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Liberty-Dream Preview

Aug 12, 2010 - 1:22 PM By MATT BECKER STATS Senior Writer

New York (17-11) at Atlanta (18-12), 7:00 p.m. EDT

Since losing in Atlanta nearly three weeks ago, the New York Liberty have reeled off six consecutive victories to charge into the thick of the Eastern Conference playoff race.

In a matchup between two teams vying for first place, the Liberty will try and match the franchise's longest winning streak and avenge that defeat when they visit the Dream on Friday night.

New York (17-11) is percentage points ahead of Atlanta (18-12) for second place in the East. Both teams are 1 1/2 games behind conference-leading Indiana and one-half game ahead of fourth-place Washington.

New York is 1-2 against Atlanta this year, and would lose the tiebreaker with a defeat.

The Dream can clinch a playoff spot with a win, but a loss would essentially end their chances of finishing in first with three games remaining after this one.

The Liberty's push for the top spot is somewhat surprising as they were 7-9 at the All-Star break. The club has won 10 of 12 since, but one of those defeats came in Atlanta on July 25, when New York was outscored 11-3 over the final 2:39 to lose 82-75.

The Liberty haven't fallen since, but they nearly blew a 12-point lead in Sunday's 74-72 victory in Minnesota.

New York led 63-51 with 9:28 to play before the Lynx scored 11 straight in less than 3 minutes to pull within one. Minnesota was never able to tie the score or take the lead but had several opportunities.

The Liberty, who haven't won seven in row since 2001, need to do a better job of closing games out, having been outscored by nine points in each of their last two fourth quarters.

"There are areas where we have to be better," said Nicole Powell, who had a team-best 21 points Sunday. "To play well in the playoffs, we can't make the mistakes we made (Sunday). There are a lot things we have to improve on if we want to be playing at the level we think we can."

The Dream also need to do a better job of protecting late leads.

Atlanta's victory over New York late last month started a four-game winning streak, but the Dream have since dropped their last three. In Tuesday's 80-70 loss to WNBA-best Seattle, the Dream led by two with 3:39 remaining, but was outscored 13-1 the rest of the way. They had similar trouble in Indiana last Friday, leading by four with 3 minutes to play before losing 95-93.

"We have to keep our leads, and down the stretch we have to make those chip shots," said Angel McCoughtry, who had with 16 points Tuesday, but missed 16 of 19 shots.

McCoughtry, the league's second-highest scorer at 21.5, had 28 against the Liberty in July. New York's Cappie Pondexter, fourth in the league with an average of 20.8 points, also scored 28 in that game.