The Atlanta Dream have been fabulous all season long. They are currently standing out as one of the few teams with a winning record. Much of this success has come on the shoulders of their explosive duo, Rhyne Howard and Allisha Gray. As former head coach Tanisha Wright once said, “I think that’s where it started. I think once we acquired Lish, Rhyne made a concerted effort to go out and start building that relationship with Lish.” That early bond has translated into on-court chemistry. They are also geared up to be teammates on team Collier for the All-Star matchup. Unfortunately for the Dream, that duo may be sidelined, at least for now. Because during tonight’s matchup against the Fever, Howard suffered an injury that could put a halt to their powerful run.

It’s no secret that Howard has been playing while wearing a knee brace all season long. “Adjusting to the knee brace, at first it was pretty tough because I’ve never had anything like that. But now, it’s been fine,” Howard once shared. The Dream star seems to be managing her past injuries while preventing new ones. But tonight, she took the court without it. The former #1 overall draft pick had recently returned on July 7. She missed one game one game due to an upper body injury she suffered vs. the New York Liberty on June 29.

And in an unfortunate twist of fate, tonight it was during a collision with none other than her longtime friend Lexie Hull that the disaster struck. With 2nd quarter in progress and 7:37 remaining on the clock, both Howard and Hull dove for a loose ball. They made contact and fell. While Lexie Hull got back up, Rhyne Howard stayed down. She was visibly in pain for a good time as she grabbed her knee. The Dream coaches then picked her up and carried to the locker room using human crutch carry.

As it all happened, the look on her face clearly hinted that it could be something serious. Up to that point, she had played 12 minutes and had five points, two rebounds and one assist. However, the elite shooting guard did return in the second half. As reported by Scott Agnes, “Rhyne Howard is back on the court and testing her left leg, which now includes a red knee brace. She will start the second half. Dream up five.”  The brace was back on and so was Dream franchise’s confidence.

However, that made little difference against the 4th quarter lead that the Fever took. They managed to beat the higher ranking franchise to reserve a comfortable .500 spot with 10-10. Throughout this season, Rhyne Howard has been  been averaging 16.7 points, 5.1 rebounds, 4.7 assists and 1.7 steals with splits of 34.4 percent shooting from the field, 29.4 percent shooting from the three-point line and 80 percent shooting from the free-throw line. And even tonight she stood by those stats and scored 14 points, highest on the squad after Jordin Canada’s career high 30 points.

Rhyne Howard and Lexie Hull’s older clashes

Long before Rhyne Howard and Lexie Hull’s latest on-court run-in, they have already built a reputation for a fierce but fun rivalry. One of their most memorable moments happened last season. It was when the Dream’s Rhyne Howard drifted toward the sideline, Lexie Hull pulled off a sly move. She gave Howard a very light but deliberate shove just enough to send her out of bounds. That play paid off for Hull, as it forced a turnover for Atlanta.

The clip blew up online immediately. But something that really added to it was the reaction from Lexie’s mom, Jaime Hull. She tweeted on X (formerly Twitter), “Oh my gosh… Really @lexiehulll ?!? 🤣😂 I asked her why she pushed her and all she text back was ‘idk 😅’. Sure didn’t make her friend Rhyne very happy. SMH at my kid on that one!” Fans loved that humor and the family vibe.

Although, their latest clash came with a fiery exchange on social media on May 25th. The online jab in question was a photo montage of Howard in various games this season. It had shots of Howard dribbling while Hull was either stumbling or getting up in the background. Hull was tagged, and Rhyne Howard captioned it, “No space for hate 🙅🏾‍♀️ Ft. Lexie’s new defensive tactic 😂”. Lexie kept the light heartedness on and responded with a “It’s a good one, I must say.”