The Atlanta Dream have been one of the best teams in the WNBA this season, buoyed by their offseason acquisitions of Brittney Griner and Brionna Jones, as well as the All-Star level play from veteran guards Rhyne Howard and Allisha Gray. During the Dream’s 88-70 win against the Chicago Sky on Friday, Brittney Griner moved up in the WNBA history books with blocks.
Not only did Brittney Griner make WNBA history during the Dream’s win against the Sky, but she surpassed WNBA legend Lisa Leslie on the league’s all-time blocks leaderboard, the team announced. Griner now has a total of 823 career blocks. Leslie finished with 822 blocked shots for her career. The league’s all-time leader in blocked shots is the late Margo Dydek with 877. Griner and A’ja Wilson are the only two active players in the top-ten all-time in blocks.
The Dream came into this season with a new head coach in Karl Smesko, and so far the results have been encouraging. The team currently sits at 7-3 and in second place in the Eastern Conference. They have the third best record overall. Griner in particular has spoken about being able to expand her game in Smesko’s system.
Griner signed with the Dream as a free agent in the offseason after spending the first 11 seasons of her career with the Phoenix Mercury. The No. 1 overall pick in the 2013 WNBA Draft, Griner’s time with the Mercury included nine All-Star appearances and one WNBA title in 2014.
Coming into Friday, Griner had appeared in seven games for the Dream at a little over 24 minutes per game. She had been averaging 12.6 points, 6.0 rebounds and 1.1 blocked shots with splits of 49.3 percent shooting from the field and 78.9 percent shooting from the free-throw line.
In the win against the Sky, Griner finished with seven points, four rebounds and three blocked shots in 26 minutes of play. She shot 2-of-3 from the field and 3-of-5 from the free-throw line.
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