{"id":115202,"date":"2025-09-02T22:00:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-02T22:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/115202\/"},"modified":"2025-09-02T22:00:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-02T22:00:08","slug":"dream-working-on-pressure-moments-sparks-try-to-keep-gaining-ground","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/115202\/","title":{"rendered":"Dream working on pressure moments; Sparks try to keep gaining ground"},"content":{"rendered":"

Entering the final week of the WNBA regular season, the Atlanta Dream<\/a> are exactly where they want to be.<\/p>\n

Under first-year head coach Karl Smesko, Atlanta (26-14) has set a franchise record for wins in a single season. With a postseason spot intact, the Dream will look to ride the momentum against the Los Angeles Sparks<\/a> on Wednesday in College Park, Ga.<\/p>\n

After winning nine of 12 games in August, the Dream picked up where they left off on Monday, pulling away for a 93-76 victory over the host Connecticut Sun. Atlanta trailed by six at halftime before outscoring the Sun 51-28 in the second half, pulling into a tie with the Las Vegas Aces for the league’s second-best record.<\/p>\n

“Obviously, you’d like to play well the entire game and have a good lead and be able to finish a game that way, but I thought this was good,” Smesko said. “I think the more pressure possessions you can have going into the playoffs are important.”<\/p>\n

Winners in four of their last five, the Dream are led in scoring by Allisha Gray’s 18.6 points per game, followed by Rhyne Howard’s 16.8.<\/p>\n

Los Angeles (19-20) is vying to sneak into the postseason picture, but will need a late push to capture one of the last remaining spots. The Sparks sit 1 1\/2 games behind the Seattle Storm and Indiana Fever, who currently occupy the final two playoff spots.<\/p>\n

Los Angeles has won consecutive games, including a 91-85 victory over the Storm on Monday, picking up ground in the league standings.<\/p>\n

The Sparks will play two consecutive crucial games in College Park, but the team isn’t thinking about anything other than a third straight win on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

“It’s one at a time, it’s been one at a time the whole season,” Los Angeles head coach Lynne Roberts said. “We’ve got Atlanta and then Atlanta, but we’re focused on Game 1 with them. They’re a very good team but we’ve got a one-game season right now.”<\/p>\n

Kelsey Plum paces the Sparks with 19.9 points per game, while Dearica Hamby adds 18.2 and a team-leading 7.9 rebounds per game. Hamby had 27 points and 11 boards against the Storm.<\/p>\n

The Sparks and Dream haven’t played since May 27, an 88-82 Atlanta victory.<\/p>\n

–Field Level Media<\/p>\n

\n Copyright 2025 STATS LLC and Field Level Media. Any commercial use or distribution without the express written consent of STATS LLC and Field Level Media is strictly prohibited.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Entering the final week of the WNBA regular season, the Atlanta Dream are exactly where they want to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":38623,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[732,49,48,632,82,630],"class_list":["post-115202","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-atlanta-dream","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-los-angeles-sparks","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115202","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=115202"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115202\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38623"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=115202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=115202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=115202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}