The Atlanta Dream almost let this one slip away. Up big in the first half, they watched the Chicago Sky claw back and tie the game on a Sydney Taylor three-pointer with seconds left. But with six ticks on the clock, the Dream had enough time for one clean look. They used every last second.
Jordin Canada took the inbounds pass, drove hard to the basket, and laid the ball off the glass as time expired. Final score: 93-91. Dream win. And Canada ended up in Angel Reese’s arms — a nice moment between two former college rivals who now share a league.
“The call was actually for Allisha (Gray) going downhill off of Naz’s screen, and if she wasn’t open, then I tried to find a way to get open and attack downhill,” Canada said after the game. “As soon as I saw Lish wasn’t open, I had to turn on the jets. As soon as I could get past Jacy (Sheldon), I knew it was going to be a wide open layup. So I just tried to focus on finishing the basket.”
The play itself came from assistant coach Camryn Brown. It had two options: Gray off the screen, then Canada downhill with the ball back in her hands. Option one got smothered. Option two worked perfectly.
“There was option one they had well guarded, and then option two was to get it back to JC to go downhill,” head coach Karl Smesko said. “Bri (Jones) got open and didn’t force a pass to somebody that wasn’t open, had the patience to wait, and got it to JC, and JC did the rest.”
Bri Jones entered the game with 30 seconds left for a defensive stop, then threw a clean screen that freed Canada up. For a player who’d never run that play in a game before, she nailed the read. Smesko called it the right decision at the right time.
A win hiding some problems
The Dream controlled the first half. Then they lost their juice. It wasn’t the Sky’s defense that slowed them down — it was their own mistakes. Canada admitted as much.
“I think it was us just not being focused and coming out with the energy that we had in the first half,” she said. “That’s kind of like the things that we need to clean up going into the 2nd half of the season, just being able to maintain what we have and not have any dips in the second half.”
Smesko has been preaching a second-half surge: first five minutes, get aggressive, push the pace. The Dream didn’t do that Sunday. They stalled. Chicago kept playing. But down the stretch, Atlanta did just enough to keep it close and steal the win.
Reese injury clouds game
The Sky lost Reese to a left leg injury during the game. Jones and Madina Okot stepped in off the bench and played well in her absence. No official update on Reese’s status yet, but it’s a situation the Sky will be watching closely coming out of the break.
For the Dream, this win makes it four of their last five after a mini-slump. They sit at the No. 5 seed in the standings now.
“Hopefully this is the turning point of the second half for us,” Canada said. “Coming out with a lot of energy, cleaning things up, but definitely happy we got the win. Was not trying to go for another 5 minutes. That’s for sure.”
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