Saturday, June 12, 2010

Atlanta vs. San Antonio, Sunday June 13



Who: The Atlanta Dream (7-3) take on the San Antonio Silver Stars (3-5) in an inter-conference game.

The Dream are led by Angel McCoughtry, who is scoring 20.6 points per game. Sancho Lyttle (14.4 ppg/10.05rpg) is an All-Star post, and Iziane Castro Marques (15.1 ppg) will be playing on the Brazilian national team at the end of the season with Erika de Souza (12.7 ppg/9.8 rpg). The Silver Stars are led by Sophia Young (15.4 ppg). New acquisition Chamique Holdsclaw (14.7 ppg/4.8 rpg) has contributed immediately, and fan favorite Becky Hammon (13.7 ppg, 5.2 apg) runs the offense

What: The second of two regular season games against the San Antonio Silver Stars. On May 15th, the Dream traveled to San Antonio and won 75-70.

Where: Philips Arena in Atlanta, GA.

When: Tipoff is at at 3 pm Eastern time, Sunday June 13. The game will be available on Fox Sports South and on NBA TV.

Why: The Dream have lost three of their last four games, but Atlanta fans don't care too much about that. Fans are probably most interested in the return of Chamique Holdsclaw, who failed to show up for training camp a few days before it started. Holdsclaw sited irreconcilable differences with her coach. Now, she and her newest team come to Philips...and depending on Holdsclaw's performance, the loss of Holdsclaw will be marked either as a burden on the Dream or as a bonus.

Another item on the menu - can the Dream recover their free-throw shooting touch? The Dream are at the bottom of the league in free throw shooting, hitting only 64.7 percent. Historically, there has only been one WNBA with worse free throw shooting - the 1998 Washington Mystics, at 64.5 percent. The 3-27 Mystics are not a team with which the 2010 Atlanta Dream wishes to keep company, and everyone will be watching the Dream at the free throw line.

It will almost be a different San Antonio team from the team the Dream faced in May. Sandy Brondello is back as head coach. The Silver Stars have signed Allie Quigley, and Michelle Snow's status is unknown after suffering an injury against the Shock. Even with the changes, Atlanta is a six-point favorite from covers.com.

2 comments:

Phil said...

Do you boo Holdsclaw? I would. She's missing out on something special here, but its great that Angel now has her minutes.

Dreamer said...

Something special? Nothing special about losing to New York after holding a 50-18 advantage in the paint (41-32 on the boards), getting destroyed by Seattle on national TV, and losing at home in embarrassing fashion to the last-place Eastern conference team. While this team does have players and the potential to get better, I don't think there's anything "special" about it.