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Dream’s blowout loss to Aces draws Karl Smesko’s brutally honest assessment appeared first on ClutchPoints. Add ClutchPoints as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
ATLANTA – It was basically Angel Reese’s night in State Farm Arena on Monday, as the space was filled with nothing but pink for Barbie Night. The Atlanta Dream were also riding a five-game winning streak, which made the beginning of the night feel more energized, but unfortunately, they ran into a Las Vegas Aces team that had just suffered a tough loss to the Chicago Sky two days ago.
That meant the Aces didn’t care much about the pink, or whatever else was going on in the arena. They came to win, and they did it in dominating fashion, defeating the Dream 109-87.
The Dream led 24-22 after the first quarter, but it was downhill from there. The Aces scored 30-plus points in the next two quarters, and saw their lead jump up to as much as 28 points. After the game, Karl Smesko was honest about the Aces’ performance, and he knew things would be difficult from the start.
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“This is one of those days where I don’t really care who the Aces were playing; they were going to win,” Smesko said.
“I’m sure this is one of their best games of the season. They were coming off a disappointing loss, and hopefully we have the same mindset coming off a loss. They reached a level today that was definitely a championship level.”
In the second quarter, it was the Jackie Young show for the Aces. Whether it was a tough bucket in the paint or stepping out beyond the perimeter, it felt like everything was going her way.
“She’s really aggressive, and we let her get downhill to the rack too many times,” Smesko said. “Then she’s really good and pushing you back in terms of with the dribble, acting like she’s going to attack and being able to pull up for three.”
In the third, A’ja Wilson started to get things going, and her patented mid-range jumper went through the net with ease.
Every time the Dream tried to make a run in either quarter, Young or Wilson put a cap on their lid.
“It’s not that you lose confidence,” Angel Reese said. “It gets to a point where Jackie starts going off, and we kind of had A’ja more contained than usual. Usually, she makes more shots than eight shots. When you have Jackie go off the way that she did, I think that kind of steered things left for us, and then offensively, I think it also kind of led to it.”
When Young or Wilson weren’t knocking down shots, it was NaLyssa Smith getting a bucket in the paint or Chelsea Gray being a floor general.
“They were putting pressure on our defense every possession,” Smesko said. “They were very difficult to guard. In the first quarter, we at least forced some turnovers, but the last three quarters, they took care of the ball. They got good shots. Their offense was just much better than our defense, and then even when we played good defense, they were hitting a fadeaway 2-pointer, contested.”
The Dream are one of the best teams in the league, but the Aces made them look like a shell of themselves for three quarters.
“I think for us it’s about consistency. Trying to be consistent every single game,” Reese said. “This wasn’t our best game defensively. We usually get a lot more steals; Rhyne (Howard), (Jordin Canada) and me are like top 5 in steals. I felt like we didn’t get a lot of hands on balls today, so just kind of trying to be consistent defensively going through this stretch of tough games.”
Offensively, the Dream went through another dry spell, especially from the perimeter, shooting 4-for-25 from the 3-point line.
“They were denying Allisha (Gray) and Rhyne, and essentially daring everybody else to shoot from 3…. I think we’re leading the lead in points in the paint, but now you can see teams are packing in,” Smesko said. “They’re making it so that we’re gonna be shooting over four people in the paint. When that’s the case, you’re going to need people to be able to stretch the defense and knock down some shots.”
Though it was a tough loss, the Dream can’t hold on to this one for much longer, because they play the Phoenix Mercury in two days, who just acquired Kelsey Plum.
Related: Dream’s Angel Reese makes Atlanta history with double-double vs. Storm
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