Dream pursue seventh straight win vs. Storm (Jul 21, 2018)
There's a lot more that bragging rights on the line when the Atlanta Dream, the WNBA's hottest team, and the Seattle Storm, the league frontrunner, square off Sunday afternoon at McCamish Pavilion on the campus of Georgia Tech University in Atlanta.
Atlanta, which is in third place in the league standings with 11 games to play, has its eyes on one of the top two spots and the bye into the playoff semifinals that come with that position. A win over the Storm would help provide momentum for that chase.
The Dream racked up their sixth consecutive victory -- and seventh in its past eight games -- on Thursday with an 82-68 home win over the New York Liberty. Renee Montgomery converted a franchise-record seven 3-pointers and scored a season-high 24 points, and Tiffany Hayes added 20 points for Atlanta (14-9).
The Atlanta record for made 3-pointers in a game was six, accomplished twice by Betty Lenox.
"We are in a good place as a team right now," Montgomery said. "We are sharing the ball well and we have players that are explosive and who can create offense at any given moment. You never know whose night it's going to be on our team.
"We've had the talent -- we just had to learn to play together and develop some team chemistry. It just takes time."
The Storm head to Atlanta on the heels of a 78-65 win at Connecticut on Friday in which Jewell Loyd poured in a season-high 31 points. Loyd scored 20 points in the second half and went 11 of 15 from the field, with four of her buckets coming from beyond the arc.
The victory was the eighth on the road this year for Seattle, which sits atop the WNBA standings at 18-6. The Storm own are ahead of Phoenix, which has the next-best record.
Seattle harassed Connecticut into 21 turnovers.
"Jewell was really the player that kind of kept us steady all four quarters," Seattle coach coach Dan Hughes told the Seattle Times after the win. "Our defense in the first half and the ability to turn them over, I thought, was huge."
Sue Bird added 17 points and three 3-pointers to help the Storm. In the third quarter, Bird moved into third place in league history, passing Becky Hammon, with her 830th three-pointer. She increased that total to 832.
Bird, playing in the 499th game of her career, tied DeLisha Milton-Jones for the most in WNBA history. Bird is expected to set the record for games played Sunday at Atlanta.
Breanna Stewart of the Storm scored 10 points, well below her average of 22.3 points per game.
The last team to beat the Dream? It was Seattle, 95-86 on July 6 in Atlanta. Earlier this season, the Dream beat the Storm 67-64 in Seattle. Sunday's game will decide the season series.
The all-time series between the teams is tied at 12 each, with the Dream holding an 8-4 edge in game played in Atlanta.
