The No. 4-seeded Dallas Wings cruised to a 101-74 Game 2 win over the No. 5 Atlanta Dream on Tuesday night to complete a first-round series sweep and advance to the 2023 WNBA semifinals. Here’s what you need to know:
- Wings guard Arike Ogunbowale had a team-best 20 points, while center Teaira McCowan added 16 rebounds and two blocks. Seven different Dallas scorers finished in double figures as the team shot 52.6 percent from the field.
- Atlanta’s Rhyne Howard posted a game-high 21 points in the loss. Her 57 points in the series were the most ever by a WNBA player over their first two career playoff games.
- Dallas advances to face the top-seeded Las Vegas Aces in the next round. Earlier Tuesday, the No. 2 New York Liberty advanced to the other semifinal and await the winner of the Connecticut Sun-Minnesota Lynx first-round series.
The Athletic’s instant analysis:
Dallas earned a convincing victory
Setting aside the first 11 minutes of Game 1, Dallas wasn’t just the better team — the Wings were dominant. Atlanta had no answers for Dallas’ size inside. A mixture of fronting, doubling the post and pulling the chair on the Wings bigs had no effect; McCowan owned the paint, giving Dallas a consistent source of offense no matter how the outside shooting waxed and waned. The…
