The No. 5 seed Atlanta Dream (19-21 in the 2023 WNBA regular season) and No. 4 seed Dallas Wings (22-18) are WNBA franchises on the rise, making their matchup in the first round of the 2023 WNBA playoffs a compelling one. The first game of the best-of-three series will tipoff at 9:30 p.m. ET this Friday, Sep. 15, and there will be plenty of juicy storylines for fans to follow as they tune in on ESPN2.
How the Wings got here
The Wings are coming off their most successful season in years, winning at least 20 games for the first time since the late 2000s, when the team was located in Detroit. Under first-year head coach Latricia Trammell, the Wings are beginning to realize the potential they’ve alluded to since drafting explosive scoring guard Arike Ogunbowale in 2019.
Dallas’ winning percentage has increased in each season since then. And while Ogunbowale (21.2 points per game; fifth in the WNBA) remains a fixture of the franchise, the Wings’ overall identity as a team has changed from a squad of talented youngsters that could one day be one of the league’s best to an exciting, dynamic group that’s winning now. The growth of players like Satou Sabally—whose regular-season stat line of 18.6 points, 8.1 rebounds, 4.4 assists and 1.8 steals per game makes her a…
