{"id":650002,"date":"2026-05-18T08:38:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T08:38:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/650002\/"},"modified":"2026-05-18T08:38:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T08:38:15","slug":"te-hina-paopao-reveals-dreams-silver-lining-after-failed-comeback-vs-aces","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/650002\/","title":{"rendered":"Te-Hina Paopao reveals Dream\u2019s silver lining after failed comeback vs. Aces"},"content":{"rendered":"

Te-Hina Paopao reveals Dream\u2019s silver lining after failed comeback vs. Aces<\/a> appeared first on ClutchPoints<\/a>. Add ClutchPoints as a Preferred Source by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

ATLANTA \u2013 It was the second time this season the Atlanta Dream were down as much as 19 points<\/a> in a game, and it\u2019s only been about a week into the season. The first came against the Minnesota Lynx<\/a> in the season opener, and they were able to overcome the deficit and get the win.<\/p>\n

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This time, it was the Las Vegas Aces<\/a>, and though they were able to grab a one-point lead<\/a> late, it lasted for a few seconds. Chelsea Gray came alive<\/a> on back-to-back plays to give the Aces the 85-84 victory.<\/p>\n

The Dream were coming into the game without Rhyne Howard<\/a>, who was ruled out a day before, being in concussion protocol. That meant other players had to step up, and it was the fourth quarter where they turned things up after being down for most of the game. They\u2019ve shown resiliency, but that doesn\u2019t mean they want to find themselves in this position all the time.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re tired of being in those moments,\u201d Te-Hina Paopao said after the game. \u201cWe\u2019re tired of coming back from 20-point deficits. At the same time, I\u2019m super proud. We\u2019re not proud that we\u2019re experiencing this early in the season, but at the same time, it\u2019s gonna help us along the line, and we know what to do in these big moments.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The Dream chipped away at their 17-point fourth-quarter deficit, and with 36 seconds left, Jordin Canada<\/a> gave the team a one-point lead. Before then, it was big plays from Paopao, Allisha Gray<\/a>, Madina Okot and others that helped them get to that point. What they brought in the fourth quarter is what they want to see for the entire game moving forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all wanna see that all the time,\u201d Karl Smesko said. \u201cThe energy and the competitiveness were great. The more we can see that, the better. We\u2019re a little disappointed we didn\u2019t send Dream fans home happy, but there\u2019ll be more opportunities, and this is a long season. We\u2019re gonna keep getting better, and I think we have the makings of a great team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the loss, the Dream also showed that they can keep up with one of the better teams in the league.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m really proud of our fight, and this is going to help us along the season because we experienced it early in the season when we\u2019re not at full strength,\u201d Paopao said. \u201cI\u2019m just super proud of this team, and we just gotta get better day in and day out and get the next win.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cWin or lose, we\u2019re gonna approach it as a learning experience and see how much better we can get from it,\u201d Smesko said. \u201cWhen you play the Aces, they make you pay for your mistakes, so you get a lot of opportunities to learn from this game, and I think our players have a great attitude about it, so I expect us to get better because of this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Related: Dream\u2019s Rhyne Howard receives crucial injury update in home opener vs. Aces<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Te-Hina Paopao reveals Dream\u2019s silver lining after failed comeback vs. Aces appeared first on ClutchPoints. Add ClutchPoints as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":650003,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[4130,3444,7636,7074,4807,4677,1077,18118,99,434],"class_list":["post-650002","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-allisha-gray","tag-atlanta-dream","tag-chelsea-gray","tag-dream","tag-jordin-canada","tag-las-vegas-aces","tag-minnesota-lynx","tag-rhyne-howard","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650002","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=650002"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650002\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/650003"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=650002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=650002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=650002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}