Two teams looking for bounce-back performances will meet on Saturday afternoon when the Atlanta Dream host the Dallas Wings in College Park, Ga.
Each of Atlanta’s first three games have been decided by five points or fewer, including an 81-76 home loss to the Indiana Fever on Thursday. Despite Rhyne Howard’s team-leading 24 points, the Dream (1-2) dropped another close game, which did not sit well with first-year head coach Karl Smesko.
“Three games all coming down to the last minute, we’re going to have to be a lot better in these close game situations. That’s something we’ll work on,” Smesko said. “I think we’ve got big room for improvement and I’m pretty optimistic on what this team can become.”
Howard paces Atlanta with 18.3 points per game, followed by Allisha Gray’s 17.3 and Brionna Jones’ 16.7 points and 11.3 rebounds per game.
Dallas (0-3), which dropped two of three meetings against Atlanta last season, is the lone winless team in the Western Conference.
Prized rookie Paige Bueckers ranks second on the Wings with 13.7 points per game — behind Arike Ogunbowale’s 15.0 clip. The first overall pick in this year’s WNBA Draft, Bueckers is shooting 37.1 percent from the field and still looking to find her form, but leads the team with 6.7 assists and 1.7 steals per game.
“I’m just trying to contribute to winning, whether I’m making or missing shots,” Bueckers said. “I’m trying to impact the game in different ways.”
In Dallas’ 85-81 loss to the Minnesota Lynx on Wednesday, Ogunbowale tied Diana Taurasi’s league record for the fastest player to hit 500 career 3-pointers. Both achieved the feat in their 198th game.
“(Diana) is a legend and any time you can make an imprint in this league is special,” Ogunbowale said. “This is such a hard league and there have been so many great players over time. I was glad that I was able to celebrate that a little bit in the locker room with my team.”
–Field Level Media
