Second-place Dream look to take season series against Valkyries

The Atlanta Dream will make their first-ever visit to San Francisco to take on the Golden State Valkyries on Sunday night in a contest that will decide the playoff contenders' season series.

The clubs split their first two matchups, both in Atlanta, with the Dream riding Allisha Gray's 24 points to a 90-81 triumph in early July before the Valkyries got even when Cecilia Zandalasini hit a short jumper with 3.2 seconds remaining in a 77-75 win three weeks later.

The Dream have since won six of seven since that two-point setback to move into second place in the WNBA standings and a half-game ahead of the New York Liberty.

The only loss in the run came Friday night against Seattle in Canada -- the league's first-ever game outside the United States -- where Atlanta fell 80-78. The teams had met two nights earlier in Seattle, with the Dream running their winning streak to six games with an 85-75 win.

The venture into Canada gave the Dream four games in nine days on the road, a stretch that will become six games in 13 days by the time their trip ends Tuesday in Las Vegas.

The six-game trip is the team's second since July 11. The positive is that the Dream will finish the regular season with seven of nine at home.

"I just need to talk to whoever made that schedule," Dream veteran Brittney Griner joked with reporters recently. "(But) to win (a) championship, you're going to have to win on the road at some point. These are all good tests for us."

The Dream might have ventured outside the country to play a game, but they are no match for the Valkyries in terms of international experience.

The expansion franchise had four players leave the team to play in the EuroBasket event earlier this season -- and just now seems to be putting the pieces together.

Golden State is coming off a two-game trip during which foreign-born players contributed 41 points to an 88-83 win at Washington and 59 points to Friday's 90-59 win at Chicago. Italy native Zandalasini had 20 points in each of the victories.

"We're just playing very confident. We know what everybody needs to do," Zandalasini told reporters after Friday's win. "The communication, I think we've raised that. Now that we are communicating more, we're also seeing those results."