With the WNBA postseason just days away, many teams across the league had little to play for on Thursday, Sept. 19, having already secured their seed in the playoffs or been eliminated.

Rhyne Howard, a Kentucky women’s basketball legend, and her Atlanta Dream were ones that had to leave everything on the table and did so, clinching the No. 8 seed in the 2024 WNBA Playoffs with a 78-67 victory over the New York Liberty, which held the best record in the WNBA this season at 32-8.

Howard herself scored 13 points to go along with four assists and two steals.

She led the Atlanta Dream in several categories this season, averaging 17.3 points per game, 3.1 assists per game, 1.8 steals per game and draining nearly three 3-pointers a night.

Howard will have a tough road to glory, but her previous playoff experience speaks for itself. 

In the 2023 postseason, the former Olympian dropped 36 points along with eight 3-pointers in her first career playoff game. 

The 2024 playoffs will mark the Dream’s second consecutive playoff appearance with Howard after missing them during the former No. 1 overall pick’s rookie season in 2022. 

The two-time WNBA All-Star will play alongside her big three of Allisha Gray and Tina Charles in the first round against the same team they just defeated, the No. 1 New York Liberty.

Playoff action will begin for the Dream on Sept. 22 at 1 p.m. ET from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. The game will air live on ESPN.