Readers of The IX Basketball now save 50% on their subscription to The IX.<\/p>\n
As the first-year head coach wrapped up his postgame remarks, he pointed to what he called \u201canother level\u201d the Dream needed to reach with six games left on the regular-season slate. The Dream\u2019s postseason hopes weren\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe only got a couple of weeks to get there,\u201d Smesko said after the loss. \u201cThis [loss] hurts right now but it doesn\u2019t compare to the hurt that all of a sudden, it\u2019s the playoffs, you have one of those shooting nights and a game gets away from you and you don\u2019t advance when you have a team capable of winning the whole thing. \u2026 Anything can happen this year in the [WNBA] because teams in the playoffs are capable of beating each other. \u2026 We\u2019re going to regroup \u2026 hopefully win some games and we\u2019ll put ourselves in a good position to have as much home court advantage as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
But that\u2019s not how the Dream\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
Up five with 2:32 left in regulation, the Dream seemed poised to shut the door on Indiana\u2019s season. But the Fever punched back with a fearless 7-0 run. Kelsey Mitchell<\/a> drilled a jumper. Lexie Hull<\/a> followed with another clutch bucket. And with 28 seconds left, following Rhyne Howard<\/a>\u2019s missed 3-pointer, Fever guard Odyssey Sims<\/a> found center Aliyah Boston<\/a>, who converted a layup off of a broken play. Then, Sims added a free throw to seal the upset. Just like that, the Dream\u2019s season collapsed when it mattered most.<\/p>\n Atlanta\u2019s 2025 campaign wasn\u2019t 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\u2019s first championship trophy. Not for stars Allisha Gray<\/a>, Howard or veteran guard Jordin Canada<\/a>, who had all believed this group could break through.<\/p>\n Smesko had instilled that belief. Even after the gut-wrenching loss, he spoke with conviction that Atlanta\u2019s rise wasn\u2019t finished.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re here to bring a championship to the Dream,\u201d Smesko said Wednesday during the team\u2019s exit interviews. \u201c\u2026 It\u2019s going to be delayed, it\u2019s not going to be denied. But right now, it hurts a little bit because I had so much belief in this team. \u2026 I\u2019m 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.\u201d<\/p>\n Canada, who owns two WNBA titles of her own with the Seattle Storm, echoed the sentiment, her words carrying the weight of experience.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat\u2019s delayed is not denied,\u201d she said. \u201cAtlanta will be back. I guarantee that. \u2026 Everything happens for a reason, and so we\u2019ll learn from this.\u201d<\/p>\n Order \u2018Rare Gems\u2019 and save 30% If you enjoy Megdal\u2019s coverage of women\u2019s basketball every Wednesday at The IX Sports, you will love \u201cRare Gems: How Four Generations of Women Paved the Way for the WNBA.\u201d Click the link below to order<\/a> and enter MEGDAL30 at checkout to save 30%!<\/p>\n While only eight days have passed since the Dream\u2019s postseason departure, Smesko still couldn\u2019t quite believe it was over. Sitting beside general manager Dan Padover during the Dream\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n \u201cYou wish you were still playing, but you still have an appreciation for everything that was accomplished this year,\u201d Smesko said. \u201cWe\u2019re really excited about the future.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n The match-up looked even more favorable with Indiana missing second-year star Caitlin Clark<\/a> due to a right groin injury, and five other contributors sidelined by injuries that included Chloe Bibby<\/a> (left knee), Sydney Colson<\/a> (left knee), Sophie Cunningham<\/a> (right knee), Aari McDonald<\/a> (right foot) and Damiris Dantas<\/a> (concussion protocol).<\/p>\n Your business can reach over 3 million women\u2019s sports fans every single month!<\/p>\n Here at The IX Basketball<\/a> and The IX Sports<\/a>, our audience is a collection of the smartest, most passionate women\u2019s sports fans in the world. If your business has a mission to serve these fans, reach out to our team at BAlarie@theixsports.com<\/a> to discuss ways to work together.<\/p>\n The Dream\u2019s final six-game stretch felt like a direct response to Smesko\u2019s challenge after the late-season loss to the Aces, when he called on his players to find \u201canother level.\u201d The Dream answered.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are trying to make Atlanta a championship team, a place to be,\u201d forward Naz Hillmon<\/a> said after a win against the Liberty on Aug. 23.<\/p>\n Howard echoed that confidence after the Aces defeat. \u201cWe are the best of the best, we\u2019re in the top teams,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019re not in a position anymore where we talk about the top teams and not mention ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n Belief mattered. But Smesko also knew the playoffs demanded more. Atlanta\u2019s roster carried just 149 combined postseason games, the third-fewest of any team in the field. Indiana, by contrast, brought 197 games of experience.<\/p>\n 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\u2019s historic season ended not in celebration, but with Indiana\u2019s upset.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n In Smesko\u2019s first year, Atlanta had vaulted into the league\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n The IX Basketball, a 24\/7\/365 women\u2019s basketball newsroom powered by The Next Those numbers underscored just how far the franchise had come in 12 months. At the end of the 2024 season, the Dream\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n 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<\/a>, 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\u2019s end, Atlanta had cycled through 13 different starting lineups.<\/p>\n \u201cI think going in every week or two throughout the (regular season) stretch, we had to play with different lineups, and that\u2019s the nature of the WNBA,\u201d Padover said Wednesday. \u201cInjuries 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.\u201d<\/p>\n 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 \u2014 her first as a starter \u2014 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\u2019s most consistent performers.<\/p>\n Howard added to her growing reputation as one of the WNBA\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n Brionna Jones<\/a> \u2014 one of the Dream\u2019s three marquee off-season acquisitions coming into 2025 \u2014 gave the Dream their relentless edge on the glass. She powered Atlanta\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n \u201cBecoming Caitlin Clark\u201d is out now!<\/p>\n Howard Megdal\u2019s newest book is here! \u201cBecoming Caitlin Clark: The Unknown Origin Story of a Modern Basketball Superstar\u201d captures both the historic nature of Clark\u2019s rise and the critical context over the previous century that helped make it possible, including interviews with Clark, Lisa Bluder (who also wrote the foreword), C. Vivian Stringer, Jan Jensen, Molly Kazmer and many others.<\/p>\n Hillmon, drafted in 2022 under Padover\u2019s leadership alongside Howard, claimed Sixth Player of the Year honors. She posted career highs across the board \u2014 8.6 points, 6.2 rebounds and 2.4 assists \u2014 and provided stability off the bench. Rookie point guard Te-Hina Paopao<\/a> 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%.<\/p>\n For Padover, the individual achievements reflected the culture Smesko built in his first season.<\/p>\n \u201cI think [Smesko] and the coaching staff did an awesome job of getting this group together,\u201d Padover said. \u201cI think our players really bought in. They were focused. And it takes everybody to have the type of year we had.\u201d<\/p>\n Smesko, in turn, pointed back to Padover\u2019s influence as he navigated his first WNBA season.<\/p>\n \u201cHe guided me through this first year of me not knowing exactly how everything was going to play out,\u201d Smesko said about Padover. \u201cHe\u2019s been a tremendous resource to help the team be successful. \u2026 I think the players feel comfortable in the system now. \u2026 I think the advantage we have going forward now is, I believe, all the players on our roster think that\u2019s more than possible as well.\u201d<\/p>\n Offseason considerations<\/p>\n As the Dream enter the offseason, the WNBA will undergo significant changes. In 2026, two new franchises \u2014 the Toronto Tempo and the Portland Fire \u2014 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.<\/p>\n At the same time, uncertainty lingers off the court. The league and the Women\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n Your business can reach over 3 million women\u2019s sports fans every single month!<\/p>\n Here at The IX Basketball<\/a> and The IX Sports<\/a>, our audience is a collection of the smartest, most passionate women\u2019s sports fans in the world. If your business has a mission to serve these fans, reach out to our team at BAlarie@theixsports.com<\/a> to discuss ways to work together.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a pivotal time, but Padover didn\u2019t seem very concerned about the challenges ahead.<\/p>\n \u201cWe leave every year telling every player [after the season] they\u2019re a member of the Dream,\u201d Padover said. \u201c\u2026 We make sure that anything they need we\u2019re 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. \u2026 We\u2019ll wait to see how everything shakes out.\u201d<\/p>\n For the Dream, a season that ended in heartbreak still marked a turning point, one that proved Atlanta belongs among the league\u2019s best and set the stage for what comes next.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Dream had seen the Aces three times. An 87-72 road loss on July 22, a two-point loss…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":175707,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[96545,103933,114065,38558,64,63,726,6554,114066,10731,52580,103938,74978,85,5941],"class_list":{"0":"post-175706","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-basketball","8":"tag-2025-wnba-playoffs","9":"tag-aliyah-boston","10":"tag-allisha-gray","11":"tag-atlanta-dream","12":"tag-au","13":"tag-australia","14":"tag-basketball","15":"tag-caitlin-clark","16":"tag-dan-padover","17":"tag-indiana-fever","18":"tag-karl-smesko","19":"tag-kelsey-mitchell","20":"tag-rhyne-howard","21":"tag-sports","22":"tag-wnba"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175706","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=175706"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175706\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/175707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=175706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=175706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=175706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/USATSI_27114322.jpg\")
Atlanta Dream guard Jordin Canada<\/a> (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)<\/p>\n
Howard Megdal, founder and editor of The IX Basketball and The IX Sports, wrote this deeply reported book. \u201cRare Gems\u201d follows four connected generations of women\u2019s basketball pioneers, from Elvera \u201cPeps\u201d Neuman to Cheryl Reeve and from Lindsay Whalen to Sylvia Fowles and Paige Bueckers.<\/p>\n
The IX Basketball<\/a>: A basketball newsroom brought to you by The IX Sports<\/a>. 24\/7\/365 women\u2019s basketball coverage, written, edited and photographed by our young, diverse staff and dedicated to breaking news, analysis, historical deep dives and projections about the game we love.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/USATSI_27085123-1.jpg\")
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)<\/p>\n![\"Photo](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/1759082227_871_Untitled-design-13.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\n