After Game 1, even the truest of fans of the Atlanta Dream were concerned, if they were honest with themselves. At home, in Ballhalla, the Golden State Valkyries looked every bit the part of the No. 2 overall team in the WNBA. Their defense was suffocating. Their depth was unmatched. Their superstar was doing superstar things.
Despite winning 10 games in a row heading into the WNBA Finals, the Dream were getting by on talent, without truly looking like themselves.
On Wednesday night, at State Farm Arena, the Dream didn’t just dominate the Valkyries from the opening tip, but they reached their final form in front of a raucous home crowd. Everything that the Dream did well throughout the year, they did well in this game.
It wasn’t pieces of the puzzle — it was every piece of the pie.
“We wanted to protect home court. We fought for this arena, so we wanted to protect it,” Rhyne Howard said postgame.
What are those pieces, you ask? Well, there are 10 of them.
Howard being the elite two-way player
Howard hasn’t been bad in the playoffs or, specifically, during the WNBA Finals, but her direct impact has been felt on the defensive side of the ball. She’s locked Gabby Williams down in Game 2 and 3, and she set a WNBA Finals record for the most steals in a game (six) in Game 2.
Her indirect impact has been felt on the offensive end, too, with the gravity that she has on the court. Gravity is the amount of attention a player commands, and with Howard, she has the highest gravity during the playoffs. With the high attention on her no matter what, her teammates are able to operate and find different angles, paths, and ways to impact the game.
But for Howard, she’s needed to actually score, too. In Game 3, she did it. She was hitting big shots offensively, while swatting big shots defensively. She was slashing to the hoop, getting downhill and athletic finishes. She was playing with an intensity on offense that matched her defense. That’s when Howard is at her best.
Naz Hillmon is the glue
Hillmon, like Howard, hasn’t had her best offensive series, but she does the little things that hoop-heads love. She excels at setting screens at ideal angles. She communicates more than any other player on defense. She interrupts the paths that the opposition takes toward the hoop. But Wednesday, her offense showed up, too.
In the first half, Hillmon filled the wing and hit a three-pointer, throwing her arms up in relief. The next possession, she posted up in the same spot — 24 feet from the basket — and nailed another one.
Hillmon battled through shoulder and hamstring injuries this year, and she told The IX Sports it was “a frustrating season” in mid-July as she worked through her mechanics.
Night to night, her impact won’t be felt in the box score. But in Game 3, it was.
Points off turnovers
During the regular season, the Valkyries allowed 11.7 points off turnovers per game, which was the best mark in the WNBA. In Game 2, Atlanta had 24 points off turnovers. In Game 3, they had 22.
Atlanta wants to push the pace, but they really want to push the ball in transition off of a miss or a turnover. As good as the Valkyries’ defense is, they had no answer for that.
‘You can’t guard me’
Angel Reese continued her WNBA Finals MVP campaign in Game 3, setting a WNBA record by recording a double-double in each of her first three WNBA Finals games.
While Kiah Stokes has been able to defend her at the rim, Reese makes the reserves pay. On Wednesday, she made Aminata Gueye pay.
Reese knocked down two threes in the first half of the game, with the Valkyries sagging off of her. On her second one, on the release, Gueye had a look of “OK, I can live with this.” Then, a few possessions later, Reese took Gueye off the dribble at the top of the key to drive in for an easy layup. She turned and looked at Gueye and said, “You can’t guard me.”
Natalie Nakase was out-coached in Game 3. Her insistence to go with Gueye continually against Reese played a big part of Atlanta dominating the way that they did.
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Pushing the pace
It was a track meet from the opening tip. Atlanta was determined to set the tone and push the pace. The Dream were quick to get into their actions, not worrying about the shot clock, rather getting the ball to find a mismatch with a Valkyries’ defense on their heels.
In return, they were stifling the Valkyries defensively, as Golden State was struggling to get into its second motion on offense until about 12 seconds remaining on the shot clock consistently. The Valkyries were able to slow down the game late in the second quarter and match the pace to start the third, but they couldn’t maintain it.
Hitting their threes
Head coach Karl Smesko’s system is known as the Above the Line (ATL) system, which emphasizes getting the best shot consistently, focusing on the three-pointer and easy layups. The Dream haven’t been consistent from behind the arc, but Wednesday, they were knocking down their shots.
The Dream shot 40 percent from behind the arc, with Hillmon, Howard, and Reese setting the tone.
The Valkyries sagged off of Hillmon and Reese from behind the arc, and allowed Howard to take a step-up three. They tightened up their coverage as the game went on, but by that point, it was all but wrapped up.
Jordin Canada slicing and dicing
Canada is one of the more unsung stars in the WNBA. She’s getting her flowers this year for her defensive play, but she brings a game-changing speed to the Dream that can flip over the court in the blink of an eye.
Canada blew by the equally-quick Tiffany Hayes for a layup in the second half, but also did her patented Eurostep move through traffic in the first half to get — and finish — downhill at the rim.
She’s doing that while leading all players in assists during the WNBA playoffs.
DeWanna Bonner’s presence
Bonner’s presence is felt as a 39-year-old veteran, but in the third quarter, with Reese out of the game, Bonner hit a big three-pointer, followed by a fadeaway jumper to quiet the Valkyries comeback attempt.
The crowd at State Farm Arena erupted during it, and after the three-point shot, Reese went over and dapped up Bonner’s partner, Alyssa Thomas, who was sitting courtside.
Isobel Borlase’s different look
Earlier this season, The IX Sports wrote about Borlase, and Hillmon gave insight on what makes her so unique.
“It does definitely give us a different look, and the spacing is a little bit different. Instead of just running to the corner, now maybe she’s running to the paint and making good decisions when she gets in there,” Hillmon said. “It is nice to have everybody kind of have a little bit something different, because now you have to figure out how you’re going to like what type of defender you’re going to put on her, or what are you going to choose to guard coming out, because she can also shoot the three, so it gives her a lot of flexibility in terms of what she wants to do on the floor.”
It was on full display in Game 3, too, as Borlase recorded another block on the defensive end, but had her signature dribble-Euro move in her bag, as well as her off-leg jumper.
The Dream only play seven players per game usually, and Borlase earned the trust of Smesko and the coaching staff throughout the season.
Defense causing havoc
A lot is made of the deflections, blocks, and steals that the Dream generate, and rightfully so. They have the Defensive Player of the Year in Reese, and also the top three players in steals per game all on the same team. But what doesn’t show up in the box score is the way that the Dream are able to frustrate the opponent and change their quality of shot.
Throughout the game on Wednesday, the Dream not only made it hard for the Valkyries to get into their sets, but they made it hard to get any clean looks. Atlanta was rotating effectively, fighting through ball screens with extended hedges and recovery to alleviate the additional assignment from the weak side defender.
Eventually, it led to the Valkyries turning toward questionable shot selections. From driving toward the rim to pull-up for a mid-range jumper, to running the offense through Gueye for a stretch, to taking consistent logo-contested threes. Their offense was out of sorts.
Some of that is on the Valkyries and their lack of execution when Williams isn’t at the top of her game. But a whole lot of it is due to the smothering defense that the Dream play and their ability to interrupt an offensive system.
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