The Dream had seen the Aces three times. An 87-72 road loss on July 22, a two-point loss on Aug. 19, and another defeat eight days later. Sandwiched in between, Atlanta had managed to stun the Minnesota Lynx — owners of the WNBA’s best record — for the second time this season. They had also taken down a shorthanded New York Liberty squad. In the span of a week, the Dream had battled three of the league’s top five teams, picked up landmark wins and, with their steady climb, secured the most single-season victories in franchise history.
For a franchise that had scraped together only 15 wins last season and hadn’t hit the 20-win mark since 2018 under then-head coach Nicki Collen, their progress wasn’t just noticeable. It was historic. Atlanta had proven it could stand toe-to-toe with the league’s elite, logging wins against six of the eight teams headed to the playoffs. But Smesko wasn’t celebrating milestones. He had something bigger in mind.
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As the first-year head coach wrapped up his postgame remarks, he pointed to what he called “another level” the Dream needed to reach with six games left on the regular-season slate. The Dream’s postseason hopes weren’t only about securing a spot. They were about finding the consistency and edge required to chase something the franchise had never captured, a WNBA championship.
“We only got a couple of weeks to get there,” Smesko said after the loss. “This [loss] hurts right now but it doesn’t compare to the hurt that all of a sudden, it’s the playoffs, you have one of those shooting nights and a game gets away from you and you don’t advance when you have a team capable of winning the whole thing. … Anything can happen this year in the [WNBA] because teams in the playoffs are capable of beating each other. … We’re going to regroup … hopefully win some games and we’ll put ourselves in a good position to have as much home court advantage as possible.”
But that’s not how the Dream’s historic season ended. The No. 3 seed Dream were minutes away from advancing to the semifinals for the first time since 2018, chasing their first playoff series win in nearly a decade against the No. 6 seed Indiana Fever in Game 3 of the best-of-three, first-round series. Instead, the night unraveled in a way no one inside the building expected.
Up five with 2:32 left in regulation, the Dream seemed poised to shut the door on Indiana’s season. But the Fever punched back with a fearless 7-0 run. Kelsey Mitchell drilled a jumper. Lexie Hull followed with another clutch bucket. And with 28 seconds left, following Rhyne Howard’s missed 3-pointer, Fever guard Odyssey Sims found center Aliyah Boston, who converted a layup off of a broken play. Then, Sims added a free throw to seal the upset. Just like that, the Dream’s season collapsed when it mattered most.
Atlanta Dream guard Jordin Canada (3) reacts with teammates after being defeated by the Indiana Fever during game three of round one of the 2025 WNBA Playoffs at Gateway Center Arena at College Park, Ga. on Sept. 18, 2025. (Photo credit: Dale Zanine-Imagn Images)
Atlanta’s 2025 campaign wasn’t supposed to end this way. Not for a team that had authored a 30-win regular season, secured a home court advantage in the first round and carried visions of hoisting the franchise’s first championship trophy. Not for stars Allisha Gray, Howard or veteran guard Jordin Canada, who had all believed this group could break through.
Smesko had instilled that belief. Even after the gut-wrenching loss, he spoke with conviction that Atlanta’s rise wasn’t finished.
“We’re here to bring a championship to the Dream,” Smesko said Wednesday during the team’s exit interviews. “… It’s going to be delayed, it’s not going to be denied. But right now, it hurts a little bit because I had so much belief in this team. … I’m just really disappointed for our players. I know the work that they put in. I know how much they wanted this, and for it not to work out is always painful.”
Canada, who owns two WNBA titles of her own with the Seattle Storm, echoed the sentiment, her words carrying the weight of experience.
“What’s delayed is not denied,” she said. “Atlanta will be back. I guarantee that. … Everything happens for a reason, and so we’ll learn from this.”
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While only eight days have passed since the Dream’s postseason departure, Smesko still couldn’t quite believe it was over. Sitting beside general manager Dan Padover during the Dream’s exit interviews, he admitted it felt strange not to be scouting the Las Vegas Aces for a Game 3 in the semifinals at Gateway Center Arena.
“You wish you were still playing, but you still have an appreciation for everything that was accomplished this year,” Smesko said. “We’re really excited about the future.”
It’s still an odd reality, especially considering how Atlanta had finished the regular season. More than two weeks after their late-August loss to the Aces, the Dream had looked nothing like a team searching for answers. They ripped off six straight wins to close the season, erasing doubts and rewriting their own story.
Along the way, they erupted for two 100-point games, including a season-high 104 in a victory over the Los Angeles Sparks on Sept. 5. The surge secured their third consecutive playoff berth and guaranteed home court advantage in the opening round. Atlanta entered as the No. 3 seed, their highest possible position, and drew the Fever, a team they had split the regular season series with.
The match-up looked even more favorable with Indiana missing second-year star Caitlin Clark due to a right groin injury, and five other contributors sidelined by injuries that included Chloe Bibby (left knee), Sydney Colson (left knee), Sophie Cunningham (right knee), Aari McDonald (right foot) and Damiris Dantas (concussion protocol).
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The Dream’s final six-game stretch felt like a direct response to Smesko’s challenge after the late-season loss to the Aces, when he called on his players to find “another level.” The Dream answered.
“We are trying to make Atlanta a championship team, a place to be,” forward Naz Hillmon said after a win against the Liberty on Aug. 23.
Howard echoed that confidence after the Aces defeat. “We are the best of the best, we’re in the top teams,” she said. “We’re not in a position anymore where we talk about the top teams and not mention ourselves.”
Belief mattered. But Smesko also knew the playoffs demanded more. Atlanta’s roster carried just 149 combined postseason games, the third-fewest of any team in the field. Indiana, by contrast, brought 197 games of experience.
It showed. In Game 1, the Dream delivered, grinding out an 80-68 victory in a bruising match-up that featured 43 fouls, seven ties and three lead changes. But in Game 2, urgency never arrived. The Fever dictated the pace from the opening tip, leaned on their defense and buried the Dream in the second half for a 77-60 win to even the series. Game 3, back in College Park, the Dream’s historic season ended not in celebration, but with Indiana’s upset.
Even with the sting of elimination still fresh, optimism hung in the air as the Dream closed the book on their 2025 season. Padover, newly crowned with his third WNBA Executive of the Year award, sat alongside Smesko and spoke not of disappointment, but of possibility.
In Smesko’s first year, Atlanta had vaulted into the league’s upper tier. The Dream finished second in both offensive and defensive rating, fifth in scoring and third in points allowed. They knocked down 421 3-pointers, crashed the offensive glass for 390 rebounds and owned the boards overall, leading the WNBA with 1,609 total rebounds, including a league-best 1,219 on the defensive end.
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Those numbers underscored just how far the franchise had come in 12 months. At the end of the 2024 season, the Dream’s offense ranked 11th in efficiency. They finished last in effective field-goal percentage, second-to-last in 3-point shooting and sat near the bottom of the league in both makes and attempts from deep. Ball movement lagged too, with the Dream ranking 12th in assists.
This year, the turnaround was undeniable, despite revolving injuries. Canada missed the first seven games with knee trouble, then sat out eight more in August with a hamstring injury, totaling 16 absences. Howard lost 10 games in the middle of the season to a left knee injury, totaling 11 absences. Brittney Griner, brought in as a steadying presence off the bench in the latter half of the season, missed five contests including three in August after a neck injury before returning as a key reserve in place of Hillmon. By season’s end, Atlanta had cycled through 13 different starting lineups.
“I think going in every week or two throughout the (regular season) stretch, we had to play with different lineups, and that’s the nature of the WNBA,” Padover said Wednesday. “Injuries happen, things happen, but what our coaches and players were able to do, not knowing who was going in every night, but really playing together as a group, I thought was very impressive down the stretch.”
Atlanta Dream forward Naz Hillmon (00) and forward Brionna Jones (24) and guard Rhyne Howard (10) react after a basket against the Indiana Fever in the fourth quarter during Game 1 of Round 1 in the 2025 WNBA Playoffs at Gateway Center Arena in College Park, Ga. on Sept. 14, 2025. (Photo credit: Brett Davis-Imagn Images)
Beyond team success, multiple players etched their names into the franchise and league record books with standout seasons. Gray headlined the group. She finished among the top five in MVP voting, earned her third All-Star nod — her first as a starter — and averaged a career-best 18.4 points per game. Gray also collected Eastern Conference Player of the Month honors three times, in May, June and August, cementing her status as one of the league’s most consistent performers.
Howard added to her growing reputation as one of the WNBA’s most dangerous shooters. The three-time All-Star led the league with 3.1 made 3-pointers per game and became the first player in league history to notch multiple games with nine made threes.
Brionna Jones — one of the Dream’s three marquee off-season acquisitions coming into 2025 — gave the Dream their relentless edge on the glass. She powered Atlanta’s offensive rebounding dominance, leading the WNBA with 136 total offensive rebounds and ranking second in offensive boards per game at 3.1. Her efforts earned her a fourth All-Star appearance.
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Hillmon, drafted in 2022 under Padover’s leadership alongside Howard, claimed Sixth Player of the Year honors. She posted career highs across the board — 8.6 points, 6.2 rebounds and 2.4 assists — and provided stability off the bench. Rookie point guard Te-Hina Paopao also made an immediate impact, finishing fifth among 2025 rookies in assists (2.4 per contest) and ranking 22nd overall in 3-point percentage at 38.6%.
For Padover, the individual achievements reflected the culture Smesko built in his first season.
“I think [Smesko] and the coaching staff did an awesome job of getting this group together,” Padover said. “I think our players really bought in. They were focused. And it takes everybody to have the type of year we had.”
Smesko, in turn, pointed back to Padover’s influence as he navigated his first WNBA season.
“He guided me through this first year of me not knowing exactly how everything was going to play out,” Smesko said about Padover. “He’s been a tremendous resource to help the team be successful. … I think the players feel comfortable in the system now. … I think the advantage we have going forward now is, I believe, all the players on our roster think that’s more than possible as well.”
Offseason considerations
As the Dream enter the offseason, the WNBA will undergo significant changes. In 2026, two new franchises — the Toronto Tempo and the Portland Fire — will join the league, marking the latest wave of expansion teams. With that growth comes an expansion draft, a process that allows the newcomers to pull from existing rosters to form their foundation.
At the same time, uncertainty lingers off the court. The league and the Women’s National Basketball Players Association (WNBPA) still need to finalize a new collective bargaining agreement (CBA), a deal that could reshape free agency, contracts and player movement for years to come.
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For the Dream, the stakes this offseason are already high. Howard and Hillmon enter restricted free agency, while veterans Griner, Canada and Gray could hit the market as unrestricted free agents. Paopao remains under contract, and the franchise holds the option of using the core designation to keep Gray.
It’s a pivotal time, but Padover didn’t seem very concerned about the challenges ahead.
“We leave every year telling every player [after the season] they’re a member of the Dream,” Padover said. “… We make sure that anything they need we’re here for them, and then you just let the offseason play out. But overall, I feel really good about where we are. All of our players love Atlanta. We did a really good job of putting this franchise on the map this year. … We’ll wait to see how everything shakes out.”
For the Dream, a season that ended in heartbreak still marked a turning point, one that proved Atlanta belongs among the league’s best and set the stage for what comes next.