Takeaways: Atlanta Dream’s shooting slump, Diana Taurasi’s greatness

ATLANTA — The Phoenix Mercury and Atlanta Dream were both looking to start win streaks on Sunday, both coming off victories against the Minnesota Lynx.

After DeWanna Bonner swished a three-point shot 21 seconds into the contest at McCamish Pavilion, the Mercury never lost the lead. Bonner’s 20 points, seven rebounds and six assists led the Mercury to a 78-71 victory over a sluggish Dream team.

Angel McCoughtry led Atlanta (2-3) with 21 points and 10 rebounds.

The game was a physical one with 37 fouls and 28 turnovers. The Dream won the rebounding battle, but the Mercury moved the ball efficiently — with 24 assists — and shot 47 percent from the floor.

“The second half was a bit of a grind, but when we needed to dig deep we did and we came away with the victory. We made a few mistakes but they’re mistakes we can obviously fix,” said Mercury coach Sandy Brondello. “… It kind of got ugly there for a while. Just happy to get any road win.”

Atlanta slowed down Taurasi, for a bit

Diana Taurasi tallied 20 points, eight assists and four rebounds for the Mercury (4-3). One of the lone bright spots for Atlanta was that they were able to slow down the league’s all-time leading scorer for most of the game.

At halftime, Taurasi had just five points and four assists. She was often guarded by Tiffany Hayes and Renee Montgomery.

“You can tell (Atlanta) is on the right path. When you have Angel, Tip and Renee, three dynamic players, and then (Elizabeth Williams) and (Jessica) Breland, they’re tough to guard,” Taurasi said. “(Atlanta coach Nicki Collen) has them playing the right way. They’re going to be tough in the long run.”

But in the fourth quarter, when her team needed her most, Taurasi broke free.

After a Brittney Sykes lay-up to cut Phoenix’s lead to a single point at the 9:33 mark in the fourth quarter, Taurasi scored 12 points during a run that put the Mercury ahead by nine points.

Taurasi, 35, had the ball with 12 seconds left, but let the clock tick away instead of jacking a three-pointer. A made basket from that distance would have made her the first WNBA player to score 8,000 points in a career.

The Dream have had a mixed bag of results so far this season when it comes to containing the league’s stars. Liz Cambage has totaled 35 points, 23 rebounds and eight blocks in two games against Atlanta, but Sylvia Fowles and Maya Moore struggled, finishing with negative plus-minus ratings and multiple turnovers.

Outside shooting woes continue for Dream

If there was a game for the Dream to break out and show the rest of the league that it can hit three-pointers consistently, it was this one, against the Mercury.

Phoenix entered the game second worst in the league in defending shots from behind the arc, allowing opponents to shoot 40.5 percent from there.

“Yeah, you know, you can’t have it all in life. He who taketh is he who giveth. So, they’re taking three’s and we’re giving them to them. Some of it is just overhelp. The key to our defense and the stuff we try to take away is the paint,” Taurasi said. “So, if we give up a couple of open three’s but really clog up the paint — especially a team like Atlanta that likes to drive — that was a big emphasis for us. Sometimes you have to live with giving a couple up to Renee. I think we tightened up a little bit better in the second half.”

Things started well for Atlanta from outside, as Montgomery connected on her first three attempts from behind the arc, all coming in the first quarter.

And then, Atlanta made just two more three-pointers for the rest of the game, finishing 5-of-19 from there, good enough for a 26 percent clip.

Atlanta was the worst in the league at making three-pointers last season, connecting on just 29 percent, and that is a trend that has carried into this season, as the Dream are making just 28 percent of their three-pointers through five games.

Some thought that the additions of McCoughtry, Montgomery and Maggie Lucas would have increased the Dream’s luck from deep, but that hasn’t been the case thus far. And Brittney Sykes, who was a solid shooter last season at 34 percent, has been stone cold from outside this season, shooting 13 percent.

Atlanta’s troubles from behind the arc could be connected to its ball movement. On Sunday, the Dream had just 11 assists and no starter had more than two. Layshia Clarendon had three dimes off the bench.

“Our spacing wasn’t always good, our execution wasn’t always good. I’m it looked like at times that we didn’t know what we were running, and, to me, we had some players that didn’t know what we were running,” Collen said. “…They try to keep (Brittney) Griner as close to the basket as possible, so sometimes you have to come off those screens and make jump shots. That’s what they give up and we didn’t make many jump shots.”

Atlanta is second to last in the league in assists per-game this season with 15.8. That the Dream rank near the bottom of the league in three-point shooting and assists may not be a coincidence. Atlanta’s offense may need a change, or it might just need more time to mesh.

“We’re getting there. It takes time. I hate to say it’s a process because now it’s cliché, but it takes time to learn each other,” Montgomery said. “We’re trying to figure out how to win in tough situation. We did last game, but it takes time.”