On Friday night at Verizon Center, the Washington Mystics will look to keep their immaculate record in tact as they take on an Eastern Conference rival, the Atlanta Dream. After two impressive wins to begin their 2015 campaign, the Mystics hope to keep the momentum rolling in search of their first 3-0 start to a season since 2010.

On the opposing side, the Dream, led by second-year head coach Michael Cooper, have struggled out of the gate, dropping their first two contests of the season before getting their first win last night, a hard-fought 72-69 victory over the San Antonio Stars with Angel McCoughtry’s 21 points leading the way for the Dream. However, they are coming off a very successful 2014 in which they finished first in the Eastern Conference during the regular season with a record of 19-15, before ultimately falling in the first round of the playoffs, similar to the Mystics.

Predicted by many analysts as the team to beat in the Eastern Conference once again in 2015, The Dream, still led by 2x WNBA All-Star and 2x WNBA scoring champion forward McCoughtry (19.3 ppg, 7.7 rpg so far in 2015), return with much of the same look as last season, with limited offseason turnover and the same nucleus kept intact. Behind McCoughtry, the team returns core players forward Sancho Lyttle (9.3 ppg, 9.0 rpg) and center Erika de Souza (8.7 ppg, 8.0 rpg), both of whom have joined McCoughtry in helping the Dream win three out of the last five Eastern Conference titles.

Newcomers to the Dream include veteran free agent acquisition guard Roneeka Hodges (2.0 ppg, 4.7 rpg), who’s in the midst of her 11^th WNBA season with her 6^th different team, and rookie first-round pick, Samantha Logic (10^th overall), who set a school record of 898 career assists while playing at the University of Iowa.

The Mystics will try to rebound from last season’s disappointing season-series matchup against the Dream, in which the Dream handily took 3 games out of 4 tries. Mystics coach Mike Thibault knows that not giving the Dream second chances will be a key to victory against a team as stout on the boards as they are.

“The biggest thing to try to beat them is don’t give up fast-break baskets and rebound the basketball. They’re right now, after the first couple of games, the best rebounding team in the league by statistics and they have people who make great effort on the boards so that’s going to be a key. Don’t give them second shots.”

Although the Mystics did give up 35.8 rpg in their matchups with the Dream last season, while countering with only a measly 31.5 rpg (second fewest of any Dream opponent last year), the return of injured center Kia Vaughn (9.0 ppg, 6.3 rpg in 2014), who has been absent from the Mystics’ first two games of the season with a hip injury, is sure to help their cause. She, along with centers Stefanie Dolson and Emma Meesseman, will be responsible for keeping the Dream off the glass and limiting their second shot opportunities.

Additionally, Mystics’ guard Armintie Herrington, who played for the Dream from 2009-2013 and said there are always a lot of feelings when playing against old friends, knows the biggest matchup and key to beating the Dream is to, first and foremost, contain star forward and scorer McCoughtry. “You want to slow her down, try to not let her get to the rim and [get] fast layups and stuff like that. Try to keep her calm. She’s a great player [and] we have to do it as a team. There’s no one man job out here, everybody knows our game plan and we’re going to try to stick to it.”

If the ‘Stics can keep McCoughtry from getting easy looks at the basket, play tight defense down low, and ultimately keep the Dream off the glass, they have a great shot of emerging from Friday night’s game victorious and consequently having their best start to a season in years.