ATLANTA — DeWanna Bonner and Jordin Canada were stellar in the second half, Rhyne Howard and Angel Reese joined them in scoring in double figures, and the Atlanta Dream beat the New York Liberty 92-82 on Sunday at State Farm Arena, taking the opening matchup of a best-of-five semifinal series in the WNBA playoffs.
Game 2 is Wednesday in Atlanta.
Canada, who was 4-for-6 from 3-point range, scored 20 of her 25 points in the second half and had five steals, while Bonner added 23 points and nine rebounds and helped fill the void when four-time WNBA All-Star guard Allisha Gray went down with a left hand injury in the second quarter.
Reese, honored Friday as the WNBA defensive player of the year, finished with 17 points, seven rebounds, four steals and three blocks, while Howard was similarly versatile, scoring 16 points, grabbing eight rebounds and handing out a game-high eight assists. Howard, a former Chattanooga-area prep standout at Bradley Central, shot 5-for-20 from the field — including 1-for-8 from behind the arc — but missed just one of her six free throws while playing all 40 minutes.
Fourth-seeded Atlanta once again played stellar defense, scoring 32 points off 21 forced turnovers, including 16 in a dominant third quarter. The 32 points off turnovers tied a WNBA playoff game record.
“Everybody stepped up, and that’s what we need,” Canada said. “Next-man-up mentality. I just tried to do what I do best. I tried to be aggressive, find my shots and take my shots with confidence.”
Gray’s injury was the key moment of a very even first 20 minutes as neither team led by more than six points in a half that included 14 lead changes. Eighth-seeded New York went into the locker room with a slim 40-37 advantage, but Atlanta outscored the Liberty 32-15 in the third quarter, seizing control with relentless defensive pressure.
“We knew we didn’t play our best in the first half,” Canada said. “We gave up a lot of defensive assignments, we weren’t playing up to our schemes, and we just weren’t being aggressive enough on the offensive end.”
Asked if there was any type of motivational message to the team at halftime that accounted for the second-half change, Canada said Bonner “got into us” in the locker room. Bonner, 39, was playing in just her fourth game for Dream after signing as an unrestricted free agent on Aug. 27.
“I’m still learning a lot,” Bonner said. “My head is always spinning, because I’m learning new people, learning the plays, learning the city, but they just made it easy.”
Canada and Reese had three steals apiece in the third quarter, keying a 13-3 run to start the half that gave Atlanta a lead it never surrendered. Seven different New York players committed at least one turnover in the third, and the visitors shot just 4-of-14 from the floor in a stretch that created a margin too big to overcome.
Liberty star Breanna Stewart said “live ball turnovers” made the difference.
“We couldn’t get a basket until pretty late in the third. We know what Atlanta likes to do,” Stewart said before referring to a recent regular-season meeting: “Similar situation to what happened to us at home where they just came out and raced it down our throats. We need to be better.”
New York trimmed a 16-point deficit to five in the closing minutes, but a clutch 3-pointer by Canada just before the shot-clock buzzer followed by another transition layup off a stop stemmed the tide.
Sabrina Ionescu led the Liberty with 27 points and Stewart added 19.
The win marked Atlanta’s first victory in the semifinal round since 2018 and left it as the only undefeated team remaining in the postseason. The Dream are also on an eight-game winning streak dating to the regular season.
“I thought we had a great third quarter,” Dream coach Karl Smesko said. “They made a run at us, but we were just able to make enough plays down the stretch to close them out.”