New York Liberty Falls to Atlanta Dream 81-72
The Liberty (7-7) fell to the Atlanta Dream (6-7) on Sunday evening at McCamish Pavilion. Tina Charles scored 21 points to lead the Liberty, and Sugar Rodgers came off the bench to score 11 points.
New York fell behind by as many as 20 points in the first half, but steadily chipped away at the Atlanta lead to pull within 6 in the fourth quarter on an Epiphanny Prince mid-range jumper, but the Liberty was never able to come all the way back from the early deficit. Starting for a 2nd-straight game, Prince matched her career-high with 9 assists, also scoring 8 points, and Kia Vaughn scored a season-high 10 points, while leading New York with 9 rebounds.
The Liberty continues a 4-game road trip on Thursday, July 6, when it faces the Seattle Storm at 10 PM (ET).
New York Liberty
Epiphanny Prince finished the game by matching her career-high with 9 assists
Sugar Rodgers hit 3-straight 3-point attempts in the 4th quarter to finish with 11 points after missing the previous game with a back injury
Sugar Rodgers matched her season-high of 7 rebounds.
Shavonte Zellous pulled down a career-high 9 rebounds to lead the Liberty. Shavonte Zellous finished with 7 points having her streak of 8-straight games in double figures come to an end.
Tina Charles turned in an impressive stat line of 21 points, 7 rebounds, 5 assists, and 3 blocks. Kia Vaughn scored a season-high 10 points and also had 8 rebounds.
New York fell to 6-1 when winning the 2nd chance scoring battle, the Liberty outscored Atlanta 20-6 in 2nd chance opportunities. New York has scored fewer than 20 1st quarter points in 4 of its last 5 games, averaging 17.4 points in the opening period over that stretch.
The Dream scored 27 points in the 1st quarter, the most for a Liberty opponent in the opening period this season. New York is averaging just 33.0 points in the 1st half over the past 5 games.
The Liberty had its 3-game winning streak against Atlanta snapped and is now 2-4 on the road this season.
Trailing by as many as 20 points, New York pulled within 6 in the 4th quarter but was never able to get any closer than two possessions.
Atlanta Dream Notes
With the win, the Atlanta Dream are now 6-7 on the season.
Brittany Sykes finished with a career-high/team-high 19 points.
Brittany Sykes ties career-high with 9 rebounds. Dream tabbed 17 assists on the night. Layshia finished with team-high nine assists. With her three steals, Sancho Lyttle sits three (577) behind Taj McWilliams-Franklin (580) for 9th all-time in the WNBA
Five Atlanta Dream players finished in double-figures. (Brittney Sykes (19), Layshia Clarendon (15), Tiffany Hayes (11), Bria Holmes (11) and Elizabeth Williams(10).
Atlanta Dream held its largest lead of the game at 20 points at 4:53 (2nd).
The Atlanta Dream shot 85.0% (17-of-20) from the free-throw percentage. The Dream shot 41.7% (30-72) from the field.
New York Liberty Quotes:
Head Coach Bill Laimbeer
On value of post-players in WNBA: “I think that they are just great players. Every team has to have go to players. We happen to have Tina Charles, who happens to be big. Delle Donne and Griner are go to players. That’s just the way it works.”
On what the Liberty have to work on in practice: “We’ve been working on our defense. We’re playing better defense these days than we have. Last two games have been an offensive struggle that we’re going to have to address now. We’ve been playing offensive ball the past two games, but we’ll continue to work on our defense.”
Tina Charles
On value of big players in the league: “I think Minnesota has done a great job of putting emphasis on Sylvia Fowles. I think they are using her more to take a load off of their guards, Maya Moore and Seimone Augustus. I think Phoenix has been targeting Brittney Griner the entire time. I think she’s putting more effort and focus in to her game.”
On mentality and preparation for upcoming games:
“The effort that we put into the second half. We have to start out playing that way. I think that we got a little raddled with the zone. It made it us complacent on the offensive end and we had a lot of turnovers, myself included. We have to continue to hold each other accountable. We know each other’s strengths, try to maximize that and get that out of one another. We’ll be fine.”
Atlanta Dream Quotes:
Head Coach Michael Cooper
On the defensive strategy
“What we try to do as a coaching staff is simplify our game plan. I thought the zone really worked against this team, jumping in and out of it seemed to throw them off a little bit which enabled us to do what we do well and that’s to get down the floor in transition.”
On having five players in double figures: “We’re always successful when we do that have multiple players in double figures.
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