ATLANTA – The Atlanta Dream went into halftime against the Chicago Sky with a 51-47 lead, but it felt like they hadn't played their best basketball yet. The Sky, who were missing most of their key players and were out of playoff contention, found a way to exploit the Dream throughout the half and keep things close. On the other hand, the Dream looked like they were playing on autopilot and couldn't pull away.

Just like how most of the season has gone, the Dream turned things around in the second half, increasing their defensive intensity, which made getting shots on the other end easy. By the end of the third quarter, they were leading by double digits, but it wasn't until the beginning of the fourth that they left no room for the Sky to come back.

That was thanks to Isobel Borlase.

The Dream rookie knocked down three straight 3-pointers to start the quarter, all assisted by Jordin Canada, and the team was up 92-68. The crowd loved it, but it was the team that celebrated their rookie the most after every shot went in.

Borlase finished the game with a career-high 18 points and helped lead the team to a 106-81 victory.

“Obviously, you want them to go in, but I think you just got to be confident,” Borlase said after the game. “I think that's something I'm still working on and just believing that you've put the work in, and I think given the season's really long, and sometimes I play three minutes, sometimes I play 15, you just never know.

“I think just doing as much preparation as I can during the week so I can hopefully execute. Doesn't happen every night, but it's nice when they do go in, and you can be as efficient as possible.”

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Borlase has found a way to make an impact in any way she can while still trying to adjust to the league after playing in Australia for most of her life. Luckily, her teammates see the hard work that she's put in throughout the season.

“Izzy does so much for the team,” Allisha Gray said. “Just as a rookie coming in and having that impact, it's amazing. Just coming in and being a rookie is hard in this league, and for her to have that impact, it shows how great a player she is. 

“She’s my rookie. She just makes me proud. She comes in, works hard every day, stays after practice, gets extra shots in. She never complains if she's playing 2 minutes or 20 minutes.”

Borlase will play an important part for the Dream next week when the playoffs start, but it'll also take a team effort from them to reach their goals, which is what head coach Karl Smesko is stressing to them.

“Just having our minds on the playoffs, because obviously we've got to get these wins, but we're doing everything in preparation for the playoffs,” Borlase said. “So executing game plans as well as we can. We probably didn't do that as well as we could in the first half, but in the second half, that's what we did, and we pulled away, and it just shows when we lock into what we need to do, we can be a really hard team to beat.”

The Dream have two games remaining in the regular season, and they come against the New York Liberty, who are also playing for playoff positioning. If the Dream can close the season out with two wins, they'll find themselves with a top four seed in the playoffs and home-court advantage in the first round.