By Milton Kirby | Atlanta, GA | September 28, 2026
For much of the first half Sunday, the Atlanta Dream did not look like the team that had surged into the WNBA playoffs with home-court advantage.
Shots were not falling. Washington was finding open looks. Atlanta fell behind by double digits.
Then the Dream turned to the part of its game that did not require the ball to go through the basket.
Defense
Atlanta forced 23 turnovers, recorded a franchise postseason-high 16 steals and overcame an 11-point deficit to defeat the Washington Mystics 92-77 at State Farm Arena in Game 1 of their best-of-three first-round playoff series.
“A good way to start the series, but we know we have to get another win,” Dream head coach Karl Smesko said. “That’s what we plan to do.”
The victory gave Atlanta a 1-0 series lead heading into Game 2 Wednesday in Washington and improved the Dream’s all-time postseason record against the Mystics to 7-4.
Rhyne Howard led Atlanta with 26 points and five steals. Allisha Gray added 22 points, while Angel Reese recorded 13 points and 12 rebounds in her playoff debut.
DeWanna Bonner scored 13 points off the bench, and Jordin Canada finished with 10 points and 10 assists.
But the numbers that told the story were 23 and 27.
Atlanta forced Washington into 23 turnovers and converted those mistakes into 27 points.
Those extra possessions helped the Dream overcome a difficult start.
Atlanta missed nine of its first 10 shots and trailed 14-5 with 5:14 remaining in the first quarter. Washington eventually pushed its advantage to 11 before the Dream began working its way back into the game.
“We realized that they were getting too many easy looks,” Howard said. “We didn’t show up with the aggressiveness that we’ve had the last four games before this.”
Atlanta recovered enough to cut Washington’s lead to 26-21 by the end of the first quarter but still trailed by five at halftime.
Reese and Gray combined to shoot 4-of-22 during the first half, leaving Atlanta searching for another way to change the game.
It found it on defense.
The Dream opened the third quarter with seven unanswered points to take a 43-41 lead.
Then Bonner helped change the energy of the game.
The veteran forward scored 11 of her 13 points during the third quarter as Atlanta turned a halftime deficit into control of the game. Bonner’s ninth point of the night also pushed her past 1,300 career postseason points.
“She made so many big plays for us, and the enthusiasm she played with, the joy of playing basketball, was huge for us,” Smesko said.
Atlanta kept coming
Gray’s layup pushed the lead to 10. Reese completed a three-point play to make it 61-48, and Gray followed with a jumper in the lane as Atlanta took control.
By the end of the third quarter, the Dream led 65-53.
Washington made just three of 15 shots during the period. Six Mystics turnovers became 14 Atlanta points.
“We let them get comfortable offensively,” Washington guard Sonia Citron said. “We let some of our discipline slip. Once they get going, it’s really hard to stop them.”
Smesko gave Washington another challenge early in the fourth quarter when he put Reese and rookie center Madina Okot on the floor together, a combination Atlanta rarely used during the regular season.
Okot responded immediately.
She scored on a layup assisted by Reese, then made a steal and found Howard for a 3-pointer that extended Atlanta’s lead to 70-53.
“We hoped she would be an X-factor for us,” Smesko said.
Okot finished with four points, five rebounds, a steal and a block in her first postseason appearance. Reese, Okot and Isobel Borlase all made their WNBA playoff debuts Sunday.
Washington, however, was not finished.
The Mystics took better care of the basketball as the fourth quarter progressed, forcing Atlanta to operate more frequently in the half court. The Dream’s offense again began to slow, and Washington cut what had been a 17-point Atlanta lead to 81-74 with 3:26 remaining.
Smesko called timeout.
He returned with Canada, Reese, Bonner, Gray and Howard.
This time Atlanta closed the door.
Reese grabbed an offensive rebound to keep one possession alive. Canada extended it again with a steal. Gray completed the sequence with a three-point play that restored Atlanta’s lead to 10 with 2:41 remaining.
Bonner stopped Washington’s next possession with a defensive rebound, drew a foul and made both free throws to extend the lead to 86-74 with 2:29 left.
The threat was over
Atlanta’s 16 steals established a franchise high for a postseason game, surpassing the previous mark set in 2011. Howard’s five steals tied the Dream record for a playoff game and moved her into sixth place on the franchise’s postseason steals list.
Canada moved into fifth place on Atlanta’s postseason assists list. Her 10-point, 10-assist performance was the second playoff double-double of her career.
Reese delivered one of her own in her postseason debut, finishing with 13 points, 12 rebounds, two steals and a block.
The Dream also made Washington pay at the free-throw line, shooting 96.2 percent.
For Atlanta, the victory demonstrated how its defense can change a game even when its offense struggles.
That may become increasingly important as the postseason moves forward.
The Dream has not advanced beyond the first round of the playoffs since 2018. One more victory would change that.
But Atlanta leaves State Farm Arena knowing that the first half Sunday also offered Washington a blueprint for what the Dream cannot afford to repeat.
“We realize the next game is going to be harder than this one,” Howard said. “What we did in the first half, we can’t have again.”
The Dream has its first playoff victory.
Now it needs one more to advance.
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