Angel Reese lifts Dream to first WNBA Finals win vs. Valkyries with historic breakout performance in Game 2: 'We feed off her energy'

SAN FRANCISCO — The sight, while more familiar this past month, is still an odd one. Angel Reese pulling up from the perimeter, her shot smoother by the game, an arc that drains through the net rather than short of it.

The Atlanta Dream have yet to lose when the third-year forward hits a 3-pointer, so when she took advantage of the space Kiah Stokes rarely allowed her, it served as the dagger, even if four minutes remained in the game. The 6-4 forward is 6 of 15 from 3 in the postseason after shooting 18 of 95 in her career.

The addition is a lavish accouterment to the standard fare she deployed to near perfection to even the WNBA Finals at 1-1.

Reese became the youngest player in WNBA history to score at least 30 points and 15 rebounds in a postseason game. The performance led the Dream to their first WNBA Finals victory in franchise history in a 79-65 win over the Golden State Valkyries in Game 2 at Chase Center on Monday. The series shifts to State Farm Arena in Atlanta for Game 3 on Wednesday, a tight turnaround after the contest was moved out of the Dream's Gateway Center Arena home.

Reese got her lick back after insisting the Dream's Game 1 letdown was the result of her not being aggressive enough, rather than anything the league-best Golden State defense did to quell her . The Dream, she felt, let one slip away in a 68-64 Game 1 loss in which she went without a field goal over the final three quarters. Looking back two days later, she said she became lax. It ate at her.

"We all came together and were pissed," Reese said. "We felt disappointed. We felt embarrassed and we didn't like the outcome of that last game."

So she changed it when she had the chance. Reese was the first player head coach Karl Smesko locked eyes with in the locker room. He saw what was to come.

"Oh, I like this look," he remembered thinking.

Stokes, who noted her increased aggression, surely didn't. Reese scored the first bucket of the game in transition, showing early that the Dream wouldn't be as stagnant as they were in Game 1. She had 8 points on 4 field goal attempts, 5 rebounds and 1 assist by the end of the first quarter. The Valkyries led 21-18.

The Dream found Reese on pick-and-rolls and pocket passes. They moved her around the floor. Stokes stymied her multiple times, joining Britney Griner (2014) as the only players in WNBA history with at least four blocks in consecutive WNBA Finals games. The center's presence altered Reese, who showed more patience in finding teammates. Her 15 points (6 of 9) and seven rebounds at the half led both teams on another paltry night from the floor (34% combined).

"Her rebounding, her fight, it was at a high, like, high level tonight," Golden State head coach Natalie Nakase said.

Atlanta (33.9%) lost every game in which it shot 37% or worse this season. It was 1% better than Game 1, but in a contest won at the margins, every bit matters for two defensive-minded groups. The bigger tell was Reese and Co. going back to ATL basics, bursting out of the locker room to tear the game to shreds in a 21-9 third quarter.

They sped the Valkyries up, feasting on cross-court passes and bad dishes out of the paint. Atlanta scored 12 points off of eight turnovers, nearly matching the first-half totals of each. Rhyne Howard's shooting slump continued, but her game-high six steals broke the WNBA record for most in a Finals game. The Valkyries couldn't get back in time, and allowed defensive lapses to compound.

"I genuinely believe that dictated the entire game when they can get more looks than we do," Valkyries guard Veronica Burton said.

The differentiator came at the free-throw line. Atlanta went a perfect 12 of 12, better than the 9 of 11 it shot in the first half. Golden State didn't attempt a single one after shooting a perfect 12 of 12 in the first half. Atlanta scored 14 more points at the line in the game.

"We're gonna see how close these actual fouls were," Nakase said. "They do lunge forward at times, and so we just got to make sure we take a close look."

The Valkyries are late-game warriors who can erase a 60-46 lead going into the fourth. They didn't. After falling behind by 21 with 6:06 to play, Reese's 3-pointer boosted the lead back to 19. Game 1 hadn't shifted more than single digits either way, and the first half of Game 2 didn't move more than six. The Dream led by four late in the second quarter, and entered the half up a bucket when DeWanna Bonner hit her first jumper of the day on the final possession.

There were 12 lead changes and 11 ties in the first half; only two each in the second.

It wasn't merely that Reese ratcheted up her offense in a series yearning for it. At times, she came out to the perimeter to guard Gabby Williams, her hero counterpart of Game 1 , limiting the veteran to 14 points on 15 attempts and zero late pushes. And by reigniting her engine, it reverberated.

"You can just see that [Reese] wants it really bad," point guard Jordin Canada said. "She's such a competitor, and we feed off of her energy. And so I think tonight she set the tone for sure, and it just trickled down through the whole team."

She created space for Canada to score 13 with 10 assists. Allisha Gray, playing through an injury to her shooting hand, scored 18 with three 3s. They could ride through Howard's two early fouls that quickly turned to four, and Reese's three at the half. She played the final 5:45 with five fouls.

"I let my team down last game not really contributing as much as I could in the second half [of Game 1]," Reese said. "Not even just about scoring, my screen quality, me hustling and wanting to get rebounds, and just doing the things that they know me to do. So I just wanted to make sure I came out tonight and left my mark and did whatever I could to get the win, and I think I did that tonight."

Atlanta's quest for a first championship in what is its fourth Finals appearance hinges on Reese staying this productive and, in her own descriptor, pissed. The first game showed they have a chance when she's quiet. The second proved their success is more comfortable when their offseason trade acquisition, dubbed a final piece of the puzzle, is her usual boisterous, aggressive, trash-talking self.