NEW YORK (AP) -Now that the New York Liberty have secured a playoff berth, they have their sights set on getting home-court advantage in the first round.
Janel McCarville scored 21 points and Cathrine Kraayeveld added 18 to lead the Liberty to a 82-71 victory over the Atlanta Dream on Friday night. New York clinched its ninth postseason appearance when Chicago lost at Connecticut earlier in the evening.
``There are still more games to be played,'' Liberty coach Pat Coyle said. ``There are still a lot of things to play for, like home-court advantage.''
Lisa Willis had 12 points and Ashley Battle added nine for New York (17-12), which remained third in the Eastern Conference - one-half game behind Detroit and 2 1/2 behind the first-place Sun.
The Liberty, playing without leading scorer Shameka Christon (strained right hamstring) and leading rebounder Tiffany Jackson (stress fracture), won their second straight after losing their first two coming out of the monthlong Olympic break.
``At this point, we are trying to improve our seeding and play the best we can,'' McCarville said.
New York entered the game knowing it would clinch a spot in the playoffs with either a win against Atlanta or a loss by Chicago. The Sky's loss was announced at the end of the third quarter, drawing a big roar from the crowd.
``When they announced it we could have folded just because we had already clinched,'' McCarville said. ``Everybody had it in the back of their minds that we needed to win this game, come out and prove to ourselves and everybody else that we're a better team than we were the last time we were home.''
Betty Lennox had 28 points - including six 3-pointers - and seven rebounds for expansion Atlanta (3-28), which moved one loss away from tying the league record set by Chicago in its first season in 2006. Erika DeSouza and Katie Feenstra added 10 points each for the Dream, who lost their ninth straight.
``We played really hard,'' Atlanta's Alison Bales said. ``New York is just a really good team. We played them tight the whole game, but in the end they just ended up pulling away. They made some big shots and we missed some big shots.''
New York outscored Atlanta 16-4 to take a 67-55 lead - the Liberty's biggest advantage of the game - on Battle's layup in the opening minute of the fourth quarter.
However, Feenstra had six points and Lennox five as the Dream used an 11-2 run to get within three with 5:17 left in the game.
The Liberty then scored 11 consecutive points to stretch their lead to 82-68 on Willis' two free throws with 50 seconds left.
``I think we responded well,'' New York point guard Loree Moore said. ``They made their run at the end and we responded well. We made plays when we needed to and pushed the score back up to bring the space in between. That shows that we're growing up, starting to mature as a group.''
Kraayeveld's fastbreak layup halfway through the third quarter gave the Liberty a 50-44 lead before Atlanta used a 7-1 run to tie the score at 51 on DeSouza's basket with 3:30 left in the third.
