The Dream’s five-game win streak ended Monday after a 109-87 beatdown from the Aces.
The Dream looked to turn State Farm Arena into Barbie’s Dream House when they hosted a Barbie Night in honor of the release of the signature Angel Reese Barbie last month.
But things turned into a nightmare in the second quarter as the Aces put a damper on the celebrations.
Quick stats: Reese finished with 23 points and 16 rebounds. Dream wing Rhyne Howard had 19 points.
Four-time WNBA MVP A’ja Wilson had 23 points and six rebounds while Jackie Young finished with a triple-double of 28 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists.
Turning point
The Dream finished the first quarter with a two-point lead. Then, the shots stopped falling and the Aces picked apart the Dream’s defense.
Wilson didn’t miss a shot in the second quarter, banking in a pull-up jumper from the free-throw line before hitting a turnaround fadeaway jumper from the elbow. Then she nailed a wide-open triple from the top of the key.
But Wilson wasn’t the only member of the Aces who torched the Dream. Aces guard Young scored 14 of her 28 points in the second quarter.
The 33 points the Dream allowed the Aces in the second quarter blew the game wide open. And, unlike their last outing against the Aces at State Farm Arena, the Dream couldn’t get back into matchup.
Highlight play
Throughout the second half, Reese tried to bring the energy to spark a comeback. Reese had several tough buckets, fighting through the Aces’ physicality to get to the rim.
What they said
“Honestly, I think for us it’s about consistency. Trying to be consistent every single game, and honestly, I think this isn’t our best game defensively. We usually get a lot more skills. I mean, Rhyne, J.C. (Jordin Canada) were like the top five, me, like the top five. I feel like we didn’t get a lot of hands on the balls today. So just kind of trying to be consistent defensively going through this stretch of tough games.” - Angel Reese on the Dream’s defense against the Aces.
“Transition-wise, I think that was our biggest advantage. Honestly, a lot of times they didn’t get matched up, and we got to do a better job of capitalizing and have do a better job of forcing transition opportunities. But I don’t think that’s where their defensive presence came from tonight.” - Rhyne Howard on what the Aces did to slow the Dream down.
“I mean, they were denying Lish (Allisha Gray) and Rhy, and essentially like daring everybody else to shoot from 3.” - Dream coach Karl Smesko on the 3-point shooting Monday night.
Up next
The Dream host the Mercury on Wednesday at the Gateway Center Arena in College Park.
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