Dream aim for first playoff series win since '16, battle Fever

The Atlanta Dream have been one of the biggest surprises in the WNBA this season.

They won 30 regular-season games, double their total from a year ago, and they tied for the league's second-best record while earning the No. 3 playoff seed.

The Dream claimed their first playoff victory since 2018 by beating the visiting Indiana Fever 80-68 on Sunday. Now Atlanta can win a playoff series for the first time since 2016 if they beat the Fever in Game 2 on Tuesday night in Indianapolis.

"This wasn't going to be a year that we were going to be satisfied with everybody telling us, ‘Wow, you really improved over last year,'" Dream first-year coach Karl Smesko said. "That's not what we're trying to do. We're trying to be the best team in the league. We're trying to win the championship. We weren't going to let a year go by where we didn't go for it."

Allisha Gray and Rhyne Howard each scored 20 points and Naz Hillmon added 16 to lead the Dream in Game 1.

Atlanta held the short-handed Fever -- playing without All-Star guard Caitlin Clark and four others that have sustained season-ending injuries -- to their fifth-lowest point total of the season.

"The only thing that carries over to the next game is the win," Smesko said. "The job is not done in this series."

No. 6 seed Indiana will try to find more balance in its offense. Kelsey Mitchell scored 27 points in Game 1, but only one teammate reached double figures -- Odyssey Sims, with 10 points.

"We know the playoffs are a whole new ball game, way more physicality," Mitchell said. "We didn't give ourselves a chance to do what we wanted to do. We shot ourselves in the foot in a lot of different areas that impact being able to make plays and do what you want to do on the offensive end. Once we stop doing that, we give ourselves a better chance to be who we are offensively."

Fever coach Stephanie White, noting the resilience of her team through all of its injuries, said the shortcomings in Game 1 are fixable.

"It's a lot of little things," White said. "I like where we are. We're going to be better on Tuesday."

They'll look to even the series against the Dream, who were tied for the best away record in the league this season at 14-8.

--Field Level Media