20/2009 - Dream 89, Liberty 83

And now...time to look at the post-mortem of Saturday night's win. We start with Dean Oliver's Four Factors:

Field goal shooting: The Dream shot 45.9 percent compared to 40.8 percent for the Liberty. However, we have to keep two things in mind. First, the Liberty had a bad shooting first quarter. Second....

...you have to consider effective field goal percentage. The Liberty went 5-for-15 from 3-point range; the Dream were only 1-for-9. The Liberty move up to 44.3 percent in effective field goal percentage and the Dream's effective FG percentage is 46.6 percent. The Dream's advantage doesn't look as strong.

Turnovers: The Dream had 14 turnovers. This Dream's average in turnovers - including this game - was 18.20. This was a very good game for the Dream.

For the Liberty, this was a different story: the Liberty average 16.61 turnovers, putting them at almost 10 turnovers over their average. The Dream's defense just killed them. However, 26 turnovers is no where close to the record - in 1997, there were three teams that year that turned the ball over 33 times in a game.

Offensive rebounds: One of the talking points is that this is one of the games where the Dream were out-rebounded by an opponent. New York had 17 offensive rebounds, compared to 13 from the Atlanta Dream. Offensive rebound percentage for New York Liberty was 42.5 percent compared to 30.2 percent for the Dream. The Dream were dominated....

...but remember that four of those offensive rebounds came in the last 30 seconds for the Liberty. If you didn't count those rebounds, New York's offensive rebound percentage would fall to 33.3 percent. Rebounding wasn't that decisive a factor for the Liberty.

Free throw visits: The Liberty visited the line 27 times and the Dream visited the line 33 times. However, each side only hit 20 of their free throws - a 74 percent accuracy rate for the Liberty...and a 61 percent accuracy rate for the Dream. This is the second poor free-throw shooting game in a row for the Dream. Yep, the Dream definitely need to spend some extra time on free throws.

Let's look at the Liberty:

Shameka Christon: 23 points and 8 rebounds. However, 12 of those points were scored at the free throw line (she was 12-for-13) and she was 5-for-16 in shooting, with a horrible 1-for-7 in 3-point accuracy.
Janel McCarville: 14 points, 6 rebounds and 6 assists. 6-for-16 shooting.
Loree Moore: 14 points, 7 rebounds and 5 assists. Moore was shooting 6-for-8.
Essence Carson: 12 points on 5-for-14 shooting. 8 rebounds, but she got her pockets picked by Angel McCoughtry.
The New York Bench: Only 14 points.

And now...we look at the Dream.

Angel McCoughtry: Last game, I said that McCoughtry didn't do as well as Lyttle. This game...there was no contest. She had 16 points and 7 steals, and it was her performance in the late third and early fourth quarter that helped the Dream get it very first win against New York. McCoughtry was definitely the Dreamer of the Game.

Chamique Holdsclaw: The Claw was shooting 50 percent - 8 for 16 - and had 7 rebounds. Holdsclaw says that she's no longer trying to get a double-double every night like when she was a rookie, but she came close. Unfortunately, she also had five personal fouls.

Shalee Lehning: She took three shots, and this time - she made all of them. She sort of stumbled around in the first half, but she had 3 assists. You know, this might have been Lehning's best game of the year.

Iziane Castro Marques: 16 points and 4 rebounds with 7-for-17 shooting - but those me-against-the-entire-team drives from Castro Marques have got to stop.

Sancho Lyttle: 7 points and 7 rebounds. However, Lyttle fouled out. I think the last time anyone fouled out for the Dream was Angel McCoughtry, and that was in the beginning of the season.

Coco Miller: 7 points. She also had 3-for-3 shooting like Lehning. She also took a nasty elbow to the ear at the end of the first half. Coco is tough.

Jennifer Lacy: 6 points, but her shooting wasn't as great - only 2-for-6.

Erika de Souza: 10 points, and 6 rebounds. But de Souza has been a liability at the free throw line over the last two games - on Saturday, she was 4-for-8.

Michelle Snow: Snow went 0-for-4. Zero points. However, she picked up 5 rebounds, but suffered the embarrassment of having three shots blocks.

Tamera Young: Buried under Marynell Meadors's doghouse. Did not appear in the game.

Ivory Latta: 0-for-3. Missed three free throws. Had three assists, but turned the ball over three times. Yep, it was a bad game for Ivory, and I'm going to have to dust off the demerit and give her the Still Snoozin' award. I suspect, however, that Ivory is only taking a catnap. She'll be back for San Antonio.