The Atlanta Dream are back home. Beginning with Thursday night’s season opener against the Indiana Fever at State Farm Arena, the Dream will host consecutive home games over the Memorial Day weekend.
The Dream started the 2025 season on the road with games at the Washington Mystics and the Indian Fever on May 16 and 20, respectively. On Saturday and Sunday, the Dream is hosting the Dallas Wings and Connecticut Sun.
Atlanta’s bench will play an important part in whether or not new Dream center Brittney Griner wins another WNBA championship. Guards Maya Caldwell, Shatori Walker-Kimbrough, and forward Nia Coffey won’t score in significant numbers, but that’s not what any of the three players are on the team for. So far this season, Caldwell and Walker-Kimbrough have provided much-needed ball-handling when Allisha Gray and Rhyne Howard, the starting backcourt, aren’t in the game.
Coffey’s defense and rebounding will keep her on the court this season. On Tuesday night at Indiana, Coffey, who failed to score in the game, blocked one of the two final shot attempts by the Fever in a 91-90 victory. Coffey also added five rebounds and three assists during the game.
Through the first games of the season, the ball has gone into the post more with Griner and Brionna Jones on the roster. That is a change from depending on Howard and Gray to have big shooting nights like in the past.
Following Tuesday night’s win at Indiana, Dream head coach Karl Smesko called the bench “huge.” So did Griner.
“We needed everybody tonight,” Griner said. “Being able to use everybody and everybody being locked in is huge.”
On the fact that there were only 12 points off the bench (Walker-Kimbrough 5, Caldwell 4, Naz Hillmon 3), Griner said, “We needed all of those points.”
