WNBA Playoffs: Angel McCoughtry's 42 Points Power Dream To WNBA Finals

Atlanta, you’re going to a championship.

The Dream completed their upset sweep of the New York Liberty, winning 105-93. Atlanta’s star, as usual, was Angel McCoughtry, whose 42 points set a new WNBA Playoffs single-game record. She also kicked in a game-high five steals and four assists.

Atlanta won the transition game, scoring thirteen more fast break points than New York. Dream D again stood tall, with Erika DeSouza blocking five shots and others blocking four. DeSouza tied with New York’s Taj McWilliams-Franklin for the game lead in rebounds, with six.

The Seattle Storm swept both the Western Conference Finals and their season series with the Dream. The Storm, just like the Dream’s first two playoff opponents, will have home-court advantage in the best-of-five series.

Game one of the WNBA Finals will be played Sunday, September 3 at 3 p.m. in Seattle and can be seen on ABC.

WNBA Playoffs: Dream Beating Liberty 55-44 At Halftime

The Dream are continuing their postseason hot streak, jumping ahead of the Liberty 32-21 at the end of the first quarter and hanging on to enter the half with a lead of the same margin.

Angel McCoughtry leads all scorers, as she’s known to do, with 19 points. Atlanta is dominating New York across the board, leading in every statistical category. The Dream controlled the paint for most of the first half, holding New York to 6-for-10 close-range shooting while converting nine of its own 13.

Hawks players past and present, such as Dominique Wilkins and Josh Smith, are in the house tonight.

Swish Appeal Recaps Dream's Game 1 Win And Previews Game 2

Not a lot of Dream fans over at SB Nation's women's hoops blog. Still, there's a lot for the novice Dream fan to learn from a smart community of longtime WNBA fans.

From their review of what we know after watching Game 1:

Sancho Lyttle has absolutely amazing vertical. And what frightens me as a Liberty fan is that Meadors is now willing to draw up plays for her, when she seemed reticent to do that before, treating her as basically just a garbage collector. I think she's really going to go off next year- she probably would have this year if she hadn't made acquaintance with the deadly elbows of Sylvia Fowles. Angel McCoughtry and her whiny attitude can take a long walk off a short pier, as far as I'm concerned. I understand the role of dramatizing and diving in the game, but simulating a knee injury to get the referee's sympathy is sickening. She started getting calls later in the game and padding her stats at the line, but I don't think she imposed her will on this game as much as I would want if I were an Atlanta fan, and that scares me as a New York fan. Iziane Castro Marques were more out of control than usual.

Atlanta Dream Wins Game 1 Of Eastern Conference Championship

The Atlanta Dream’s dominating inside game was too much for the New York Liberty to handle in the opening game of the WNBA’s Eastern Conference Championship. The Dream out rebounded the Liberty 40-28 and outscored them in the paint 50-34 on the way to picking up the 81-75 victory. Angel McCoughtry lead the Dream with a team high 21 points.

Game 2 of the 3-game series will take place Tuesday evening back in Atlanta. The winner of the series will face Seattle in the WNBA Finals.

Atlanta Dream Tip Off Eastern Conference Finals Tonight At 7 P.M.

The Atlanta Dream travel to New York tonight to face the second-seeded Liberty, who beat the Indiana Fever in three games. The Dream will be well-rested, having swept the top-seeded Washington Mystics a week ago.

The teams split their regular season series. This is New York's sixth conference finals appearance and Atlanta's first. Guard Cappie Poindexter leads the Liberty in points (21.4 per game) and assists (4.9 per game).