Dream Vs. Mercury: Atlanta Begins Western Road Trip In Phoenix

Tuesday night's match up between the Atlanta Dream and the Phoenix Mercury will pit the top two scorers in the WNBA against each other. Entering the game Diana Taurasi leads the WNBA with a 20.9 ponts per game average while Atlanta's Angel McCoughtry is close behind averaging 19.9. Its also a match up of two teams that are fighting for playoff seeding in their respective conferences. Atlanta is currently in the fourth and final playoff spot in the East with a 10-11 record one full game ahead of the Chicago Sky and 2.5 games behind third place New York. Phoenix is tied for second with San Antonio in the west and just a half game ahead of Seattle.

Phoenix won the earlier meeting between the two teams 92-83 at Philips Arena back in June. Atlanta was just 2-5 before that meeting and has played much better of late. The Dream defeated the Seattle Storm 70-53 on Sunday and avoided the let down loss in Washington on Tuesday defeating the Mystics 72-70. They could get back to the .500 mark on the season with a victory tonight.

As has been the case the entire season, Atlanta is still dealing with injuries as guard Shalee Lehning is out for the season with a torn ACL and guard/forward Armintie Price has been slowed by an ankle injury. Price was injured during the first half of the victory over Seattle and did not return to the game. She didn't start and played sparingly against Washington finishing with two points and two assists.

Atlanta moves into a difficult position of their schedule with eight of their last 13 games on the road. Tuesday's match up against Phoenix is the second game of a road trip that will take the Dream through Seattle and Los Angeles before returning home to face Connecticut.

Tip off for tonight's game is scheduled for 10 p.m. Eastern Time and can be seen online with WNBA Live Access.