Jordin Canada saw Angel Reese mouth “give me the f-ing ball.” So she did.
Reese made 10 of her 16 attempts, scored 30 points and grabbed 16 rebounds despite picking up five fouls. She became the sixth player, and the youngest, in WNBA playoff history to score 30 points and grab more than 15 rebounds in a game and the third to ever do so in the Finals.
“I was hungry. I wanted Game 1 and I think we let one slip away,” Reese said. “We felt disappointed. We felt embarrassed.”
In Atlanta’s Game 2 victory, Reese took over the game as Golden State struggled to hold onto the ball and couldn’t get any offense going.
“I let my team down last game, not really contributing as much as I could in the second half,” Reese said. “So I just wanted to make sure I came out tonight and left my mark and do whatever I could to get the win. And I think I did that.
“I bring a lot of energy in the locker room, if it’s just a joke, or talking s—. Whatever the team needed tonight I was willing to do,” she added.
Reese’s energy changed the game though, too. She grabbed four offensive rebounds to give Atlanta extra possessions. She grabbed two blocks. And she was all over the floor as the Dream’s emotional leader in what became a must-win game.
“Angel is such a generational talent,” Canada said. “Just to see her thrive in the Finals has been really special to watch. You can see she wants it really bad. She set the tone tonight, for sure, and it trickled down through the whole team.”
But the Dream center also performed well in the regular season against the Valkyries. In their first game on June 24 she scored 10 points with 12 rebounds before posting double-doubles in the following two matchups.
They survived that by shutting down Rhyne Howard, who has struggled to score in this series so far. But the Valkyries also stopped Reese from scoring at all in the second half of Game 1, holding her to just two shots, primarily from Laeticia Amihere’s defense.
“She was way more aggressive,” said Valkyries center Kiah Stokes, who has been guarding Reese for most of the series.. “She just has a great motor. She works really hard and makes it difficult not to foul her. … She had a great game, so we have to get back to the drawing board.”
The Dream, though, made the adjustment before Game 2 and Golden State had no answers.
“They were definitely looking for her in the pick-and-roll,” Valkyries coach Natalie Nakase said. “Looking for the pocket pass and at the same time, just trying to give her touches around the elbow area. But I thought her rebounding, her fight was at a high level tonight.”
Do they need an answer, though, to win the series?
The Valkyries have survived Reese playing well before. This series might come down to doing what they do best; getting rebounds, having strong ball control and using their depth.
“I think just it’s us against the Dream,” Amihere said before Game 2. “I don’t really want to talk about matchups, but I think we did a collective good job [in Game 1]. I think we always like to not rely on one person when it comes to defense, we want to rely on the collective.
“We don’t care if [someone] gets the glory at the end of the day. We’ll pass up a good shot to give our teammate a better shot. It’s just the selfless nature of our team, and I’ve watched a lot of basketball. And when it comes to playoffs, it’s that one play, that one hustle play.”
Finding some way to slow Reese down a little, though, would also help even if everything else goes right.
“It’s frustrating,” Nakase said. “Our identity is defense and we hang our hats on that.”
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