The Atlanta Dream's blown pick and roll coverage on the final play of Game 1 against the Chicago Sky led directly to their demise, but it wasn't the only time that they struggled to defend it as illustrated nicely in a breakdown by Kris Willis of Peachtree Hoops.
As Willis notes, while the Dream's attention to Sky center Sylvia Fowles helped to hold her to just 12 points on 5 attempts, Chicago exploited that intense focus on their center well.
The Dream's game plan appeared to be to crowd Sky center Sylvia Fowles and Chicago did a great job of playing off of that. The attention Atlanta gave to Fowles opened up a number of looks for players like Elena Delle Donne, Epiphanny Prince and Courtney Vandersloot...A good pick and roll team is hard to defend especially when that team has good shooters like Delle Donne and Prince who are ready to punish any defense that tries to sag to the paint. Atlanta is going to be forced to mix things up whether it is switching or trying to trap the ball handler on the screen.
Willis did a good job of pulling out a few screenshots as well so head over to Peachtree Hoops to check it out.
For more on the series, check out our Dream vs. Sky storystream.