Dantas, defense dominant in Atlanta Dream’s win over Connecticut Sun

ATLANTA — The Connecticut Sun rolled into Atlanta on Tuesday with a perfect record and an offense that was riding high, having scored 100 points or more in three of their first five games.

More from Atlanta Dream

• Your Day in Women’s Basketball, October 19: NCAA shakes up schedules, not scholarships
• Your Day in Women’s Basketball, September 28: All-Rookie team announced
• Women’s Basketball, September 17: NCAA Hoops to start Nov. 25
• Your Day in Women’s Basketball, September 14: Mystics are going dancing
• Your Day in Women’s Basketball, September 10: Dream are (mathematically) stayin’ alive

The Atlanta Dream weren’t about to be the fourth team to get triple digits hung on them by Chiney Ogwumike and company.

“We just talked as a team and said, ‘nobody is scoring 100 points on us.’ So, that was that,” said Dream guard Tiffany Hayes. “Like I said before, I think our defense is one of the best in the league. We can’t just have people coming to our home court and scoring 100 points. We definitely had a talk as a team that we’re not going to let that happen.”

The Dream handed the Sun their first loss of the season Tuesday in front of 2,830 fans at McCamish Pavilion. Hayes tallied 22 points, seven rebounds, four assists and three steals in an 82-70 win for Nicki Collen’s side.

Alyssa Thomas had 19 points and 17 rebounds for the Sun.

For Collen, the rookie head coach, it was her first win against Sun coach Curt Miller, who she was an assistant for in Connecticut.

Collen admitted that some of the Sun’s plays were familiar, and she may have had a bit of an upper hand in defending their actions.

“It helps when I know a replay call and can say ahead of time, ‘Okay Tip, you got to top block here because they’re about to pin down.’ That helps,” Collen said. “You know play calls in this league but you really know play calls when you’ve put that playbook in for two years.”

Defense great again

Connecticut had been pretty good at making three-pointers this season, shooting 35.6 percent from behind the arc, a mark good enough for fourth best in the league. But on Tuesday, Sun shooters had a tough time finding the bottom of the net connecting on just 7-of-32 shots from deep, a 21.9 percent clip.

The Sun also turned the ball over 16 times, nine of which came via steals by the Dream.

Renee Montgomery, who had two steals in addition to her 12 points, credited Collen’s scout on the Sun as to why the Dream seemed a step ahead of them on defense.

“We always have the upper hand because of (Collen). Seriously. Okay, this is her old team, but her scouts are out of this world. She’ll watch every game of the team we’re about to play twice. It’s crazy.”

Hayes echoed that sentiment, saying, “We were all over it. We worked on this in practice. The scout was great from (Collen), telling us how to guard the screens and everything their offense does.”

The Dream lead the league in steals per-game (9.7), are third in blocks per-game (5.2) and opponents turn the ball over an average of 17.2 times per-game against them, which is second in the league.

Dantas, dominant

Collen wasn’t sure that starting center Elizabeth Williams was going to be able to play in Tuesday night’s tilt until that morning. Williams tweaked her ankle in Sunday’s loss to the Phoenix Mercury and was listed as questionable.

Williams played, but when she needed a break, the Dream got an unexpected boost.

Damiris Dantas came off the bench to play 20 minutes on Tuesday, pouring in 15 points, five rebounds and two assists. It was just the second time this season that a Dream reserve scored in double-digits.

A native of Brazil, the 6-foot-3 Dantas impressed Collen in camp, but then battled an ankle injury of her own to start the season. Collen saw Dantas as someone who could play the four or the five, stretch the floor a bit, and give a break to Williams or Jessica Breland when needed.

Dantas got rolling Tuesday when she swished a three-pointer off a feed from Brittney Sykes at the end of the first quarter to give Atlanta a 24-19 lead.

“It was certainly D.D.’s best game,” Collen said. “She looked a little more spry the last couple of days, and coming in and making that corner three I think elevated her and let her get into her package – her step-back right shoulder in the post and she caught and finished on a really nice drop off pass by Angel (McCoughtry). We’ve missed those, those baskets around the rim, and she just put them in. She was a huge lift for us.”

Collen’s rotation was short Tuesday as she played just eight players, but Sykes and Layshia Clarendon were solid off the bench too, combing for 10 points, six rebounds and four assists.

Notes

• Atlanta connected on six-of-eight three-point attempts in the first half, but then went zero-for-four in the second half.

“For me, I’m an opportunistic three-point taker, and they clearly weren’t going to let me come off pick-and-rolls and shoot,” Montgomery said. “So, we try not force the issue. We have so many scoring weapons that we don’t have to one particular thing. I think we just kind of rolled with what was working.”

• In the past two games, Collen has experimented briefly with a four-guard lineup. The one she gave fans a peek at on Tuesday featured Clarendon, Montgomery, Hayes, McCoughtry and Breland. Some players might be in different spots, but the four-guard unit from the Dream is something fans can expect to see more of.

“With Alyssa Thomas playing the 4, it allows to easily move Angel to the 4 and play kind of a small lineup, a defensive minded lineup, to kind of take away the arc,” Collen said. “I think we need to have it, but I think we needed to put it in slowly with Angel coming to camp late… There’s no doubt you’ll see it as time goes on. It allows us to play Brittney Sykes more minutes as well.”