Dream guard Jordin Canada hasn’t reached her full form. But her teammates understand what it’s like to work back from an injury, and they have her back.
“We’ve played with Jordin before,” Dream forward Nia Coffey said after the Dream’s 92-91 win over the Mystics on Friday night. “We just understand that process, but I think she’s been really great. She’s been putting (in) the work, and then each and every day is getting better, so I believe we’re moving in right direction.”
The 29-year-old missed the first seven games of the Dream’s regular season with a knee injury. She started the first exhibition game May 7 against the Mystics, but exited 30 seconds into the matchup.
She landed awkwardly after going up to contest a layup attempt by Mystics guard Jade Melbourne. The team ruled her out for two weeks then announced May 22 that she would return to team activities. She made her season debut June 6.
Her return to the court has had its ups, as well as its downs. The Dream have gone 4-2 with Canada in the starting lineup, and in those six games she has averaged 6.7 points per game across. But the Dream has benefited from her defensive presence.
In six games, Canada has averaged 1.3 steals per game and has helped the Dream go from the league’s eighth best defense to the WNBA’s second.
Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com
Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com
With 45.4 seconds remaining in the third quarter, Canada read a passing lane and got a jump on the ball. She picked off Mystics guard Brittney Sykes before getting out in transition, where she looked to find Dream guard Allisha Gray for a 3-point shot.
Canada’s disruptive style reared its head again with 49.8 left in the game. She moved to help defend Mystics forward Emily Engstler. As Engstler tried to move out of the double, Canada knocked the ball away and found Gray, who drew a foul going for the jumper in transition. It put the Dream up 92-87.
“I mean, even though her offensive game was off, I mean, she still locks in defensively,” Gray said after the team’s win over the Fever on June 10. “We know she still got good feet under her, and we support her 100%. I told her, no matter how long it takes you to get back, you got our support. Just take your time, but once it clicks, it’s gonna click.”
On Friday, it looked like things would click for Canada, who opened the Dream’s scoring with a 3-pointer from the left wing.
Forty-five seconds into the game, she inched along the wing as a Mystics double-team moved to cut off Dream forward/center Brionna Jones’ look at the basket. With Canada wide-open and by herself, Jones launched an overhead pass to Canada, who lined up a 3-pointer for the Dream’s first points of the game.
A little over a minute later, Canada took a handoff from Jones and dribbled from the elbow toward the baseline. She ran out of room and with seven seconds on the shot clock, she pulled up and drained a baseline jumper off one leg.
Canada finished the night with 11 points, on 4-of-7 overall shooting. She had one rebound, four assists, as well as two steals.
With 31 games remaining in the regular season, the Dream will continue to have patience as Canada’s offensive game clicks.
“She’s still getting used to playing out there and used to playing with everyone,” Dream coach Karl Smesko said. “But she does a lot of good things. She made some defensive plays for us and she’s somebody that really can get the ball out in transition. That’s why we want to keep pushing the ball. I mean that I think (it) really plays to her strengths.
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