Seattle Storms By Daydreaming Atlanta

By James Bowman: SPM GA Writer
Posted Wednesday, September 3, 2008

ATLANTA - Doctor J – Julius Erving – was at Philips Arena in the audience for his second game in a row. Unfortunately for the Dream, the Doctor has his degree in dunking and not in team psychology.

With the Storm struggling in the first half, Atlanta’s lack of focus gave Sue Bird the opportunity to put Seattle over the top as the visiting Storm earned an 83-69 victory over the Atlanta Dream in front of a crowd of 7,390 at Philips Arena Tuesday night.

Despite the Dream's cold shooting – they shot 7 for 21 in the quarter – Izi Castro Marques and Erika Desouza kept the Dream in it by themselves, with Castro Marques scoring 10 of the first 12 Atlanta points. The visiting Storm could put nothing together and turned the ball over six times. Atlanta held on to a tenuous 18-17 lead after a back-and-forth first quarter.

"If you ask me -- and I may be a little biased -- Sue Bird is hands down the MVP of this league."

Camille Little, in her first game back in Atlanta since being traded to Seattle, scored six points in the second quarter with acrobatic moves to the basket. The Storm edged to a four-point lead. Seattle grabbed two offensive rebounds but couldn’t score. Alison Bales moved toward the basket and collided with a forest of green jerseys. Swin Cash earned a technical foul. Ivory Latta was held scoreless. Yolanda Griffith scored the last three Seattle points on free throws as the Storm led 39-34 at halftime in front of a strangely quiet Atlanta crowd.

The Storm started the second half cold, with the Dream scoring the first six points to regain a one-point lead. Bird would answer with the next five points as her team went on an 11-0 run to take a 50-40 lead. Cash scored eight points in the third and helped Bird keep Atlanta at bay. Seattle led 62-50 after three quarters.

The Dream double-teamed Bird, but the cost was missing the defense on inbounds plays, according to Dream head coach Marynell Meadors after the game. Meadors complained about the gaps in the team’s concentration.

“Our press was really good tonight,” she said. “We made [Seattle] put the starters back in the game, because we were having success with it. We’ve made some things happen. We played two and a half [quarters] of really good basketball, and all of a sudden we lost our focus on the court.”

Atlanta was a different team in the second half. Seattle began to extend their lead and the Dream returned to their usual status of being hopelessly behind. With more than five minutes left in the game, Dream fans began to head towards the exits. Camille Little hit the first of two free throws to give the Storm a twenty-point lead.

Ivory Latta would come to life and score five points in the last 2:12 seconds, but it wouldn’t make much difference in the end. The fans who hadn’t departed had little hope that the Dream would make a sudden comeback.

Bird led all Seattle starters with 21 points and nine rebounds. Little and Yolanda Griffith each had 16 points and seven rebounds. All of the Storm starters scored in double figures; their bench scored only eight.

Storm head coach Brian Agler praised Bird’s performance. “If you ask me -- and I may be a little biased -- Sue Bird is hands down the MVP of this league," he said. "She sets the standard for our team and she is important in everything we do.”

Bird reflected on the game’s first half. “We just didn’t quite execute on plays that coach had talked about," she said. "We finally locked down and controlled the boards, which is what we do well. We didn’t want to keep it close with Atlanta, especially since they have so many scorers.”

Former Storm guard Betty Lennox led all Dream starters with 25 points. Castro Marques followed with 12 points, and DeSouza contributed eight points and eight rebounds.

Latta scored five of her seven points at the end of the fourth quarter. She hit only 2 for 13. It was the third-straight game in which she scored in single digits.

The Atlanta Dream will travel to Madison Square Garden to face the New York Liberty at 7:30pm on Friday, September 5th. The Seattle Storm goes back on the road to take on the Chicago Sky at the UIC pavilion on Thursday, September 4th in a game to be televised on NBA-TV.