ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) \u2014 With just two games remaining before the WNBA All-Star break, the Atlanta Dream are focused on flipping the script heading into the second half of the season.<\/p>\n
Atlanta has won two of its last eight games, and head coach Karl Smesko said the team\u2019s biggest points of emphasis are defense and shot efficiency. The Dream are near the bottom of the league in shooting, averaging 43% from the field and 32% from 3-point range.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we\u2019re working on it. I think we\u2019re making strides,\u201d Smesko said. \u201cWe had a little bit of a tough stretch, but there are no easy games in this league. You have to be focused and you have to execute at a high level to get any win, and we\u2019re hoping to get a couple before the All-Star break.\u201d<\/p>\n
As Atlanta looks for more consistency, bench play is expected to be a major factor.<\/p>\n
One player gaining momentum is rookie Izzy Borlase, the reigning WNBL MVP, who continues to earn valuable minutes in the Dream rotation. Borlase scored 10 points off the bench in Monday\u2019s win over the Los Angeles Sparks and said maintaining steady play when the starters sit is a major priority.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it just takes time,\u201d Borlase said. \u201cOne thing he\u2019s asking all of us girls coming off the bench is consistency. When the starters come out, we can\u2019t let there be a lull in our offense and defense. So I think consistency is what he\u2019s asking for and what we\u2019re trying to provide.\u201d<\/p>\n
After four straight home games, the Dream hit the road Friday night for a 7:30 p.m. matchup against the Toronto Tempo.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 WANF. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) \u2014 With just two games remaining before the WNBA All-Star break, the Atlanta…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":766007,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[3444,7074,254860,18418,3029,327398,99,107817,434,53535],"class_list":["post-766006","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-atlanta-dream","tag-dream","tag-izzy-borlase","tag-karl-smesko","tag-los-angeles-sparks","tag-smesko","tag-sports","tag-tempo","tag-wnba","tag-wnba-standings"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/766006","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=766006"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/766006\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/766007"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=766006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=766006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=766006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}