Angel Reese did not score after halftime of Saturday’s WNBA Finals opener, a 68-64 loss at Chase Center in San Francisco. On Monday night in the same building, she finished with 30 points and 16 rebounds as the Atlanta Dream beat the Golden State Valkyries 79-65 to even the best-of-seven series at 1-1.
The win was the first in the Finals for Atlanta. The Dream had lost 10 straight Finals games before Monday, with sweeps in 2010, 2011, and 2013 and the Game 1 loss on Saturday.
Reese shot 10-of-16 from the field, made her only 3-point attempt, and went 9-of-11 at the free-throw line in 33:48. She added 3 assists, 2 blocks, and 1 steal. According to WNBA Communications, she is the youngest player to post 30 points and 15 rebounds in a postseason game. Jonquel Jones, Lisa Leslie, Candace Parker, Breanna Stewart, and A’ja Wilson are the others on that list. In the Finals, only Jones for the Connecticut Sun in 2019 and Stewart for the Seattle Storm in 2020 had done it before Monday.
Here are five takeaways from Game 2 of the WNBA Finals.
The Game 1 Second Half
In Saturday’s opener, Reese scored 11 points on 5-of-6 shooting in the first quarter, according to the Valkyries’ game recap. She had 14 points and 6 rebounds at halftime and finished with 14 points and 12 rebounds. Atlanta scored 8 points in the fourth quarter. Golden State closed the game on a 7-0 run, and Gabby Williams scored 6 of those points at the free-throw line on her way to 26.
Before tip-off on Monday, Reese said in an interview with Lauren L. Williams of Atlanta Journal Constitution that second-half fatigue had hit the whole team in Game 1, and that it was no excuse.
“I watched the film, looked back at the spots that I could have had more advantages, and just being assertive,” Reese said. “I can’t let my team down and not being able to assert myself in the second half like I did last game.”
A force to be reckoned with
Angel Reese (24y, 166d) is now the youngest player in WNBA history to record 30+ points and 15+ rebounds in a Finals game! She becomes the third player ever to do so and joins Jonquel Jones and Breanna Stewart. 30 PTS | 16 REB | 3 AST | 2 BLKS | 10-16 FG #WNBASeason30 | #2026WNBAFinals
— WNBA (@WNBA) October 20, 2026
How the Dream Got Angel Reese the Ball
Monday’s first Atlanta basket was a Reese driving layup off a Rhyne Howard pass 47 seconds after tip-off. Eight of her 10 field goals came off assists, and Jordin Canada threw four of them. Three were fast-break layups, two in the second quarter and one in the third. She had 8 points and 5 rebounds after one quarter and 15 points and 7 rebounds at halftime, with Atlanta ahead 39-37.
Valkyries coach Natalie Nakase plans to spend the next 48 hours listening to her players. She wants to figure out how her message on the game plan, the fight, and the physicality did not get through.
“Pick-and-roll, pocket pass,” Nakase said. “They were definitely looking for her for the pick-and-roll, looking for the pocket pass at the same time, just trying to give her her touches around the elbow area, which she likes.”
“But I thought, again, her rebounding, her fight, it was at a high level tonight,” Nakase continued.
Atlanta finished with 19 fast-break points. Golden State had 0. The Valkyries committed 19 turnovers, and the Dream scored 24 points off them.
When Angel Reese wants the ball you get her the ball
She absorbs the contact and scores through it for the and-1! ATL-GSV | USA Network | Peacock | #WNBASeason30 | #2026WNBAFinals Tap to watch: https://t.co/FUPSqCIaOU https://t.co/AH154fCnZM
— WNBA (@WNBA) October 20, 2026
Atlanta’s 18-4 Third-Quarter Run
Kaitlyn Chen‘s 3-foot pull-up bank shot tied the game 42-42 with 5:40 left in the third quarter. Atlanta scored 18 of the next 22 points.
Reese’s first field goal of the second half came at 4:49, a fast-break layup off an Allisha Gray pass, and she made the free throw that followed. Two more free throws came at 1:49 after a Kiah Stokes foul. At 46.2 seconds, she finished a layup off a Howard pass. With 26.1 seconds left, she took the ball from Kaila Charles and made two free throws after Tiffany Hayes fouled her. Canada stole a Hayes pass and hit a 32-foot pull-up 3 with 0.8 seconds left for a 60-46 lead.
Reese scored 9 points during the run and 9 in the quarter. Golden State scored 9 points in the third on 4-of-15 shooting and did not attempt a free throw. Howard had 3 of her 6 steals in the period.
Canada finished with 13 points, 7 rebounds, and 10 assists, and she still did not think she played well. In her view, she forced tough shots and gave Golden State too many chances to get downhill.
“Angel is such a generational talent,” Canada said. “Just to see her thrive in the Finals has been really special to watch and you can just see that she wants it really bad. She’s such a competitor and we feed off of her energy.”
“I think tonight she set the tone for sure and it just trickled down to the whole team,” Canada continued. “She was talking to us throughout the whole game and keeping us confident. There was one point, she’s like, I need the ball, I need the ball, and we gave her the ball and she went to work and that’s why she ended up with a 30-piece.”
“Just to see her end up in this moment on such a high stage and executing and doing what she needs to do for our team is just really special to watch,” Canada said.
Reese walked off the court after Game 1 not feeling like herself. Monday, she wanted to walk off feeling like who she is.
“I’m not going to tell you exactly what I said but like I said, I think I let the team down last game by only getting two shot attempts and that was on me,” Reese explained. “I wasn’t aggressive enough. I said it wasn’t anything that they did. It was just me. I think I got a little lax. I didn’t take advantage of the opportunities.”
“Karl always talks about the screen quality and that also helps me a lot when I can get and sets good screens, belly on body and pick-and-roll and find my spots, that makes it a lot easier,” Reese continued.
“I don’t recognize it in the moment but looking at this game and being able to put a complete game together just goes to show, Karl was right,” Reese said.
Fouls and Free Throws
Atlanta went 30-of-35 at the line, and Golden State went 16-of-19. In the third quarter, the Dream went 12-of-12.
Reese picked up her third foul with 4:57 left in the second quarter and sat for 43 seconds. She also sat the final 2:02 of the half. Through all 10 minutes of the third quarter, she did not commit a foul. Her fourth and fifth fouls both came with 5:21 left in the fourth. Her only 3-point attempt came off a Canada pass at 4:15 and put Atlanta ahead 74-55.
Stokes finished with 0 points, 11 rebounds, and 4 blocks in 30:23. Two of those blocks came on Reese shots, one in the first quarter and one 71 seconds into the third.
The free-throw gap was on the Valkyries, not the officials, for Stokes, who wants her team to stop reaching and “getting really dumb fouls.”
“She does a great job of taking advantage of mismatches,” Stokes said. “So I was really just trying to stay with her when she started to get going, but she just has a great motor and she works really hard. She makes it difficult not to foul her.
“And like you said, she can finish with her right and her left hand,” Stokes continued. “So for me, it’s just trying to make her score over me. But she had a great game today. So we really just have to get back to the drawing board today and see what else we can come up with.”
Angel Reese Brought Intensity
Atlanta acquired Reese from the Chicago Sky in an offseason trade. She won the WNBA’s Defensive Player of the Year award this season. This is her third season in the league. Before Saturday, the Dream had not lost a playoff game.
Dream coach Karl Smesko said the ask after Game 1 was cleaning up the boards, because Atlanta had given up too many second shots. Golden State had 12 offensive rebounds on Saturday and 6 on Monday.
“Even from going in the locker room, first person I made eye contact with was Angel and I’m like, oh, I like this look,” Smesko said. “I like this look.”
“She started off aggressive,” Smesko continued. “One thing we try to do is just give her a couple more breaks during the game, so that she can just keep that intensity going throughout the entire game, and she was just fantastic. Just on both ends of the floor, just a superior performance.”
Game 3 at State Farm Arena
For two months, people around Reese have been pouring into her, from current teammates to former ones. Their message has been to keep being herself and stay aggressive.
“I was hungry,” Reese said. “I wanted one and we let one slip away and you can’t do that, especially on the road. This is a good environment and a good team. We all came together and we were pissed. We felt disappointed. We felt embarrassed, and we didn’t like the outcome of that last game and we didn’t want another one to let slip in.
“Like JC said, I bring a lot of energy in the locker room, if it’s just a joke, if it’s just talking sh– it’s just my energy,” Reese continued. “I wanted to make sure I was ready and on my toes, and whatever the team needed tonight, I was willing to do, and that’s just what the outcome was.”
Game 3 is Wednesday, Oct. 21, at State Farm Arena in Atlanta. The league moved Games 3 and 4 there from Gateway Center Arena, the Dream’s regular home, which holds 3,500. Game 4 is Saturday, Oct. 24, at 1 p.m. ET.
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