The expansion Atlanta Dream have already set the WNBA record for the longest winless start to a season. They hope to avert another unfavorable distinction as they try again for the first victory in franchise history. The Dream look to avoid becoming the first team without a win at the midpoint of a season Thursday night when they host the Houston Comets. Atlanta has dropped its first 16 games by an average of 13.1 points, as it ranks second-to-last in the league in scoring defense (87.8 points per game) and last in field-goal percentage defense (46.5).The Dream's season-opening skid is the longest in the WNBA's 12-year history, surpassing Detroit's 0-13 start in 2002. A loss Thursday would make Atlanta 0-17 with 17 games remaining. The Dream didn't appear to be on the verge of turning things around in their last game. They were the victims of a 20-3 run in the second quarter and a 24-7 spurt spanning the third and fourth quarters of a 97-79 loss to Phoenix on Tuesday night.
Lennox, a ninth-year pro out of Louisiana Tech, will try to heed that advice against a Houston team that also struggled defensively Tuesday night. The Comets (7-9) were outscored 48-30 in the second half of a 78-68 loss to Connecticut that snapped their season-high four-game win streak.
"When you have Connecticut down, they still fight their way through," Comets coach Karleen Thompson said. "We had a bit of a lead, but we stopped playing defense."
The loss overshadowed another solid game from Sancho Lyttle, who had nine points, 10 rebounds and three blocks before fouling out with 4:33 remaining. The 6-foot-4 center is averaging 15.7 points, 8.7 rebounds and 3.3 steals while shooting 70.0 percent (21-for-30) from the field in three straight starts in place of the injured Tina Thompson. Thompson, leading the Comets with 17.2 points and 7.9 rebounds per game, missed those three games with a broken left ring finger. The five-time All-Star and second-leading scorer in league history is listed as day-to-day.
Prediction
Houston Rockets is also missing T.Dixon and Mwadi Mabika and if Tina will sit another game Comets will be forced to play without 3 starters and with very short bench. I hardly see Houston playing fast tempo basketball with so missings on offensive end. Houston is not an offensive team and they managed to score more than 80 points only once in last 10 games. With 3 starters out of the game I can't see Houston outscoring Atlanta and I think that they will pay much more attention to their defense to take a win in Atlanta.
Atlanta on other side is trying to play uptempo game but they still have a lot of problems against defensive minded teams. They failed to score 80 points in 8 of last 10 games by scoring only 71.7 pts per game in those games. Against low tempo defensive minded Houston I expect their offense to struggle as it often happens. And also I expect a bit of defensive effort from Atlanta because they must defend under 80 points to have chances to win and finaly end that losing streak. Let's how they will perform tonight because Dream deserved their 1st win of the season but unfortunately I can't trust this team even in such situations when opponent have 3 important missings.
All in one I expect first win of Atlanta Dream but I doubt that this game will be high scoring. My personal line is 73-76.5 and I expect to see 142-150 points game.
Predicted score: Atlanta 76 - 72 HoustonPick: Under 158 @ 1.90 Expekt 
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