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Mystics-Dream Preview

Aug 26, 2010 - 5:33 PM By MATT BECKER STATS Senior Writer

Washington (22-12) at Atlanta (19-15), 7:30 p.m. EDT

The top-seeded Washington Mystics were caught off guard by the Atlanta Dream's lineup changes and upset in the opener of their best-of-three Eastern Conference semifinal series.

Coach Julie Plank is confident Washington can regroup Friday night and stave off elimination in Game 2 in Atlanta, where the Mystics have won twice this month.

Washington closed the regular season on a six-game winning streak, but lost its seventh straight playoff game after falling 95-90 at home in Game 1 on Wednesday. After yielding an average of 70.7 points during their run, the Mystics allowed Atlanta to score 48 first-half points - the most by an opponent all year - and shoot 53.5 percent for the game.

"I was very disappointed with our defensive effort," Plank said. "You can't give up 95 points. I don't care if it's regular season, definitely not the playoffs. ... They pretty much got whatever they wanted."

It was a new-look lineup that outplayed Plank's team.

Atlanta coach Marynell Meadors started Coco Miller and Armintie Price - neither of whom started a game in the regular season - to shake up a lineup that lost six of seven going into the postseason.

The strategy worked as Miller scored 21 and Price had a game-high eight assists. Angel McCoughtry led all scorers with 28 points.

"The starting lineup was not working," Meadors said. "These were defensive players that were in there. We had a lot of speed and quickness on the wings."

Although Meadors' team is one win away from reaching the conference finals for the first time, playing in Atlanta hasn't given the Dream much of an edge lately.

Atlanta ended the regular season with a season-worst five-game losing streak at Philips Arena, including an 86-78 loss to Washington on Aug. 3, and a 90-81 defeat to the Mystics in Sunday's finale. Washington held the Dream to 36.4 percent shooting and 19.4 percent from beyond the arc in those games.

"We have played well against them and we have to do that Friday night," Plank told the Mystics' official website. "As disappointing as it was, we have always been a team that fought back. I'm not discouraged and our team's not discouraged.

"We are confident that we can go into Atlanta and beat this team. We've done it the last two times and we are looking forward to Friday night."

The Mystics' offense must improve to force a potential Game 3 Sunday in Washington.

Crystal Langhorne, Marissa Coleman and Matee Ajavon combined for 50 points on 16 of 30 shooting Wednesday, but the rest of the team contributed 40 points on 29.3 percent shooting.