The Angel Reese Show rolls back into LA on Monday night, with the Atlanta Dream aiming to complete a 4-0 West Coast road trip by notching another win over the Los Angeles Sparks (NBCSN).
Reese has been a force in leading Atlanta to three-straight road wins, keeping them in contention for homecourt advantage in the first round of the WNBA playoffs as the current No. 4 seed.
Angel was absolutely perfect during the Dream’s first stop in LA, not missing a shot as she approached triple-double territory
with 20 points on 9-for-9 shooting, 10 rebounds and eight assists in the dominant win. Before that, she was pivotal in helping Atlanta snap their six-game losing streak to the Las Vegas Aces, contributing a 21-point and 10-rebounds double-double.
On Saturday, she raised her standard even higher. Reese scored a career-high 31 points, in addition to grabbing 14 boards and securing four steals. The effort not only allowed the Dream to seal a 3-0 season series sweep of the Mercury, but also officially clinched the team a spot in the playoffs.
It’s remarkable how Angel is soaring after she stumbled in the spotlight, when she misfired on a guaranteed game-winning putback against the Indiana Fever just over one week ago.
That critical miss could have buried her. Instead, she’s blossomed.
Asked about her clear confidence after Atlanta’s win in Phoenix, here’s what Angel said:
Honestly, just staying poised and not letting anybody speed me up. I think I’m not at my best when I’m rushing around the basket. So, just kind of staying confident right where I know I can be in the shots that I make around the basket that I work on in practice, just taking my time and finishing those. I knew that they were going to step up a lot and trap and hedge our guards. So, I knew I was going to be open down low. So, I just had to finish, and I think I did a good job of that today.
However, this apex version of Angel shouldn’t discount the steady progress she’s made over the course of her first season in Atlanta. Everything, it appears, is finally clicking. And it makes sense that it took some time for the Dream to unlock an optimized Angel.
Last season, head coach Karl Smekso’s first at the helm, the Dream really found their stride down their stretch of the season, as the ups and downs that characterized the early going in Atlanta eventually coalesced into a connected two-way unit. It seems this season, now with Reese in the fold, is following a similar trajectory.
Reese herself spoke to Atlanta’s season-long journey in the postgame presser in Phoenix, sharing:
We’ve been through a lot, and I think that’s why we’re so tough right now because you don’t want to peak too early, and we’re right where we want to be right now.
And it’s all coming at the perfect time, as the absence of Brionna Jones has robbed Atlanta of an expected steadying presence.
Breezy, it was assumed, would be a fail-safe during the Dream’s in-game stretches of stagnation. But since Jones exited that Indiana game early, appearing to tweak the same knee that significantly delayed her season debut, Reese has raised her play.
Smekso praised Reese for her progress following the Phoenix win, underscoring:
I think she just keeps getting better and keep being able to expand her game. I think she really found her out opportunities to be physical, and they weren’t really sending doubles, so she had her opportunities to catch the ball in the short and do some post moves to score. She was able to get behind on some ball screens for some layups where our guards were able to find her. [Angel] got a couple of putbacks, so she was scoring in a multitude of ways, had a really good fourth quarter for us, and it’s good to see her have one of her best games of her career offensively.
In the Dream’s 11 games since the All-Star break, Angel is averaging 18.4 points per game on improved efficiency, all while grabbing 13.1 boards. Her season-long numbers are 16.3 points and 12 rebounds per game. That increased offensive production has been complemented by even more defensive activity, as she is also tallying over two steals per game since the break. For the season, she’s up to 1.8 steals per game, trailing only teammates Rhyne Howard and Jordin Canada in the league-wide rankings.
So, it’s no surprise that the Dream have outscored opponents by a team-best 119 points, or by an average of 10.8 points per game, in Angel’s minutes over the last 11 games.
Right now, the biggest concern for Reese and the Dream might be the upcoming FIBA World Cup interruption. Angel, of course, will be headed off to Berlin, along with Howard.
Almost immediately rediscovering this groove when one week of regular season play resumes in mid-September will be imperative for Atlanta.
Because while it is encouraging that the Dream seem to have taken advantage of the full 44-game season to become the best version of themselves, just like last season, the Dream, and Dream fans, don’t want to see this similar script extend into the postseason.
Last year, higher-seeded Atlanta were upset by injury-ravaged Indiana in the first round. After splitting their season series 2-2, the Dream and Fever appear on a crash course for another first-round meeting as the No. 4 and No. 5 seeds.
Quite possibly, the stage will be set for the ultimate redemption for Angel and Atlanta.
But, we’re getting way too ahead of things with such imaginings. First, the Dream must complete their 4-0 road trip by taking care of a tanking Sparks team on Monday night.
Do you expect Reese and the Dream to keep the good vibes going and notch another win? Or, will Nneka Ogwumike, in her dwindling WNBA days, put together a throwback performance that delivers the Dream a potentially brutal loss?
Let us know your thoughts on all things Angel and Atlanta in the comments.
