Sky look for defensive answers in Atlanta

The Atlanta Dream will look to continue their strong play at home on Friday when they host the Chicago Sky and the league's worst defense in a WNBA Commissioner's Cup tilt.

Atlanta (6-3) enters play as winner in five of its last six games and has won three of four at home this season. After seeing the Dream's four-game winning streak come to an end last Friday against the Connecticut Sun, first-year Atlanta head coach Karl Smesko's group rebounded with a convincing 77-58 home victory on Tuesday over a Caitlin Clark-less Indiana Fever squad.

Allisha Gray -- who leads Atlanta and ranks sixth in the league at 20.4 points per game -- paced the Dream with 23 points while newcomer Brionna Jones went for 21 points and 10 rebounds. After signing with Atlanta in February following eight years with the Sun, Jones has posted 13.9 points and a team-best nine rebounds per contest.

"Brionna Jones is an all-star player," Smesko said. "She's physical and very hard to guard. She knows how to seal; how to use her body. She can finish on either side with either hand. She's just an all-around excellent player and she's really having an all-star type year."

Atlanta will aim to make matters worse for a struggling Chicago team that surrenders a league-high 89.5 points per game. The Sky (2-6) are also the only team in the WNBA that allows their opponent to shoot 40 percent on 3-point attempts.

Chicago's problems on the defensive end were magnified on Tuesday when the Sky entered halftime behind 52-32 en route to an 85-66 loss at New York -- marking the sixth time the team has allowed 85 points or more this year.

Offensively, Ariel Atkins leads the team with 13.4 points per game, followed by Courtney Vandersloot's 10.6. Vandersloot suffered a torn ACL vs. Indiana on June 7 and will miss the rest of the season.

After an underwhelming beginning to the season, star forward Angel Reese had her best offensive showing of the year in the loss to the Liberty, posting 17 points on 8-for-13 shooting from the field to go along with 11 rebounds. Reese knows, however, the season will turn around once the team's defense follows suit.

"Defense is just something we have to improve on and continue to get better with," Reese said. "It comes with knowing your matchup and personnel. ... I think we're all going to look at ourselves in the mirror before we point the finger at anybody else."

--Field Level Media