Angel Reese Crafted Her Masterpiece

SAN FRANCISCO — Like its sludgy predecessor and by design, Game 2 of the WNBA Finals was played as if in the mud. Clean dribbling of the ball was prohibited, the two participants collaborated on 32 turnovers, and the Atlanta Dream finished one missed three-pointer beyond joining the Golden State Valkyries with an identical, gross 21-for-61 shooting night. Ballhalla's famous resolve was tested as its stars spent the night dribbling sideways for 23 seconds before hoisting terrible shots. But through it all, directly in the middle of the fray on both ends of the court, there was one player who gradually revealed herself to be the game's protagonist, the one gleefully forcing the Valks down into the mud. There was Angel Reese, dominating the biggest game of her career and seizing control of the WNBA Finals for her team. The stats tell some of the story: Reese finished with 30 points, 16 rebounds, and two blocks, got to the line 11 times, and finished as the only Atlanta player who made at least half their shot attempts. But the way her dominance was felt in the building was truly remarkable. Reese may as well have been the only player on the court. The San Francisco crowd puts a little extra energy into booing Reese, not out of a sense of culture-war conscription the way, say, an Indiana crowd would, but rather because she causes them the most pain. Both these Finals teams are set up with the primary objective of preventing opponents from playing basketball, which played out for everyone in Game 1 and for the Valkyries in Game 2. Reese was the one player who was getting anything easy: If she got a touch with momentum or against anyone who wasn't Kiah Stokes, she was getting to the rim. If she pulled down an offensive rebound, the Valks may as well have started setting up their offense at the other end. In a series otherwise entirely populated with people moving sideways, Reese is direct. When she's on the court, she demands attention.

Read it at Defector ↗

← Front page