Dream lets another big lead slip in loss to Liberty

“I think our start to the third quarter was really rough,” Dream coach Karl Smesko said postgame. “There’s a couple times we got good shots, we missed the layups or missed the free throws. But … the biggest problem was I thought we started taking some tough shots and going away from the game plan to start the third. Once New York got going, we couldn’t get stops.

“... We’ve gone in and had some great starts against them, but they do not quit. They’re got that championship level belief in themselves, and that’s something that we’re going to have to grow.”

Allisha Gray led the Dream with 16 points despite shooting just 3-of-13 from the field. Jordin Canada and Maya Caldwell — who started in place of the injured Rhyne Howard (left knee) — each added 12. Brittney Griner scored 10 and Naz Hillmon chipped in 11 off the bench.

Leonie Fiebich powered the Liberty with a season-high 21 points, hitting 8-of-9 from the field and 4-of-5 from three. Breanna Stewart registered a double-double with 18 points and 10 rebounds as the only other Liberty player to score in double figures. The Dream held Sabrina Ionescu to nine points.

Kennedy Burke, Isabelle Harrison and Nyara Sabally also made strong impacts with their energy and production, despite not reaching double figures in scoring.

New York (14-6) carried its strong momentum into the fourth quarter. Griner hit a hook shot to pull the Dream within two, but the Liberty maintained control. After Gray’s finish at the rim to make it 65-60, Sabally drilled a 3 to push the lead to 70-60.

Canada knocked down two free throws to pull the Dream within four (70–66) with 3:11 left, but the Liberty slammed the door shut. Fiebich finished a reverse layup, Stewart fed Sabally for an easy bucket and then scored on a smooth finger roll to push the lead back to 10. New York cruised from there, sealing its second comeback win over the Dream at home this season.

The Liberty opened the third quarter with a 7-0 run, fueled by an Ionescu jumper and a clutch three from Stewart to cut the deficit to 43-38. The Dream responded with back-to-back 3’s from Hillmon and Caldwell, ending their cold stretch from deep. But New York wasn’t done, as it rode a 17-2 run led by Stewart and two momentum-swinging 3s from Fiebich to take a 55-53 lead into the fourth.

“We gave up some 3s to her (Fiebich),” Smesko said. “They’d (Liberty) come off a ball screen, and then we need to be getting back to the shooters quicker than we did. …One time we messed up a communication (and) she got an open 3. …Two of them, we are slow getting out of our gaps back to a shooter. … It’s just little breakdowns. …She’s a great shooter, obviously, but as soon as we made a mistake or we were a little bit late and recovering, she made us pay.”

Griner capped a strong stretch for the Dream with a hook shot off an assist from Caldwell, pushing the Dream’s lead to 19. However, the Liberty responded by finding some rhythm, scoring 12 of their 18 second-quarter points in the paint through Harrison and aggressive drives to the rim for free throw opportunities. Caldwell hit a pull-up jumper with eight seconds left, but Stewart answered with a pair of free throws to end the half. The Dream took a 42–31 lead into the break.

The Dream started strong, hitting three early 3s to take a 15–11 lead in the first seven minutes. They closed the first with a dominant 16–2 run, surging ahead 26–13 behind four made triples.

The Dream will return to action Wednesday at noon ET against the Chicago Sky.

Observations from Dream’s loss to New York

Second-half struggles plague Dream

The Dream had an opportunity to steer a new chapter in their road clashes against the Liberty. Instead, the ball movement and consistency that the Dream maintained in the first half came to a halt in the second and third quarters due to the Liberty tightening up their defense and converting points off of the Dream’s miscues.

“We didn’t get the stops that we got in the first half,” Hillmon said after the loss. “Obviously, you can push the ball in transition, once you get it off the defensive rebound, go down the floor. Hopefully, they’re not matched up and you can move the ball quickly like that. But they (Liberty) were scoring more, which slowed us down a little bit. … I definitely would say our pace in the first half compared to the second half was a big difference and I do think a lot of that was because we weren’t able to get the stops that we were in the first half.”

Lack of production from Jones and Griner in second half

The Dream scored 32 points in the paint, including 10 in every quarter except the third, where New York’s defense held them to just two. Griner and Jones combined for 14 points in the first half but added only four in the second half, an area Smesko said the team strayed from late.

Dream struggle from the charity stripe

Before Sunday’s loss, the Dream hadn’t shot below 78% from the free throw line since their June 29 win against the Liberty, when they hit 54.5%. They came into Sunday’s game ranked eighth in the league in free throw percentage at 76.7%. After the game, Smesko brushed off concerns about the off night at the line.

“We’re a good free throw shooting team, and we had an unusually bad day at the line,” Smesko said. “Those things will happen. You just have to forget about it and … be ready to knock down the next one when you get an opportunity.”

Rhyne Howard’s absence leaves a two-way void

Howard sits second among the Dream in scoring and has consistently made plays, defended at a high level and rebounded well this season. The Dream clearly missed her impact on both ends of the floor in Sunday’s loss.

The three-time All-Star suffered what appeared to be a left knee injury early in the second quarter of the Dream’s 99-82 loss to the Indiana Fever on Friday. However, Howard returned to the contest and finished with 14 points. Smesko told reporters that he is hoping to have an update on Howard’s status “in the next couple of days.”