The Atlanta Dream head out on the road for the first time this season after dropping back to back overtime affairs at Philips Arena to open the season. Following Thursday's loss to the Washington Mystics, coach Marynell Meadors talked about chemistry and how her team was currently struggling to find it without leading scorer Angel McCoughtry.
"There’s not a lot of chemistry out on the floor right now," Meadors said. "Until we get whole again with Angel back out on the court, I think we are going to struggle a bit."
McCoughtry returned albeit briefly for the Dream in Thursday's loss playing three minutes and scoring two points. It was her first action since injuring her knee on May 25 during practice. McCoughtry said that she was ready to play in the second half of the Washington game but Meadors opted against it not wanting to risk re-injury.
Atlanta has struggled at both ends of the floor at times during the first two games. Defensively the Dream has looked a step slow inside whether defending the post or on rotations to cut off penetration. After overwhelming teams inside during last season's playoffs, Atlanta has been out rebounded in both of its games this season.
Offensively they have been trying to incorporate Lindsey Harding into an offense that has clearly missed McCoughtry as the go to scorer at crunch time. Atlanta's offense has become stagnant for stretches during the first two games where there is little movement and a lot of one on one play. With McCoughtry not 100 percent, the Dream need to make a more concerted effort to get their bigs Erika de Souza and Sancho Lyttle involved more at the offensive end. Erika de Souza scored 20 points and had 15 rebounds in Thursday's loss but didn't score in the overtime period.
San Antonio is 2-0 having defeated Tulsa twice already this season. They will be in a back to back situation having played Friday night winning 93-62 in a game where they shot better than 50 percent from the field and from the three point line. Becky Hammon had 11 points and six assists Friday night and it should be a great match up on Saturday between her and Lindsey Harding.
Saturday's game is the first of three straight on the road for the Dream. After Saturday's game against the Silver Stars, Atlanta has stops in New York and in Minnesota next week.
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