The Atlanta Dream have once again continued their stint in the losing column after an 81-76 loss to the Washington Mystics, but is their showing on the court the full story?

The Dream started on a surge, taking advantage of the Mystics’ constant turnovers and scoring 21 points off them in the first half to take a 41-32 lead. Atlanta’s offense picked up where it left off in the third, this time, however, at a slower pace as Washington woke up to answer back with more aggression and precision in the paint, giving the Dream a run for their money.

“I think we’re playing hard, we forced a ton of turnovers, we want offensive rebounds, but we do have to make some shots, and we haven’t,” head coach Karl Smesko said in the postgame press conference. “We’ve been playing teams that have shot the ball extraordinarily well, especially from three…we got to find a way to overcome it. We got to find a way to win, even when we don’t shoot it well.”

The battle of the fourth-quarter teams was the name of Thursday’s matchup as Washington slowed down Atlanta’s offense, kept it close whenever the Dream responded and, even without leading scorer Soniа Citron on the floor, was able to make every field-goal attempt count down the stretch.

Smesko explained that there were plays they had planned for the final seconds of the close game but didn’t execute well. However, there were also pivotal officiating moments that didn’t go the Dream’s way near the end — specifically, an apparent five-second violation by Washington that instead resulted in a timeout being granted to Mystics head coach Sydney Johnson.

Both the players and Smesko expressed their frustrations during the postgame press conference.

“We were down two [points], so we would have gotten the ball back, but stuff like that is what’s frustrating, because we did our job, and they need to do their job,” Jordin Canada said after the game. “But again, I can get fined, I don’t care, I’m just saying refs need to be better, we obviously need to be better, I’m not saying this is an excuse for our loss, but when you have things like this that happen in a momentum shift, that could be very frustrating.”

Canada also touched on the physicality of the game when it came to the way Atlanta was officiated compared to its opponents.

“I don’t know how many times Angel [Reese] has to get beat up in the paint for her to get a foul called. It was blatant tonight, every time she had a fast break layup,” Canada explained. “She was getting hacked in the paint, no foul calls. But the other way, like Rhy [Rhyne Howard] said, we can’t play physical. Anytime we tried to play physical, it was always a foul call. So I think the officiating has to be better for some reason. Again, I don’t know what Angel has to do. I don’t know what we have to do to get a foul call, but I thought tonight was horrible. I thought all three refs were terrible.“

Howard also expressed that the team continues to work on ways to play through the adversity.

“It’s hard when only one team is allowed to play that way [physically]. I think we’re doing the best we can to keep our composure…but you know, at some point, something has to give…we just have to figure out what we can continue to do, to make sure that things still go our way, even though it seems that people don’t want it to.”

When Smesko was asked about the players’ ability to keep their composure on the court, he admitted they weren’t the only ones who had to stay calm.

“I had a hard time keeping my composure,“ Smesko said, shaking his head. “I don’t want to take anything away from Washington, because they play great, they shot it great, but the officiating is horrendous, and some of the things that I see out there are just borderline bizarre… some changes need to happen somewhere because the players are too good to get some of the calls that we’re receiving right now.

“So, I think our players have a right to be frustrated with that [officiating], but I’m not really optimistic anything’s going to change, so we’re going to have to figure out to win some games, despite, I would say, way subpar, way below what should be at the W level, officiating.”

Smesko also explained that the team has had multiple meetings and conversations with the referees, during which there would be agreement on missed calls, yet no change would result from those discussions moving forward.

On the bright side, Howard led all scorers with 24 points while adding two rebounds and three assists. Allisha Gray totaled 17 points, four rebounds and three assists while also reaching 1,500 career field goals. Angel Reese recorded yet another double-double with 13 points and 13 rebounds, and Canada finished with 10 points, three rebounds and seven assists while surpassing 400 career steals during Thursday night’s contest.

The Dream will look to snap their four-game losing skid when they return home to face the team that not only defeated them twice on the road but also started this difficult stretch, the Golden State Valkyries.

“The people who started this whooping that we’re getting, we’re about to see them again, and either we’re going to turn the page and get back to where we want to get to, or we’re going to continue to endure it,” Howard said.