As the final seconds ticked off the scoreboard in the Atlanta Dream’s victory against the New York Liberty on Thursday, Tina Charles embraced the energy from her teammates as well as support from her family, friends and Liberty fans at Barclays Center. Charles, who spent six of her 12-year WNBA career in the Big Apple, has accomplished and eclipsed nearly every major accolade in the league except for a WNBA championship.
On Sunday, Atlanta (15-25) enters Game 1 of its first round playoff series against top-seeded New York (32-8), a rematch of its regular-season finale. In securing the No. 8 seed and its only win against the Liberty this season on Thursday, the former MVP inched one step closer to reaching what would be the final chess piece in the collection of greatness she has delivered basketball fans throughout her career.
“It’s a new season,” Charles said after the Dream’s win. “We came here with our bags packed. The playoffs started maybe like a week ago.”
While the Dream seek to steal a game in NYC to ensure a win-or-go-home Game 3 in Atlanta, Charles is enjoying her journey, one that she never thought would be in motion a year ago. The Jamaica, Queens native considered herself retired from the W after she went unsigned by a team ahead of the 2023 season.
That’s until her former Liberty teammate and Dream head coach Tanisha Wright called her, leading to Atlanta signing her to a one-year deal with the franchise in February. Seven months later, after spending a year away from W cultivating her faith in God, the eight-time All-Star was inducted into the New York City Basketball Hall of Fame and became the league’s all-time leader in total rebounds and double-doubles in Thursday’s victory.
However, in true Charles’ fashion, helping her team win and embracing the role as the ultimate veteran trumps her individual success.
“To be here receiving these flowers, having an opportunity for these moments at my age, still be able to impact the game and help the young ones on this team is what I love,” Charles said after Atlanta’s win. “Giving me the space to be who I am, it’s just been great.”
How the Dream earned the final playoff spot
As Charles and the Dream enter the playoff series against New York, it was a feat that some thought Atlanta would not accomplish two months ago. When the WNBA season paused for the Paris Olympics/All-Star break, the Dream were 7-17 and riding an eight-game losing streak. Injuries mounted, the lack of continuity on offense and defense showed itself in critical moments of games and Atlanta had started seven different lineups due to the health of players.
Instead of classifying the 2024 campaign as a wash, Atlanta bought in and the Dream welcomed the break. Players like Atlanta’s floor general Jordin Canada and sharpshooting guard Rhyne Howard—who returned for Atlanta’s final game before the break after missing 10—became healthy, allowing Allisha Gray to shift back to her normal role after being the team’s main scoring threat. Couple that with the consistency of Tina Charles and the growing emergence of Atlanta’s do-it-all utility player Naz Hillmon, who broke into the starting lineup when the season resumed on Aug. 16, and the Dream were finding their way.
Atlanta garnered attention across the WNBA landscape when it won its first three games in August against three playoff teams. However, the Dream dropped its next four contests, setting up Wright’s mantra of a constant “fight for its playoff lives” in the month of September. Through nine games with three resulting in overtime action, the Dream registered five wins including their last three to secure back-to-back postseason appearances for the first time since the 2013-2014 campaigns.
“I think we’re hitting our stride,” Charles said. “… Everyone’s coming into their own at the right time.”
And while Atlanta’s job isn’t finished, Wright declared her second season leading the franchise as one built in patience and perseverance. “With everything that has gone on, to be able to get to the playoffs and continue to fight the adversity, that’s really special,” she said. “…It’s easy to shut down and say hey, it’s over with. No matter our circumstance and no matter who [players] were available, they fought all year.”
But as Wright stood on the sideline and watched Charles obtain the W’s career crowns for rebounds and double-doubles, she could not have been happier to have her friend and player on the journey this season.
“I think only my mom and Tanisha [Wright] … know where I was last year, mentally and emotionally. I just didn’t know what space I would be in, or if I had space in this league,” emotional Charles said in the locker room after Atlanta’s win on Thursday.
“Before every game, I tell you [Wright], I love you, and I’ve never done that with a head coach. So you mean a lot to me. …I just never thought I would have this experience. It’s been a long ride. …God willing, we can continue to just shock everyone.”
Liberty will challenge Dream’s aim for success
Atlanta is no stranger to New York and the challenges the Liberty present on the hardwood.
Liberty star Breanna Stewart enters Sunday’s game fourth in the league in points per game (20.4), Sabrina Ionescu ranks fifth in assists per contest (6.2) and three pointers made this season (107). But beyond the two-time MVP and Ionescu, former MVP Jonquel Jones, veteran point guard Courtney Vandersloot and Betnijah Laney-Hamilton possess the capability to impact the game for NYC at any moment.
The Dream, which finished 1-3 against the Liberty in the regular season series, hasn’t beaten New York twice in a season since the 2020 campaign. In the four meetings—three in June— between the two teams this season, the first two matchups resulted in blowout wins for the Liberty before the third matchup ended in a six-point loss on the road for the Dream and Atlanta’s recent win.
However, June plagued Atlanta with injuries, which resulted in Howard—who had suffered a left ankle injury—sidelined from the second and third contests and kept Canada (right hand injury) away from playing in the first and second meetings. But on Sunday, Atlanta will have its two-time All-Star and two-time WNBA champion guard leading the offense like it did in the latter meetings.
As a unit, New York ranks in top two in the league in points per game (85.6), rebounds (36.6), assists (22.8), first in fastbreak points, top four in field goal percentage and free throw percentage, first in three pointers made (405) as well as offensive rating (107.0) during the regular season. Defensively, New York sits third in defensive rating (95.3), first in rebounding percentage (52.5) and rank in the top five in blocks and steals per contest.
Although the Dream enter the series as underdogs to what some believe one of the team’s competing in the WNBA Finals, Wright believes anything can happen because the playoffs present a new opportunity to compete.
“The regular season is over,” Wright said. “Everybody is 0-0. It’ll be a battle. We expect it to be a battle.”
When Atlanta takes the floor for Sunday’s game, the Dream must be ready to compete for 40 minutes once again with a win-or-go-home mentality. Here are four keys for success if Atlanta hopes to secure a win.
Start the game strong and push the pace
In Game 3 and in Thursday’s season finale, Atlanta won the first quarter by pushing pace, knocking down shots and taking advantage of points in the paint. The Dream have built a stronger layer of continuity over the last two contests. Atlanta’s stars—Howard, Gray, Charles and Canada—must come out locked in and in sync with each other.
If Atlanta continues to play like its back is against the wall, that togetherness and its ability to overcome adversity should help the team weather the scoring punch that New York will seek to implement at the start of the game.
Rotate on defense, guard the perimeter, and limit the rebounds
There have been multiple moments in games where the Dream’s defense was caught slipping on rotations, failing to go over screens or resulting in going underneath and giving up points to opposing teams. In the second meetings against NYC in Atlanta, the Liberty shot 40% from three-point range, 51.4% from the floor and 93.3% from the free-throw line while edging the Dream in points in the paint.
In the first contests, New York shot 39.2% from the floor and 29% from beyond the arc while the third contest resulted in the Liberty shooting slightly better—39.4% from the field and 33.3 percent from long range—in both categories. A key caveat worth noting in the Game 3 loss was that Atlanta turned the ball over 15 times in comparison to NYC’s five, a factor that the Dream must also take into consideration entering Sunday’s game.
The first game of the season series was the only one that NYC won in the rebounding category. Although crashing the boards didn’t always equate to wins for Atlanta this season, securing the battle of the boards on both sides of the ball will certainly increase the Dream’s chances of winning the game as long they don’t commit too many self-inflicted errors.
Who will step up from the bench?
As much as the Olympic break gave Atlanta the opportunity to get healthy, Atlanta also lost Cheyenne Parker-Tyus to a left ankle injury two games into the second half of the season and Aerial Powers never returned after playing in the final game of the first half of the season.
Ironically, Powers was a big contributor off the bench in the first game of the series, along with CPT and Maya Caldwell in the third contest. With no CPT, Powers and Hillmon now in the starting lineup, players like Caldwell—who led the bench in scoring with seven points in Thursday’s win—Nia Coffey, Haley Jones, Lorela Cubaj and the newcomer Ezinne Kalu will be called upon to generate key minutes to aid the starting rotation.
In Thursday’s game, Atlanta’s bench players averaged 14.3 minutes, a decision that Wright made with the idea that those players could serve valuable contributions in the series. “…In the playoffs, we’re going to need everybody,” Wright said. “It could be anybody’s moment at any given time, and we want people to be ready and prepared.”
