat in 75 games. Charles already held the league record for most rebounds in a season with 398 in 2010 and most double-doubles in a season with 23 in 2011.

``Her offensive rebounding has been big and she's been getting to the free-throw line,'' teammate Asjha Jones said. ``She's scoring in every aspect of the game right now. She is awesome and she is active and she doesn't really take any possessions off.''

Charles also set a franchise record by scoring in double digits for the 19th consecutive game. She was tied with Jones at 18 straight.

Connecticut shot 61.7 percent (37 of 60) from the field, the second-best effort in franchise history.

``It's not going to happen every night like that,'' Kara Lawson said, ``but I'm glad it happened tonight.''

Jones had 17 points, seven rebounds, four assists and two blocks. Lawson scored 21 points.

Angel McCoughtry had 23 points, six rebounds and four steals for the Dream (3-5). Sancho Lyttle added 21 points, eight rebounds, three assists and three steals.

The Sun put the Dream away with an 11-0 run in the fourth quarter. Charles scored six points during the decisive stretch, capping the surge with a layup that gave Connecticut an 84-67 lead with over three minutes left in the game.

Mistie Mims' layup with less than a minute left gave the Sun their biggest lead of the game at 90-70.

Atlanta put together a 9-0 run to trim Connecticut's lead to 63-53 with 2:40 left in the third. Tiffany Hayes' layup got the Dream within six with about seven minutes left in the fourth.

``I thought we did a great job of cutting it to six, and then we threw the ball away twice,'' Atlanta coach Marynell Meadors said. ``They came back and scored, and when that happened, it took a little of the excitement out of it and deflated us a little bit.

``I'm real proud of our team. I thought we fought hard all the way through. We were definitely at a disadvantage most of the game simply because they shot the ball so well.''

• Dream: --
• Sun: --

• Dream: --
• Sun: --

• Lead Changes: 3
• Times Tied: 3

• Arena: Mohegan Sun Arena, Uncasville, CT
• Officials: #39 Michael Price, #35 Billy Smith, #49 Kevin Sparrock
• Attendance: 6526
• Duration: 1:55