Aces Dominate in win Against the Dream

The Atlanta Dream hosted the Las Vegas Aces on Friday night in a thrilling matchup. After coming off two straight wins, the Dream was hungry for yet another one, but their desire for a win was no match for the Aces, who were coming off a tough loss against the Washington Mystics. The Aces won by a score of 96-73 over the Dream. The Aces Dominate in Win Against the Dream. 

First Half

At the end of the first half, the Aces were up over the Dream by a score of 49-33. The Aces had a solid first quarter, outscoring the Dream 23-12. Defensively, the Aces forced the Dream to have nine turnovers in the first quarter alone. The Dream had a much stronger quarter in the second quarter with fewer errors and only having two turnovers. The Dream significantly cut into the Aces’ lead, but with (2) made 3s by Williams, the Aces’ double-digit lead was restored. Aari McDonald brought energy to the Dream having big buckets for the team. The Dream was not too behind the Aces in scoring in the second quarter, the Aces only outscoring them 26-21. 

Leading the Aces at the end of the first half is Kelsey Plum with 11 points, shooting 2-2 from the 3, and 8 assists. Riquna Williams made a great contribution in her first appearance back from injury by shooting 3-5 from the 3-point. Overall the Aces shot 9-18 from 3, a great improvement from the game against the Mystics. On the boards, Dearica Hamby had 7 rebounds. Rhyne Howard had 8 points for the Dream and McDonald with 7, McDonald shooting 60% from the field. From the field, the Dream shot 15-33 and the 3, 3-8, leaving a need to make more shots in the second half. Erica Wheeler led the team in rebounds with 6 at the half. 

“We talked about making a statement when we came out especially since our last game ended not exactly how we wanted it to, so we wanted to focus in on having a great start and coming out the 3rd quarter not flat and finishing the game the same way we started.”

Riquna Williams on starting off the first quarter strong

Second Half

Despite the efforts by the Dream, they were unable to overcome the deficit that started in the first quarter. The Aces performed tremendously on both sides of the ball—a huge defensive contribution by A’ja Wilson with 5 blocks in the second half. Despite McDonald’s 20 and Howard’s 13-point performance, it was no match to the Aces. The Aces had all 5 starters in double figures in addition to bench contributions. The Dream only scored one less point than the Aces in the 3rd quarter. But could not overcome the deficit established early on. The Dream also ended out with 19 turnovers and the Aces were able to score often off of these.

There was a huge performance from the Aces’ starting lineup, especially from Plum, who finished out with 15 points and 11 assists. When asked about Plum and her selfless performance, Coach Hammon said, “I told Kelsey early in the year that she’ll be the hardest guard in the league because of her willingness to pass.” Hammon noted that teams will focus on taking away Plum’s scoring, but her willingness to pass makes her unguardable. In her first appearance this season after coming off of an injury, Riquna was able to have 14 points, shooting 4-19 from 3.

Even in the final minutes putting in the bench players, the Aces’ offense was too difficult to stop for the Dream. The Aces broke a franchise record of 3-point attempts in a game with 35 in addition to makes with 16. Not only did the Aces put on a strong offensive game shooting a high percentage from 3. But shutting down the Dream early on and forcing turnovers allowed them to pull out the win in the end.

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