Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Atlanta vs. San Antonio, Thursday August 20



Who: The Atlanta Dream (13-11) take on the San Antonio Silver Stars (11-13), a game between two WNBA playoff contenders.

The Dream have Chamique Holdsclaw (14.5 ppg) as well as All-Star Team members Sancho Lyttle (13.3 ppg) and Erika de Souza (11.0 ppg). Becky Hammon (20.1 ppg) and Sophia Young (18.0 ppg) are among the league's scoring leaders, and Ann Wauters (10.4 ppg, 5.0 rpg) is back with the team.

What: The second of two games this year against the Silver Stars. The Atlanta Dream won two weeks ago in San Antonio 92-84. The Dream are 1-2 all time against San Antonio.

Where: Philips Arena in Atlanta, GA

When: Tipoff is 7:30 pm Eastern on Thursday, August 20th. Unlike the last time these two teams met, you'll be able to watch the game on WNBA Live Access.

Why: What a difference two weeks makes! And what a difference a night makes! On Tuesday night, three teams from the Western Conference played three teams from the Eastern Conference and beat them - these losses moved all of Atlanta's challengers another step behind. The Dream remain 1/2 game ahead of the Sun and are in sole possession of second place in the Eastern Conference. It's a prize worth having since it means having home court advantage for the best-of-three first round of the playoffs.

As for the Silver Stars, the addition of Ann Wauters hasn't helped a lot. Whereas the Dream have won six of their last seven games, the Silver Stars can be world beaters one night (beating Phoenix 106-89 in Phoenix) and chumps another night (losing 90-73 at home against Sacramento). San Antonio hangs on to third place, but they are tied with Minnesota and the Los Angeles Sparks are half-game behind. It's not been easy at all for the defending Western Conference champions.

Still, the Silver Stars are a tough team. Beating them, however, would give Atlanta its first ever sweep of an opponent during the year - we would be 2-0 against the Silver Stars. However, San Antonio is coming off a high in beating Phoenix and we'll have to fight for it.

Thursday night will be "College Night" at Philips Arena. I don't know what the DFO (Dream front office) is offering on college night, but if you've ever graduated from college, or seen a college, or just like the smell of ivy, come on out and see the Dream march towards the playoffs. You don't have many more chances - counting this game, there are only four regular season home games left on the calendar.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

"College Night" was meant as a promotional tool to do groups with college students and other college-related promotions. Many promotions are headed by employees on the sales staff, and nothing really came of college night due to the 8/23 game and 9/11 game being much bigger draws being on the weekend.

- Patrick, DFO.

Unknown said...

We still expect a large crowd of die-hard Dream fans, but it was tough to do promotions with colleges because this is most school's first week back.

- Patrick, DFO.