ATLANTA -- The Dream, once the hottest team in the WNBA, entered September in the middle of a one of the worst stretches of the last five years. The team needed a win against the surging Los Angeles Sparks to keep from dropping five games in a row for the first time since 2008, their inaugural season when the Dream won only four games and lost 30.
Injured and weary, Atlanta could have easily let Los Angeles run away with this one. The Sparks were 9-1 in August and had averaged 87 points in the three-game winning streak they brought into Philips Arena.
But an inspired, impassioned, and infinitely more aggressive Dream squad took the floor on Labor Day Monday and routed the Sparks 92-82 in a game the home team never looked in danger of losing.
It was the Dream's fourth straight victory over the Sparks, but none was more important than this one. After losing to Chicago on the road and suffering a heartbreaking overtime loss to Washington at home, Atlanta was in danger of falling back to .500 on the year.
Instead the Dream moved to 15-13 with a 12-3 record at home and solid second-place position behind Chicago in the Eastern Division.
As a team they looked better than they have in more than a month, a fact coach Fred Williams acknowledged afterward.
"Best performance in a while," Williams said. "Our energy level was much higher tonight and we shot the ball well. Seeing some shots go in makes a big difference."
The team averaged 52.3 percent from the floor, mostly due to the number of close shots they took from inside the paint. Guards Alex Bentley and Jasmine Thomas drove the lane from the opening seconds, shooting or kicking the ball out so that their teammates had plenty of open looks at the basket.
Bentley had her first career double-double, finishing with 10 points and 11 assists, while Thomas had the best game of her career, putting up 19 points and pulling eight rebounds.
"It feels good," Bentley said of the win. "Coach (Williams) tells both Jasmine and me to take the lane if we’ve got it. We're both fast and quick and make good decisions, so we were just driving it in and kicking it out all night.”
Taking the lane wasn’t the only advice Williams gave to Thomas.
"I told her to remember the way she played in college when she just blew by people," Williams said. "And that's what she did today."
Good guard play allowed center Erika DeSouza to have one of her best nights of the year, leading all scorers with 27 points along with six rebounds and two assists. She also was an emotional leader on the floor, encouraging her teammates to up the intensity every time the Sparks attempted a run.
"In the games where we get a lead and end up losing it and losing the game, it’s because we lose our intensity and our aggressiveness," Thomas said. "I tend to lose my focus and my aggressiveness at times, so we just tried to stay together and talk about that all night on the court."
It worked. The Dream held Candace Parker, arguably the best player in the league, to only 16 points, and they challenged one of the best three-point shooters in the women's game, Kristi Toliver, on every possession. Toliver scored only 12 points, and was one for seven from three-point range.
The home team got almost every loose ball, a fact that had their coach beaming.
"We’re like that one,” Williams said. "Getting every loose ball, that's a lot of hustle points.”
Then Williams acknowledged the depth of the team effort. “A couple of players coming off the bench, Aneika Henry and Courtney Clements, got some key steals and rebounds for us. Those things don't always show up on the stats but they mean a lot in the locker room.”
