Allisha Gray's 'positive mindset' despite Dream's loss vs. Mystics

09/13/2024 09:59 PM

The Atlanta Dream had a chance to increase their playoff chances on Sept. 13 against the Washington Mystics but fell short 72-69. The Dream did all they could, and despite having a poor shooting night, they continued to fight and stayed in the game until the buzzer sounded. Luckily for the Dream, they’ll be able to redeem in their next game as they go to Washington, and Allisha Gray had the perfect message to keep the team’s spirits high.

"Just got to throw it behind us and focus on winning the next game,” Gray said after the game. We're still in the playoff hunt, we just gotta win games.

"We just have to finish the small things, and overall just have a positive mindset. We can't be down on ourselves because then it'll carry on to the next game, and we can't lose that game either."

final #DoItForTheDream | @georgialotterypic.twitter.com/t9E1TM1k8L

— Atlanta Dream (@AtlantaDream) September 14, 2024

The Dream had plenty of chances to overcome but the Mystics, and it shows on the stat sheet, with them shooting four-of-17 in second-chance points. They also had 17 offensive rebounds to the Mystic’s seven, but they had a tough time converting many of them into points throughout the game.

"Another tough shooting night. Good shots, some of them I'll speak for myself. Wide open, just throwing them over the basket, and those are the ones you have to take advantage of,” Naz Hillmon said. “Especially when it comes down to layups and points in the paint, I think we did a lot of great things tonight, and if a couple of more fell that usually does or that are wide open, it might be a different story to this game.

"This is a game of runs and it felt like their runs lasted a little longer than ours. After we would make two or three in a row, it felt like we were back in that bad luck."

The Dream can’t overcome tough shooting night against Mystics

Shooting 28% from the field most likely won’t win you a basketball game, but the Dream almost did against the Washington Mystics. Head coach Tanisha Wright spoke after the game about what the Mystics did to control the game, but also what the Dream could have done to pull out a win.

"Missed opportunity from us. Give credit where credit is due, I thought Washington did a good job of just holding. I think a lot of what happened today, we hurt ourselves,” Wright said. “We had opportunities, we did a lot of good things. We had 17 offensive rebounds, 40-something points in the paint, we had plenty of opportunities that we missed that we should've been able to convert on. We have to have short-term memory because we have to go to Washington, and we can't worry about this one."

Before the game, Wright mentioned that the Washington bench was one of the best in the league, and they showed it with 26 points.

"We just have to have a better focus on their bench. We understand there's no drop-off and there's no let-off whenever their bench comes in,” Wright said. “They're the No. 1 scoring bench in the league, and they trust their bench to be able to come in and make plays. We understand that we have to have a higher sense of urgency."

The Mystics now have a one-game lead over the Dream as they’re fighting for the final playoff spot, and it’ll be imperative for them to win on Sunday to keep their hopes alive.

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