Dream riding high off big wins as they return home to meet Valkyries
Atlanta (15-10) went 3-3 during its recent six-game road trip, which was cut in half by the All-Star break. After dropping three of four to begin the stretch, the Dream topped the Phoenix Mercury 90-79 before picking up a 90-86 victory over the league-leading Minnesota Lynx on Sunday.
As the team returns home for the first time since beating Golden State on July 7, the Dream hope the extended time on the road will serve them well going forward.
"I do think it's important as you get into a playoff situation that you already have some experience winning big games on the road against the best teams," Atlanta head coach Karl Smesko said. "There hasn't been a better team than Minnesota this year, so to be in this environment and play as well as we did, I think it's something that we'll remember."
Allisha Gray's 18.7 points per game lead Atlanta, while Rhyne Howard -- the team's No. 2 scorer (16.5 ppg) -- remains out with a left knee injury suffered on July 11. Howard is expected to miss at least Atlanta's next two games.
Golden State (11-13) will look to rebound from its worst loss in the franchise's young history. As the league's lone expansion team, the Valkyries are still a work in progress, as their 31-point loss at Connecticut on Sunday proved.
Golden State has dropped six of eight in July, including its 95-64 defeat against the Sun, in which the Valkyries turned the ball over 24 times.
"(Connecticut) just played harder than us," Golden State head coach Natalie Nakase said. "Things were just not clicking. We weren't connected because our energy level, our organization, our minds, just weren't connected with our body."
A bad stretch was made worse this week, as leading scorer and rebounder Kayla Thornton (14.0 points, 7.0 rebounds per game) underwent season-ending knee surgery after injuring herself in practice.
Tiffany Hayes, who adds 12.5 points per contest, will try to shoulder the load and bounce back from an 0-for-8 shooting output on Sunday.
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