A tale of two halves defined the first portion of the 2025 WNBA season for the Atlanta Dream to a tee. After adding new talent, which included All-Star centers Brittney Griner and Brionna Jones in free agency, the adjustment period was evident as the team worked out its chemistry on the fly, going 13-9 as the fifth seed before the All-Star break.
Rome was not built in a day, and neither was Atlanta’s late-game execution on defense, particularly in the fourth quarter.
In nine of the first-half losses, the Dream were outscored in all but two of them. Down the stretch of games, opponents could do no wrong. Before the break, Atlanta posted the second-worst defensive rating (107.4) in the WNBA.
Teams averaged the second-most points (20.4) in the final frame, where 48.5 percent of them were scored in the paint (10.5). It did not help that opponents shot 35.1 percent from deep, which was decimal points behind the Chicago Sky’s defense at first.
Atlanta’s fourth-quarter defense was surprising, given this team’s dominance in the first half of games with the second-best defensive rating (95) in the league. Overall, it was 99.4, which was good for sixth place.
If there was one issue of significance that would hold rookie coach Karl Smesko’s group back from legitimate championship contention, it was how it approached arguably the most important quarter of the game. This was one of the contributing factors that led to a .500 record (7-7) in clutch scenarios before the break.
Since the All-Star break, the Dream have flipped the script completely. Touting a 9-3 record, what were once growing pains in the first half for a newly assembled group have developed into reliable strengths when it matters most. In the last 12 games, Atlanta has allowed the third-fewest points (19.4) in the fourth quarter.
In the second half, Atlanta is 3-2 in clutch scenarios, but has seen very few of these arise due to a second-place net rating of 12.7.
“Just being consistent. Just sticking to the game plan. Being smart and taking the right shots, and locking in on the defensive end. I think we’ve done a great job in our past games finishing out the game. I know early in the fourth quarter was maybe a little struggle for us. But I feel like in the second part of the season, we’ve really been locked in and been able to complete the games in the fourth quarter.”
— Dream All-Star guard Allisha Gray after defeating the Seattle Storm on Aug. 13.
Finishing games as strongly as they are started with fluidity as a unit has become a calling card. Opponents went from shooting 35.1 percent from beyond the arc to 27 percent, giving Atlanta the third-best perimeter defense since the break. On midrange attempts, teams shoot 29.3 percent in the fourth quarter.
At the rim, the Dream allows opponents to shoot 61.7 percent, which is the fourth-best rate in the league. This is a bit higher than it was in the first half of the season (57 percent), but that is to be expected amid a WNBA-record 44-game season with minimal time for rest and recharging between performances.
Offense is harder to produce in the playoffs as the best of the best have a mutual goal of hoisting a championship trophy in the air. What is clear at this point of the season is that Atlanta employs an unmovable focus set on just that. Defense in the waning moments of games has proven this to be so at the most crucial time.