The Indiana Fever must do a better job of containing Dream star Angel Reese when they visit Atlanta for a rematch on Saturday afternoon.
Reese delivered a double-double in Atlanta’s 108-101 victory against the Fever on Thursday night in Indianapolis.
“Same type of game, same physicality, same aggressiveness” Atlanta guard Rhyne Howard said of the expectations for the encore. “We have to continue to see what worked for us and not stray from that, but continue to make things harder for them.”
Reese had 21 points and 11 rebounds as the Dream avenged a loss from earlier in the month in Indianapolis. This will be the first meeting of the season in Atlanta.
The Dream (10-4) have won four of their last five games. The Fever (9-6) had a season-best four-game winning streak end when they allowed a season-high point total to Atlanta. There were plenty of whistles as the teams combined to attempt 64 free throws.
“We let them get to the rim too easily,” Fever coach Stephanie White said. “When we had defensive failings, we didn’t make it difficult for them to pass the ball around the perimeter. … More than anything, we’ve got to defend without fouling. We cannot continue to let people live in the 20s and 30s in terms of free-throw attempts.”
Caitlin Clark and Kelsey Mitchell, who was 10-for-15 from the field, both had 26 points for the Fever. Indiana was hurt by 17 turnovers. Clark, who is averaging 20.8 points per game, had seven assists and five turnovers.
Allisha Gray (19.4) and Howard (18.7) lead the Dream in scoring, while Reese has racked up 10 double-doubles in 14 games.
The Dream entered Thursday night’s game averaging 87 points per game. They reached that mark by the end of the third quarter.
“I think the transition and just pushing and running them and I think making quick decisions to get easy looks I think really got us going early,” Howard said.
The Fever were overwhelmed by how many Atlanta players were clicking on offense. Every Dream player who took more than one shot made at least 50% of her shots Thursday.
“You want great teams to take tough shots and I think we kind of lapsed in that,” Mitchell said.
–Field Level Media
