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The Atlanta Dream will make their first-ever visit to San Francisco to take on the Golden State Valkyries on Sunday night in a contest that will decide the playoff contenders’ season series.
The clubs have split their first two matchups, both in Atlanta, with the Dream riding Allisha Gray’s 24 points to a 90-81 triumph in early July, before the Valkyries got even when Cecilia Zandalasini hit a short jumper with 3.9 seconds remaining to provide the difference in a 77-75 win in the rematch three weeks later.
The Dream have since won six of seven to move into second place in the WNBA standings, a half-game ahead of the New York Liberty.
The only loss in the run came Friday night in the league’s first-ever game outside the United States, when Atlanta was beaten 80-78 by the Seattle Storm. The teams had met two nights earlier in Seattle, with the Dream running their winning streak to six games with an 85-75 win.
The venture into Canada gave the Dream four games in nine days on the road, a stretch that will become six games in 13 days by the time their trip ends Tuesday in Las Vegas.
The six-game trip is the team’s second since July 13. The positive is that the Dream will finish the regular season with seven of nine at home.
“I just need to talk to whoever made that schedule,” Dream veteran Brittney Griner joked with reporters recently. “(But) to win (a) championship, you’re going to have to win on the road at some point. These are all good tests for us.”
The Dream might have ventured outside the country to play a game, but they are no match for the Valkyries in terms of international experience. The expansion franchise had four players leave the team to play in the EuroBasket event earlier this season, and just now seem to be putting the pieces together.
Golden State is coming off a two-game trip in which foreign-born players contributed 41 points to an 88-83 win at Washington and 59 points to Friday’s 90-59 win at Chicago. Italy native Zandalasini had 20 points in each of the victories.
“We’re just playing very confident. We know what everybody needs to do,” Zandalasini told reporters after Friday’s win. “The communication, I think we’ve raised that. Now that we are communicating more, we’re also seeing those results.”
–Field Level Media
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