Dream vs. Wings: Allisha Gray Scores the Final Five as Atlanta Erases a 15-Point Deficit to Win 82-81

Allisha Gray rose for a three with 18.7 seconds left and Atlanta down four, on a night when her team had made exactly one shot from behind the arc. Dallas could have let her fire away and gone home happy. Instead Arike Ogunbowale got called for a Flagrant 1, and a game the Wings had run for most of the night came apart in 3.7 seconds of game clock.

Gray sank all three free throws, got the ball back thanks to the flagrant, and dropped in a 12-foot fadeaway with 15 seconds to go. Final: Atlanta Dream 82-81 over the Dallas Wings on Wednesday night at College Park Center, with both teams playing for the first time since the All-Star break. The Dream had trailed by as many as 15. They held the lead for about 3 percent of the game, and they will happily take it.

Dallas Had This One on a Leash

The first quarter ended 16-16 and told you nothing. The second told you plenty. Dallas rattled off 10 straight to turn 26-26 into 36-26, with four different Wings scoring in the burst, and carried a 38-32 lead into the locker room. Atlanta's offense looked like it had extended its All-Star vacation. "We weren't moving the ball all that well for 2½ quarters," coach Karl Smesko said.

Azzi Fudd then made the deficit look terminal. She turned a steal into a transition three, hit another right behind it, and suddenly it was 50-37 with 5:47 left in the third. By the 2:58 mark it was 56-41 and Atlanta needed a timeout. Isobel Borlase scored six late in the period to keep the door from locking, but Ogunbowale's and-one and a technical free throw sent Dallas to the fourth up 64-52.

Then the Fourth Quarter Happened

Atlanta put up 30 in the final period with no help from the three-point line until the last half minute. A 10-4 start made it 68-62 with 6:13 to go. Dallas shoved back to 76-67 on Fudd's steal and layup at 4:06, and for a while every Dream push got a Wings reply. Angel Reese's two free throws at 1:57 made it 76-73, and Paige Bueckers grabbed an offensive rebound and buried a 24-foot step-back over Reese at 1:26. That should have been the end.

It wasn't, because Atlanta forced a shot-clock violation, Jordin Canada split a pair at the line, and Jessica Shepard missed two of her own. Rhyne Howard then splashed a 26-footer off a Canada feed with 25.3 seconds left, the Dream's first three of the night. "It gave us hope," Smesko said. Bueckers made two free throws to get back to 81-77, and that set up the sequence up top. Gray's jumper was Atlanta's first lead of the second half. Awak Kuier missed from the corner on the other end, and Shepard's putback at the buzzer wouldn't drop.

Gray Closed It, Reese Did Everything Else

Gray finished with 25 points on 8-of-13 shooting and a perfect 9 of 9 at the line, and she went 0 for 3 from deep. "Coach drew it up, said go get the ball and go score, and that's what I did," she said. She also delivered the best bit of self-scouting you'll hear this year, saying the game-winner was easier than the free throws because nobody was around her at the line. "I feel like when my number was called, I was ready for the moment," she added.

Reese handled the rest of the workload: 22 points, 12 rebounds, four assists and four steals, with five of those boards on the offensive end, for her 18th double-double of the season. She did it while carrying five fouls, and her pregame message had some edge to it. "I told them before the game, 'we gotta walk that walk,'" Reese said. "And I feel like we hadn't done that the first half of the season, knowing how good we are."

Brionna Jones gave Atlanta 11 points, seven boards, three blocks and a team-best plus-12 in 21 minutes off the bench. Canada's line was a full roller coaster: eight assists, seven turnovers, and the pass that sparked the final charge.

Dallas got plenty from its stars, which may be the most painful part. Ogunbowale had 24 points and a season-high four steals, Fudd scored 20 on 9-of-13 shooting, and Shepard played all 40 minutes for 16 points and 14 rebounds, her WNBA-leading 19th double-double. The Wings say it was her eighth straight, the longest such streak in Wings history. The starters scored 80 of the team's 81 points.

The Whistle That Flipped It

Consider the math at 81-77 with under 20 seconds left. Atlanta needed a three and then a stop, from a team that had hit one all night, and Dallas could give up a contested look from Gray all day long. The contact changed all of it. The flagrant meant three free throws instead of a tough jumper, and it also meant the Dream kept the ball, so a two-possession cushion turned into a one-point lead with no chance for the Wings to run clock or get to the line. Gray took the inbounds pass and did the rest.

The Numbers Worth Keeping

• 1 of 16: Atlanta from three. The Wings say it's the first time an opponent made one or fewer against them since Sept. 18, 2016. They lost anyway.
• 58-40: The Dream's edge in the paint, which is where all that missing shooting got repaid.
• 19 of 25 vs. 9 of 14: Free throws, a 10-make gap in a one-point game.
• 21-1: Bench scoring. Li Yueru's lone free throw was all Dallas got from its reserves.
• 30-17: The fourth quarter, start to finish.

Four Straight and a Sweep in the Bag

The Dream are now 17-10, 8-6 on the road, winners of four in a row and five of six since a five-game skid. They also finished off a 3-0 season sweep of Dallas, after winning 77-72 and 86-69 back in May. The Wings drop to 18-10 and 8-5 at home. Seattle visits Atlanta on Friday, and Dallas goes to Washington the same night.

A New Hope, Then a Very Quick Sequel

Smesko called Howard's three hope, which makes that 26-footer the Dream's own Episode IV: a team out of options, a long shot, one clean look after a night of nothing. The difference is the sequel showed up about 10 seconds later, and Gray didn't need the Force. She needed a play call, three free throws and a clear look at 12 feet. "Everybody was connecting better," Smesko said of that final stretch. Sure, coach. On 1-of-16 shooting from three, that might be the most optimistic sentence of the season, and also, somehow, completely accurate.

Stats from the official box score via ESPN. Postgame quotes and game notes from the Atlanta Dream and Dallas Wings. Context as reported by the Associated Press.