Angel Reese Reveals Mindset Driving Dream’s WNBA Finals Run Amid 2-1 Lead

Angel Reese had 21 points and 12 rebounds Wednesday night as the Atlanta Dream beat the Golden State Valkyries 97-71 at State Farm Arena for a 2-1 lead in the WNBA Finals.

It was her third double-double in three Finals games.

Reese is the youngest player in WNBA history to record a double-double in three straight Finals games, according to the league’s postgame notes. She also joined A’ja Wilson as the only players with at least 20 points and 10 rebounds in consecutive Finals games.

Two nights earlier at Chase Center, Reese posted 30 points and 16 rebounds in a 79-65 win that gave the Dream the first Finals victory in franchise history.

She shot 7-of-12 on Wednesday, made both of her 3-point attempts, and went 5-of-5 at the free-throw line. She added 3 assists and 3 steals in 34 minutes.

Home was where Reese’s offense came around after two rough games. The crowd of 17,099 was a sellout, for a game the league had moved up a day from Thursday and out of the Dream’s 3,500-seat Gateway Center Arena.

“Our fans showed up,” Reese said. “They showed up in every single possession. I thought [Ballhalla] was loud. Atlanta, y’all came out, and on a Wednesday, on a school night, they got work tomorrow. I appreciate y’all for coming out and supporting us and being loud on every single possession and just cheering and just being super consistent.”

“We really appreciate it,” Reese continued. “Y’all ain’t got work on Sundays. Y’all got church maybe, but Saturday, y’all better run it back, run it back. I’m looking forward to it.”

Reese scored Atlanta’s first basket, a layup off a Rhyne Howard pass with 8:43 left in the first quarter. She had 8 points in the quarter and 15 by halftime.

Her 3-pointer with 40 seconds left in the first quarter put the Dream ahead 22-12. Her second, with 6:32 left in the second, made it 30-23.

The Dream acquired Reese from the Chicago Sky in the offseason. Her approach since has been to bring energy whether or not her shots fall.

“I’m just trying to show up every single day and be consistent for the team,” Reese explained. “No matter [if] my shots are falling, I just want to make sure I bring energy. And hopefully they can say the same. But every day, I just want to be able to come in every day and just pour into everybody, bring the energy, bring the morale, because I think it’s contagious.”

“When you have a mentality — it started for me where I’m hype all the time and bringing the confidence into everybody,” Reese added. “Like, y’all not taking this from us. And that’s, in my heart, like, I’m not letting you take this from us. And I think it becomes contagious within the team. They feel that confidence too. So that’s kind of been my mindset throughout the entire season, just being able to want it more than anybody else.”

Reese was named the league’s Defensive Player of the Year earlier this month. This is the first postseason of her career.

Golden State tied the game at 49 in the third quarter.

Reese made two free throws with 6:23 left to put Atlanta back in front 53-49, then grabbed a defensive rebound on a Kaitlyn Chen miss and finished on the other end with 5:25 remaining.

Naz Hillmon has said the same thing about Reese all season.

“Like I’ve said time and time again, Angel shows up in every game,” Hillmon said. “Some people only show up in big games, but she’s consistent with that. And she brings her teammates along. And I think that’s exactly what happened today from the beginning of the game.”

“And then we even had a little bit of a low in the third quarter,” Hillmon continued. “And who was there getting a stop, getting us out in transition? It was Angel. So we definitely follow suit, but she definitely starts us off.”

Reese won a national championship at LSU in 2023. The Dream have never won a WNBA title.

Six months in Atlanta is too soon to be mentioned with the city’s sports greats, she said.

“It definitely means a lot,” Reese said. “I’ve only been here for six months, so I don’t know how y’all can give me that yet, but all right. My goal was to come to Atlanta and win a championship. I think you become one of the greats, and you become one of the best when you can win and impact winning. And that’s all I wanted to do coming here. Everything else really doesn’t matter to me.”

“But when we win this championship for the city of Atlanta that has done so much and poured so much into the sports here, that’s what’s going to feel amazing and more than anything,” Reese noted.

Through three Finals games, Reese has 63 points and 40 rebounds. She had 14 points and 12 rebounds in the Game 1 loss.

Game 4 is Saturday at 1 p.m. ET at State Farm Arena.