Three fouls in the opening quarter were enough to throw Allisha Gray’s night off track, leaving the Atlanta Dream without one of their most reliable scoring options for long stretches of Game 4. As the Dream struggled to find their offensive rhythm against the Golden State Valkyries, head coach Karl Smesko admitted that Gray’s limited minutes made an already difficult night even tougher.

“The foul trouble was definitely a factor. You know, she only got to play about half the game, but Allisha [Gray]’s a competitor,” he said in the postgame conference.

“She’ll be back out there. We know what she’s capable of doing, and we’re just all going to be motivated to come back and have the best game of the series.”

Gray missed a significant chunk of Game 4 due to early foul trouble. After just four minutes in the first quarter, Gray had accumulated three fouls: a loose-ball foul at about 8:30, an offensive charge, and a personal foul in quick succession. Those plays landed her on the bench next to Smesko and severely limited her playing time, with Isobel Borlase taking her minutes.

Gray finished the game with five points on 1-for-7 shooting, missing all four of her three-point attempts, and committed five fouls. She played just 22 minutes, compared with her postseason average of 28.4 minutes per game.

Gray has been an important player for the Dream for most of this year. She led the team in scoring in both the regular season (19.0 points per game) and the first round (22.0 points per game), before going down with an injury to her shooting hand in Game 1 of the semifinals.

Notably, that injury seemed to flare up again in the game. With about 33 seconds left in the game, Gray headed to the locker room, seemingly taking off the tape from her left hand, and she didn’t return to the bench.

However, Gray isn’t the only one who struggled to find offense.

Angel Reese, the team’s defensive centerpiece and their main interior scorer, was largely ineffective. She finished with eight points, making just two of her 12 shots, turning the ball over six times, and grabbing nine rebounds. This game marked the first time in her professional career that Reese didn’t finish with single-digit points and rebounds despite playing more than 30 minutes.

Reese also finished with four fouls, and it seemed like the aggression that had fueled her previously just wasn’t present in Game 4.

“I think I rushed a lot of my shots and I didn’t take my time and finish around the basket like I’ve been doing in the last 3 games,” Reese said in the postgame conference.

“It happens, and I’m just looking forward to the next game and I’ll just be better… We have to stand together. If we stand together and get back to our identity, we’ll be fine.”

The main factor in containing Reese was Valkyries star Kiah Stokes, who rendered the reigning Defensive Player of the Year largely ineffective as a scorer, closing out possessions with 16 rebounds and blocking three shots. After the game, she explained the team’s mindset for the series going forward.

“The one thing I told the team after the last game was the goal when we play on the road is to steal one on the road,” Stokes said. “Our goal could still be accomplished today if we won. Now it’s a best-of-three series.”

Now, as the series heads back to Chase Center for Game 5, the Dream need to evaluate their game plan, especially after the team’s offense sputtered. Only time will tell if the team’s offensive adjustments will help.