“Five seconds, Howard launches!” The announcer yells as Atlanta Dream’s Rhyne Howard attempts to knock down a three with less than five seconds left on the clock.
The score is 81-81. The Dream are taking on the Indiana Fever. One more shot will save them from overtime. One more shot will extend the Dream’s win streak to three and allow them to take their momentum on the road.
“Missed it badly!”
Howard misses, but there are reinforcements to pick up the slack. Angel Reese grabs the rebound, puts it up for the layup…
“For the putback! Won’t go!”
Reese misses the shot, but there’s one more chance.
“Hillmon!”
Naz Hillmon is there to grab the ball for another attempt, and…
“It’s pushed under the hoop just enough to not have a great angle. To OT we go.”
Reese holds her head in defeat as the buzzer sounds. Her teammates surround her to comfort her as she apologizes to them. Atlanta had played its hardest, let the game get too close at the end and now had given its opponent more momentum to battle again.
This was not the outcome they were hoping for.
That game ended in a 95-91 Indiana win to send the Dream on the road to face the West Coast, which was an unfavorable time for them earlier in the season.
In the post-game press conference, Dream players Isobel Borlase and leading scorer Allisha Gray were seated and visibly upset with the outcome of a hard-fought matchup. But when Gray was asked about the support the team showed Reese after the missed layup, she set the record straight.
“I mean, she (Reese) knows she’ll make a shot, but in that moment, you just got to encourage the teammates. Like no one person lost us the game. It’s just a team effort, and just like she’s with us when we’re struggling, we do the same thing for Angel. I mean, it’s a sisterhood. Like we really love each other, support each other. So, I’ll put everything on the line that the next time she gets a shot like that, she’ll make it 100%. It’s just this time she came a little short, but I mean, I have all the faith in the world in Angel.”
A Complete 40 Minutes-Las Vegas
Kicking the road trip off on a tough note, the Dream were set to face the defending champion Las Vegas Aces.
The past two games against the team resulted in losses, but this one, the Dream had a different plan.
They didn’t just win against the Aces; they put up a complete performance to defeat them 97-82. Jordin Canada — who was absent in their previous game against the Fever — was a big help on the floor.
Howard led the team with 23 points, Gray added 21 and Hillmon contributed seven points with four rebounds. The bench also added fuel to the fire.
Reese, who took the Fever loss hard, checked in and picked up her 24th double-double of the season with 21 points and 10 rebounds, while also adding four assists and four steals.
She also knocked down her seventh 3-pointer of the season off an assist from Canada.
“I thought Angel had a great bounce-back game today. You know, she’s really playing good defense on MVP (A’ja Wilson). So you know it was nice to see her have the night that she had, and nice to see that everybody kind of rallied from the disappointing loss a couple days ago to beat a really good team on the road,” Dream head coach Karl Smesko said in the post-game press conference.
Reese spoke on the team having a bad taste in their mouth after the Fever game and how they wanted to come out and show the Aces the best version of themselves. She, however, was dealing with her own battle before touching down in the city.
“Last game was very tough for me. I didn’t sleep, and the competitor in me wanted to win that game so bad. I replayed that play so many times,” Reese said. “But I’m like, why would I let that moment dictate everything else that I have going on that’s positive?”
Reese said later on the Sports on Prime broadcast that she also spoke to her former rookie coach, Teresa Weatherspoon, all night after the Fever loss about how disappointed she was in herself. The advice T-Spoon gave her was to not let that moment dictate her future.
“We wanted to make sure we continue this road trip out right,” Reese said.
That interview was not after the Aces game, but after the Dream’s next stop on the road. They were set to visit the Los Angeles Sparks, and Reese was just warming up.
A Perfect Game-Los Angeles
“Reese for three!”
“The last seven points for the Dream have come from Reese.”
“Have it, have it. Angel Reese, spraying from downtown!”
“I didn’t even notice it really,” Reese said after her first perfect career game against the Sparks. “I was just taking the shots I usually work on in practice. Karl works with me every single day, making sure that three is down.”
Reese had a 9-for-9 shooting night from the field, including 2-for-2 from beyond the arc, finishing with 20 points, 10 rebounds, eight assists and three steals. Reese set the franchise record for the most made shots without a miss and even scored 10 straight points by herself at one point during the night.
The Dream’s 124-88 win set the record for the most in franchise history, and gave them their second dominant win on the road.
Hillmon spoke on Reese’s tenacity throughout the stretch after the game.
“I think the thing about Angel (Reese) is that she’s gonna be great wherever she is, just because of the things that she does. Everybody talks about her rebounding, obviously her motor, which is a huge part of her game. But like we saw today, she put on display her ability to pass the ball,” Hillmon said. “So, I feel like if you can do those things, you can fit in anywhere. But she brings that toughness, that aggressiveness, that competitiveness every single night. Like you’re never going to question what’s on her mind, and that’s winning.”
Hillmon went on to talk about the way Reese impacts the team regardless of what she’s going through.
“She talks to people, cares about them, pours into them, and when someone as big as Angel Reese is pouring into you, like, I know that means a lot for so many people, and she does it consistently,” Hillmon said.
So, what’s the key behind Reese’s current success?
She spoke about her drive to show up every single night for her team and how she doesn’t want to take the game she loves for granted. But it’s another level of trusting her work and poise that’s been carrying her through for constant results.
“Just trying to be as consistent as possible,” Reese said. “But also I think we’re kind of leaving a taste on everybody’s mouth right now, on what it’s going to look like for the Atlanta Dream going into the post-season.”
Next stop: Phoenix.
A Career High-Phoenix
“I want more than just playing in the playoffs, first round, second round. I want to walk away as a champ. And that’s why I came to Atlanta.”
In a 99-89 win against the Phoenix Mercury, Reese continued her record-setting stint by recording a career-high 31 points, adding 14 rebounds and four steals.
With these numbers, she became the first player in Dream history to record 10 games in a season with 20 or more points and 10 or more rebounds.
This wasn’t the only accomplishment Reese achieved that night.
And this win meant something much more.
“We clinched playoffs,” Reese said after the game. “This is my first time being able to have a post-season. So I’m really excited.
“This group, this year, had just been super resilient through highs and lows. We stayed together. We didn’t have a great third quarter, but just being able to come together and push forward. Push through in the fourth and win this game was important for us.”
The third quarter might not have been their best in this game, but in their finale to visit Los Angeles one more time, that quarter made all the difference.
A Road-Finale – Los Angeles
The Dream punched their ticket for their fourth consecutive postseason appearance, but the job wasn’t finished on the road.
Though not getting off to the best start, they pulled together in the third quarter for a 78-71 win to add to their win streak and complete their road trip on the West Coast.
And for Reese, well, the records continued to rise.
In the night’s game, she recorded 26 rebounds, which set a WNBA record for the most rebounds in a single game.
“I don’t think in my life I got more than 10 rebounds!” Gray exclaimed when asked about her teammate’s accomplishment. “That’s just a talent. Like, I’m just in awe of watching her rebound.”
It didn’t stop there. Reese also surpassed Aces’ A’ja Wilson (451) for the most rebounds in a single season with 458 of her own.
To add to that, she’s on pace to surpass Mercury’s Alyssa Thomas (28) for the most double-doubles in a single season. So far, Reese is sitting at 27 in total.
“I wasn’t really worried about our team bouncing back because we’ve had some adversity this year, and we respond the same way each time we face adversity as we pull together and we figure it out,” Smesko said, “…Angel’s (Reese) been remarkable on this trip. You can see her getting better each month, and you know she’s just played an extraordinary level during this road trip. And, I think that’ll continue throughout the rest of the season.
“But the players really enjoy being around each other. That’s a real thing. They care about each other. … So, we just know whatever happens, we’re gonna have each other’s backs.”
Through Reese’s run, she received the Eastern Conference Player of the Week award, averaging 24 points per game, 11.4 rebounds per game and 4.7 assists per game. This was her third time getting the award in her career and her first time with Atlanta.
She also received the Associated Press WNBA Player of the Week nod around the same time.
She, Howard and Canada are leading the league in steals, with Reese having 68 of her own. And through Atlanta’s four-game streak, she had a total of 83 points, 60 rebounds, 17 assists and 14 steals. The last time any NBA or WNBA player put up those numbers in a four-game span was in the 1990s.
This isn’t just about the rebounds. It’s about a holistic performance that became Reese’s comeback story.
A Reflection of Growth
Before we look ahead, we have to visit the past.
Looking at Reese’s recent game against Indiana, she put up 15 points, 14 rebounds and six assists. So, it wasn’t her overall performance that caused concern, but her missed put-back layup that kept her up at night.
There were moments that led up to that point that put Reese in that position, but the moment she and a lot of others were focused on was the missed shot that could’ve saved the team from overtime.
So, what did Reese do?
Get up and work.
She trusted her training and was transparent about how she felt after that play, but allowed it to fuel her to bounce back. That mindset led her to put up dazzling numbers on the road and help her team in big ways on both ends of the floor.
In every post-game conference, the players are switched out, giving multiple players a chance to speak and highlighting the top performers. Reese was present in every single conference on the road. But she didn’t just make the nights about herself; in fact, when Smesko reads off her achievements, she shyly smiles in acceptance.
Her biggest message is that none of her wins matter without a team win. And since arriving with Atlanta, she’s expressed her gratitude in being a part of an organization that supports her on and off the court.
And that is a big aspect of her continuing to achieve success.
“It’s honestly so fun. Like, I don’t have any sisters. So, these are my sisters, and I get to enjoy and come to work every single day and not think about basketball,” Reese said. “I just think about playing with my coworkers…it’s a family. … Everybody pours into each other.
“We laugh and joke in the locker room, and it just feels really, really good, especially with a group like this going into the playoffs and knowing how important it is for team chemistry.”
