10/21/2026 11:11:00
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10/21 23:09 CDT Atlanta Dream beat the Golden State Valkyries 97-71 for a 2-1
lead in the WNBA Finals
Atlanta Dream beat the Golden State Valkyries 97-71 for a 2-1 lead in the WNBA
Finals
By DOUG FEINBERG
AP Basketball Writer
ATLANTA (AP) --- Angel Reese and the Atlanta Dream are halfway toward their
ultimate goal of winning the franchise's first WNBA championship.
They know there is still work to do. But with a huge Atlanta crowd behind them
and Reese dominating the last two games, there's reason to believe in a team
that never even had a WNBA Finals win until this series.
Reese had 21 points and 12 rebounds to help the Dream beat the Golden State
Valkyries 97-71 on Wednesday night and take a 2-1 lead. It was the second
straight strong game for Reese, who had 30 points and 16 rebounds in Game 2,
which the Dream also won for their first victory ever in the championship
round. She has a double-double in each game of the finals.
"It feels good when you're in the finals. It's a long season and you play
against everybody and go through and push through, but when you can do it at
the highest level, this is what you live for, this is what the offseason is
for," Reese said. "I put the work in for this moment and I'm just happy I could
lead the team to a win. We're feeling good going into Saturday."
That game will also be played at State Farm Arena. Both games in Atlanta were
originally set for the Gateway Center Arena, where the Dream play most of their
home games. The league was able to work with the Atlanta Hawks to play Games 3
and 4 there so that they could have a much bigger crowd. Gateway only seats
3,500. State Farm Arena can seat more than 17,000 fans.
And they made a difference.
"Protect home court," said Atlanta's Rhyne Howard, who had 16 points and five
steals. "Giving our fans a show. We fought for this arena so we had to protect
it. It's big. We went and stole one but we can't let them come in and do the
same thing."
With the game tied at 49 in the third quarter, Atlanta scored eight straight,
including four by Reese. Golden State got within 59-55 on Tiffany Hayes' layup,
but could get no closer as Atlanta closed the quarter scoring 12 of the final
14 points.
"I'm most proud of the second half because the first few possessions were a
little sloppy. I was really close to using a timeout. They pulled together on
their own and got it worked out, cleaned it up themselves," Atlanta coach Karl
Smesko said. "They knew what mistakes they were making, and they huddled up.
And then they started making plays, and it started. The crowd started getting
behind it."
Atlanta has dominated the third quarter so far in the series, outscoring Golden
State 63-35 combined in the three games.
With Atlanta up 17 in the fourth quarter, Jordin Canada overthrew Reese on the
break, but she saved the ball by throwing it over her head underneath the
basket to Howard, who got fouled.
Golden State could never recover. Gabby Williams scored 15 points and Hayes
added 14 for the Valkyries.
"Disappointed in our fight. This game they wanted it more than us," Hayes said.
"That's not who we are, who we've been and how we got here."
Wednesday night's game was sold out, as is Game 4 on Saturday. The crowd
included many music stars, including Ludacris. Former NBA player Enes Kanter
Freedom said he was going to be at the game. The Atlanta Dream and State Farm
Arena offered him a private suite for his protection. He refused to sit in it
and left the arena.
The game got off to a slow start as Atlanta led 9-1 after the first five
minutes. Golden State missed its first eight shots before Aminata Gueye scored
the first basket for the Valkyries with 4:39 left. They got within 13-10 before
Naz Hillmon hit consecutive 3-pointers and then Reese hit one. The Dream led
23-15 after the opening quarter.
The hot 3-point shooting continued in the second quarter as Atlanta built its
lead to 37-26 midway through the period. Golden State was able to hang around
and only trailed 46-40 at the break as the teams combined to shoot 15-for-31
(48%) from behind the arc. That was more made 3-pointers in the first 20
minutes then in either Game 1 or Game 2.
Reese had 15 points and WNBA Sixth Woman of the Year Janelle Salaun had 11 for
the Valkyries.
Game 1 and 2 had huge ratings with the opener on NBC averaging 2.1 million, the
most ever to watch a first game of the Finals. Game 2, which was broadcast on
USA Network, averaged 1.33 million viewers.
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