The shelf life of the Dallas Wings’ fairytale season tip-off was cut short on Tuesday. Jose Fernandez’s team conceded a 5-point defeat against the Atlanta Dream on their home turf at the College Park Center after a high-flying win over the Indiana Fever on the opening night. And first-season coach Fernandez didn’t take too long to point fingers at his team’s efforts.

Speaking at the post-game press conference, Fernandez was quick to pinpoint two aspects that severely hampered the team’s performance: poor ball movement and rebounding.

“I mean, they got 11 offensive rebounds, we took 73 shots,” he said. “You’re up one going into the fourth quarter here at home, you’ve got to close those games out. Five of their guys played 32, 34, 34, 36, and 37. I think we need to do a better job when the ball’s not going into the basket, and we just got to grind out and defend better.

“It seemed like that didn’t happen for us, and the ball got to move for us a little better. I thought the ball really stuck in the first half was very uncharacteristic of the things we’ve done in the first three games.”

Overall, the Wings were outrebounded by 10 on the night. On the offensive end, Fernandez’s team had just 7, while defensively, they had 27.

Now, outrebounding the Atlanta Dream was always going to be difficult with Angel Reese on the court. She had a team-high 16 rebounds alongside her 12 points, which, in turn, posed the most damage to the Wings. In fact, Reese alone had 8 offensive rebounds, which consistently gave the Dream second-chance opportunities.

And subsequently, we saw the Dream capitalize on these opportunities several times quite efficiently. For instance, right after the first quarter tip-off, Reese got an offensive rebound and converted it into a two-point shot. She repeated this sequence again with just three minutes in the second quarter.

All of it pushed back the Wings on their back foot as the Dream dictated the game through their prowess on the boards. The Wings were required to cut off these offensive rebounds, but they failed to do so. And at the end of the day, it came back to haunt them in a tight 77-72 game.

On the other hand, the Dream was able to defend better in such situations. Jose Fernandez’s team took 73 shots in the game and missed 45 of them, but just had 7 offensive rebounds. Jessica Shepard, who’s leading the Wings in rebounds currently, did her bit in the game, recording 8 boards, and Alanna Smith had 6.

But other than these two, no other player really showed up in that regard for the Wings. This was immensely surprising from the Wings, considering they had outrebounded every team ever since the preseason tipoff.

The Atlanta Dream also defended the court effectively, limiting the Wings’ ball movement. Team veteran Arike Ogunbowale shed light on it herself. “I think they were really guarding our first actions well,” she said. “We kind of got stagnant. So, we definitely have to watch the film to see how to go to the next action after the first action.”

While Jose Fernandez feels rebounding and ball movement are the main aspects to blame, the Wings’ shooting on the night wasn’t comprehensive either. Dallas just scored 15% (4 of 26) from beyond the arc, a dismal figure given Paige Bueckers’ and Ogunbowale’s shooting prowess.

Against it, the Dream chimed in with 27% and had 9 shots on target. Bueckers missed 7 on the night from the field, finishing the night with 15. On the other hand, Ogunbowale finished the night with 20, while Shepard also scored in double figures. Yet the Wings fumbled hard in the fourth quarter, even though they led by 1 point.

Yet despite these numerous shortcomings, Fernandez isn’t buying into the idea of putting her team’s undivided attention on this defeat.

Dallas Wings Head Coach Jose Fernandez Asks His Team to Keep a “Short-Term Memory”

For Fernandez, this is his first loss since he took charge of the Dallas Wings. And quite naturally, he has showcased his mettle, taking onus for the defeat. But he also didn’t pinpoint any one part of his team during the press conference.

“When you lose, everybody’s accountable. Myself? right, the coaching staff, players, and everybody within the organization,” he said. “There’s not one or two things that we could fix a lot of things, right? So, now we’ve got to have a short-term memory, and as I said, not let this game affect the next one. We got a three-game home stand, and now we’ve got Minnesota coming in here, and we’ll get to got that preparation starts tomorrow.”

From a broader perspective, this is immensely important. The Atlanta Dream’s loss might sting a lot harder, given it was a home game. But the Dream simply doesn’t have time to dwell on this loss, as they face a formidable opponent up next.

Jose Fernandez’s Dallas Wings will square off against the Minnesota Lynx at home on Thursday, May 14. The team will have to analyze its shortcomings quickly and efficiently before the Lynx game.

Minnesota is coming off a four-point victory over the Phoenix Mercury and is doing quite well, even with its franchise player, Napheesa Collier, out of these initial games due to recovery. With players like Olivia Miles and Courtney Williams, the Lynx can still expose the Wings badly. As a result, Fernandez will have to regroup his team quickly after the season’s first defeat.