Allisha Gray is part of an Atlanta Dream team that has won the fourth quarter in 11 of its first 14 games, and that closing edge helped push the club to a 10-4 start with Thursday night’s win over the Indiana Fever. The number stands out because it is arriving after a 2025 season in which the Dream were far less reliable in late-game possessions.
Angel Reese on 40 minutes
Angel Reese said the goal was simple: “We were the No. 1 team in the league last year for the first 38 minutes. In the last two minutes, they were one of the last teams, and we wanted to make sure we put a good 40 minutes together.” She added, “So, I think it's just important to be out there and just try to do as best as we can and execute as best as we can.”
That framing matches the arithmetic. The Dream have won the fourth quarter 11 times in 14 games, and they have lost the battle of the fourth quarter only three times while still winning the game. For a team that is trying to stop treating the final minutes as a rescue mission, that is the real operational change.
Karl Smesko's offseason demand
Karl Smesko said during the offseason and training camp that the team had to get better at ending games. The current run gives that message a measurable return: in 2025, the Dream finished with a fourth-quarter plus-minus of 79 and were the worst team in the league in the final two minutes of games.
This year’s profile is different enough to show up against the rest of the league. The next closest plus-minus total for any team in any quarter is 91 by the Valkyries in the second quarter, while the Dallas Wings have a plus-minus total of 68 in the third quarter. The gap is large enough that the Dream are not just improving; they are clearing the field in the period that decides most tight games.
Rhyne Howard's late push
Rhyne Howard, one of the five Dream starters playing more than 30 minutes per game this season, put the tradeoff plainly: “Well, oftentimes we're coming from behind, so we're still trying to have to fight and still trying to make it a game to try to come back and win.” She said, “I wouldn't necessarily say that's been a good thing, because we're down, but the fact that we can do it in the fourth quarter, when it starts to matter the most, it just shows our resilience.”
That is the complication inside the hot start. The Dream are winning fourth quarters at a historic rate, but Howard's description makes clear they are often doing it after falling behind, not by controlling games from the opening tip. The strongest late-game team in the WNBA is also still living with too many nights that require a catch-up job.
WNBA fourth-quarter company
Since 2010, only five teams have finished a season with a fourth-quarter plus-minus above 100. The 2024 New York Liberty reached 135, the 2021 Las Vegas Aces finished at 112, the 2021 Minnesota Lynx at 110, the 2012 Minnesota Lynx at 142, and the 2010 Seattle Storm at 116. Three of those five teams won the title or made the WNBA Finals in the same season.
That history gives the Dream's 11-for-14 start a sharper edge than a normal early-season trend. They have already moved past last year's 79 mark in spirit, if not on the full-season ledger, and the question now is whether the late-game rotation and shot quality that produced this run can hold without depending on constant comebacks. The opening answer is simple: the Dream have built a finish that can turn a game, but they still have to make the first 38 minutes cleaner.
