In early May, Dallas Wings coach Fred Williams thought his team could jell and compete for a WNBA title.
"Working toward a championship is what we're looking at this year, especially with the chemistry of players that we have," Williams told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
Almost three months later, the Wings (11-14) are in a three-way battle for the final two playoff spots with the Atlanta Dream and the Seattle Storm (10-13), whom Dallas hosts on Friday evening at College Park Center in Arlington, Texas.
Friday's game is a rematch of a dismal defensive effort by Dallas in Seattle's 109-93 home win a week ago. The Storm also beat Dallas 89-69 on July 1 in Dallas, and Seattle will be going for a season sweep on Friday.
In the win last Friday, Jewell Loyd scored 27 points and Breanna Stewart added 20 as the Storm set a franchise record by making 61.5 percent of its shots.
"It was just good to see consistent effort, consistent focus and consistency throughout the game," Seattle coach Jenny Boucek told the Seattle Times after the win. "We've had a lot of brilliant moments this season, but the consistency has been lacking a little bit in closing out games. Teams are always going to make a run on you at some point, and we kind of got wobbly a little bit losing so many close games early, to be honest with you."
During the game, Stewart, who has 50 points in two games against the Wings, became the fastest player in WNBA history to reach 500 rebounds. On July 25, Stewart became the fastest to 1,000 points.
Seattle's Dallas date is the second of five straight road games. The Storm is just 2-7 on the road -- second worst in the league.
The win over the Wings was Seattle's only one in its past four games. But Williams sees a lot to be worried about.
"(Seattle) has two All-Stars from this year and (Jewell) Loyd is another player who's in that mode," the coach said, according to the website Swish Appeal. "They're a triple-threat team and they get you with those types of quality players. Defensively, we just have to get over the young mistakes that we're having. Once we learn all of those things, it'll all come together."
For the Wings, this is the first of three straight home games. They host second-place Los Angeles on Sunday and Phoenix on Thursday.
Things could get a little easier for the Storm this weekend when it travels to play the 4-21 San Antonio Stars. Seattle concludes its trip with games against the Eastern Conference-leading Connecticut Sun on Tuesday and Phoenix on Aug. 12.
