DeWanna Bonner scores 23 off bench, helps Dream oust Liberty in WNBA semifinals

ATLANTA (AP) — When leading scorer Allisha Gray went down with a left hand injury early in Game 1 of the WNBA semifinals, the Atlanta Dream needed someone to step up.

Playing in just her eighth game with the franchise, 39-year-old DeWanna Bonner provided everything the Dream needed. Bonner had 23 points, nine rebounds, two assists and two steals in over 30 minutes off the bench, helping Atlanta stabilize and eventually pull away in a 92-82 victory over the New York Liberty.

“I'm still learning a lot,” Bonner said. “My head is always spinning, because I'm learning new people, learning the plays, learning the city, but they just made it easy.”

Bonner, who has played in a WNBA record 101 playoff games, signed with Atlanta as an unrestricted free agent on Aug. 27. It was a rare late season addition for a team desperate to finally find playoff success after three consecutive first round exits, and the six-time All-Star and two-time WNBA champion felt like the final piece of the puzzle.

“We tried to get her a couple times and it just never worked out," Dream head coach Karl Smesko said. “I just thought she was exactly what we needed. Not just because she is a veteran presence and all of those things, but because she still plays like she did tonight. That was a huge performance. When we needed a play, she made it.”

Heading into Sunday she was averaging 20 minutes and nine points per game in a sporadic role, but Gray's injury shrunk the rotation and forced her into more action. She played every second of the fourth quarter and all but two minutes of the second half, making crucial plays at both ends of the floor and in the locker room after Atlanta went into the intermission trailing 40-37.

“DB got into us,” Jordin Canada said about the message at halftime. “We said coming out into the third quarter that we talk about a second half surge, and that the first three minutes of the game in the second half was going to be really important. We came out ready to go.”

Bonner opened the fourth quarter with an offensive rebound and score on a putback, and knocked down a 3-pointer to take the lead back into double-figures after New York had closed to within eight.

“She played multiple positions,” Smesko said. “She guarded people that were MVPs in this league. She moved positions in this game when she hasn't even been practicing really in that position. But she adjusts and is able to flow in it just because she has so much basketball experience. She has a sense of what she should do on a play even if she never ran the play before, and she just knows where the ball should move and what the next action should be. She has a lot of enthusiasm about her, but she also has a calming presence about her.”

Atlanta is now 8-0 with Bonner, and moved two wins away from its first trip to the WNBA Finals since 2013.

See AP’s full WNBA coverage here