Before you can take home your franchise’s first WNBA championship, you need to win your club’s first Finals game.
For the Atlanta Dream, that has been the hurdle on three separate occasions (2010, 2011, 2013). It took the club 11 Finals games before it could finally put a tally in the win column.
A 79-65 win over the Golden State Valkyries in Game 2 snapped a 10-game drought and secured what had so far been an elusive Finals victory for the Dream.
Stealing one in front of a sold-out "Ballhalla" crowd already makes the feat impressive, but an unrelenting return to the pillars of play that got Atlanta this far is what actually made it possible. Points in transition and movement on the offensive end gave the Dream the edge. Consistent shooting and all-around contributions from Angel Reese built the lead, and care for the basketball — especially late in the game — sealed the deal.
Game 2 proved to be just as low-scoring and defensively minded as the first contest, but saw a different side dominate. The Dream bounced back well from the first real adversity they’ve faced on this playoff run and will return home with a series tied at 1-1.
Here are some takeaways from a gritty Game 2.
Angel’s impact
Angel Reese led the Dream with 30 points that were split evenly between both halves. She started the game with a hard-fought layup after messy back-to-back turnovers on both ends of the floor and didn’t slow down.
Reese finished with a double-double, joining Breanna Stewart and Jonquel Jones as the third player ever to record at least 30 points and 16 rebounds in a WNBA Finals game. Reese also had two blocks and a steal in the win.
Monday was a far swing from the difficult second half she faced on Saturday afternoon. Reese ended Game 1 with zero points in the final 20 minutes as a shut-down Valkyries defence locked up the high-volume scorer to secure the series-opener. In Game 2, however, Reese fought through the same collapsing defenders to find rebounds and sink game-changing shots.
Reese had a couple coast-to-coast drives and used strong footwork to demand space in the paint, but some of her most memorable plays of the night came as offensive rebounds that she kicked out to teammates who knocked down shots from range. Overall, Atlanta regained rhythm in Game 2 as better flow and spacing gave Reese space to work down low and opened up chances for her to set up her teammates on the perimeter.
Cold in the middle
Compared to the control Golden State flaunted in Game 1, the play in Game 2 felt a little half-baked in the middle.
Quarters two and three were especially cold as the hosts surrendered a 10-0 run in the second frame. Multiple hard layup attempts that bounced too far off the glass and short shots from the mid-range area stopped the Valkyries from adding to their side. Golden State went seven straight minutes of the 10 without a field goal.
In the third quarter, the Valkyries continued to struggle with scoring. As a team, they put up nine points, while Reese scored nine all by herself.
All over the sheet, the Valkyries’ scoring totals were down. After nine points in Game 1, Kiah Stokes didn’t get a single basket in Game 2. Kayla Thornton, who has averaged 9.3 points per game throughout the playoffs, had just two. In total, three starters (Stokes, Thornton and Cecilia Zandalasini) finished the game with five points or fewer.
Discipline on defence
Rhyne Howard was a hunter in Game 2. She stalked the ball and snatched it up to finish the game with a single-game WNBA Finals-record six steals.
As a team, Atlanta ended with 14 steals and forced Golden State into 18 turnovers. These disruptions allowed the Dream to re-establish their transition game and play with their usual speed.
But the Dream’s defence wasn’t so disciplined all of the time. For much of the game, Atlanta struggled with foul trouble and had to send their starters to the bench for extended periods of rest.
Take Howard, for example. Her steals largely came in the second half because she spent so much time on the bench in foul trouble. By partway through the second quarter, the star shooter had only three points but four dangerous fouls.
Reese also ran into similar issues. Right around the time when Howard returned to the floor, Reese recorded her third foul and was subbed off. Then, with more than five minutes remaining in the game, she added her fifth foul. She pleaded with head coach Karl Smesko and remained in the game without recording a fatal sixth.
Although the Dream shot 35 free throws — considerably more than the Valkyries' 19 — and had fewer personal fouls compared to Golden State, Atlanta’s fouling played a bigger role because the infractions were split among less players.
Eleven players deep
While Atlanta stuck with line combinations that almost always included some combination of Naz Hillmon, Jordin Canada, Allisha Gray and Reese, Golden State turned to players off the bench and leaned on their depth, as they have all season.
While the playoffs usually mark a time of bench shortening and extra minutes for starters, head coach Natalie Nakase has continued to rely on her subs in the post-season. The Dream let just nine different players on the floor in the win, or only seven if you leave out Shatori Walker-Kimbrough and Madina Okot, who each played less than 45 seconds.
In contrast, the Valkyries had 11 players sub on, and most of them clocked minutes in the double digits. By using a variety of players, Nakase can throw options at the Dream that they might be unprepared for, a technique that worked well when Laeticia Amihere played extra minutes in purple during Game 1. It lacked the same effect on Monday, though, as the Dream became more familiar with the personnel in Game 2.
