Battling through lackluster seasons, the Atlanta Dream and Dallas Wings still have postseason aspirations ahead of their matchup in College Park, Ga., on Friday.
Atlanta (11-22) will enter Friday tied with the Chicago Sky in the standings, but the Sky hold the tiebreaker for the eighth and final playoff spot. Dallas (9-24) is just two games behind the Sky.
Following a month-long Olympic break, the Dream had won three straight games but have since dropped five of six. Most recently, Atlanta fell at the Phoenix Mercury 74-66 on Tuesday in a game the Dream never led.
Rhyne Howard’s 31 points and Tina Charles’ 12-point, 12-rebound double-double weren’t enough as Atlanta dropped to 5-12 on the road.
Howard leads the team with 16.7 points per game, followed by Allisha Gray (15.7) and Charles (14.8).
The Wings, who have split a pair of games with Atlanta this season, enter on a two-game skid. Before that, Dallas had won a season-best three games in a row.
The Wings will look to bounce back from Tuesday’s 90-86 home loss to the Washington Mystics. Trailing by 15 with just over three minutes left, Dallas mounted a furious rally — scoring the game’s final 11 points — but fell short.
Dallas boasted the league’s second-leading scorer entering Thursday in Arike Ogunbowale at 22.6 points per game. Ogunbowale also led the league in 3-pointers made per game (3.1) as well as steals (2.3) entering Thursday.
