Dallas Wings guard Skylar Diggins summed up her team's loss to Connecticut on Wednesday in one sentence.
"Today made it seem like we were on break already," Diggins told reporters after her team's lackluster performance in an 89-78 loss to the Sun, the last-place team in the Eastern Conference.
The struggling Wings will look to rebound from that loss and close out the first half of the regular season on a positive note when they visit the Atlanta Dream on Friday.
The Wings (9-15) have dropped five straight and eight of 10. They're now in 10th place in the overall league standings. The top eight teams, regardless of conference, qualify for the postseason.
The Dream (12-12) are coming off a disappointing performance of their own in a blowout loss to the defending-champion Minnesota Lynx.
Atlanta got off to a hot start to the season and climbed to the top of the Eastern Conference before suffering through a six-game losing streak.
They seemed to have righted the ship before starting forward Sancho Lyttle sustained a foot injury that initially was thought to have ended her season. But the Dream got good news earlier this week when further evaluation revealed no fracture and Lyttle, the team's leading rebounder, is now expected to return after the month-long Olympic break.
Angel McCoughtry leads four Atlanta players averaging double figures at 18.4 points per game. Forward Tiffany Hayes (14.9), post Elizabeth Williams (11.7) and point guard Layshia Clarendon also are averaging double figures for the balanced Dream.
Atlanta's plethora of offensive threats is a big problem for a Dallas team that is struggled on the defensive end of the floor. The Wings are surrendering 87.9 points per game, the most in the league.
"We just have to take more pride on our defense. It's no secret what it is," Diggins told reporters after the loss to Connecticut. "It's our transition defense, our half-court defense. That's something I'm sure will be discussed tomorrow in film."
The game will be played at McCamish Pavilion on the campus of Georgia Tech University in midtown Atlanta.
