SAN FRANCISCO — During pregame warmups ahead of Game 2, Angel Reese went through a little bit of everything. Top-of-key jumpers. Take a few steps back, above-the-break 3s.
It’s time for Around The World, now — 3s from the corner, the wing, above the break, the opposite wing, and finishing with the opposite corner. It’s drive time, working on contested finishes after attacking from the elbow. Then it’s time for reverse finishes.
Reese will briefly look around the court in between drills, but she’s ultimately locked in. No frills, no distractions; just focused prep with a little more weight on her shoulders.
There’s pressure on the Dream to steal a road win, especially after “letting one slip away” in Reese’s words. A 68-64 Game 1 loss could’ve easily been a two-possession win had their execution not faltered. Reese took her own share of accountability after Game 1. An 11-point first quarter ultimately ended in a 14-point performance, her involvement and production waning in the second half. It wasn’t anything the Valkyries did, per Reese; she simply wasn’t aggressive enough. Didn’t do enough.
“I’m definitely going to do a better job of that, next game.”
Boy, did she, lifting her team to a convincing 79-65 win in Game 2.
It takes just 46 seconds for Reese to score her first basket in the contest. She trails in transition following the first of Rhyne Howard’s WNBA Finals record six steals, eventually gets the rock above the break against Cecilia Zandalasini — funny enough, she also gave up the opening bucket in Game 1 — and wins with a jab-and-drive similar to her pregame work.
That’s all it takes for the tone to be set.
Then it’s a putback following a Howard miss, after another steal. A double-PnR rep with Jordin Canada at the helm that leads to a layup against Laeticia Amihere — a subtle Game 1 hero due to her defensive work on Reese, but that wouldn’t carry over on Monday night.
An elbow flash to set up an immediate drive and drawn foul against Aminata Gueye, one of the surprise rotational stories of the postseason. That sends Reese to the line, which culminates in a healthy back-and-forth that ends with Reese telling Gueye that she can’t, um, mess with her.
It’s a similar script in the second quarter. A transition basket less than a minute in. Another attack off an elbow flash, this time against Amihere. Amihere is bumped back a few inches on the drive; Tiffany Hayes, trying to blindside Reese with a steal, trips during the attempt. The shot and Hayes fall at nearly the same time.
Drives. Dump-offs. Putbacks. Bullying on the block. Pick-and-roll play. Reese just doesn’t stop.
(As an aside: whew, was it refreshing to see her screening perk up. After making contact on 44.4% of her on-ball screens in Game 1, it skyrocketed to 74.2% in Game 2. The team as a whole — from 39.5% to 68.6% — made a massive step there.)
It isn’t a perfect affair. Kiah Stokes blocks Reese on multiple trips. Kaila Charles forces a tie-up. It doesn’t matter.
And when it feels like things are getting quiet on the Reese front in the third quarter, risking a repeat of Game 1’s low-involvement frame, she’s there with another reminder.
A catch in transition, a small cross to her left, and a contested finish over a backpedaling Stokes for an and-one. Then, the proclamation, twice: give me the [redacted] ball.
Reese keeps coming. Keeps scoring. Keeps drawing fouls, Keeps the pressure on. Keeps her word — I won’t let my teammates down again.
The end result, punctuated by yet another postseason triple — Reese is now 6-of-15 from deep during her inaugural playoff run and, as my teammate Cassandra Negley pointed out, the Dream are undefeated in the games Reese has made one — was a win, and a history-making performance. For Reese, the former matters a lot more than the latter.
Still: 30 points, 16 rebounds (4 offensive rebounds), 3 assists, 1 steal and 2 blocks is the stuff of legend.
Reese is one of six players in WNBA history to have a 30-15 game in the playoffs. She’s one of three players to do so in the Finals. She’s the youngest player to accomplish either.
Basketball-Reference has a box score metric called “Game Score,” which uses a formula to determine the most prolific games. The Valkyries, a historically good defense, simply hasn’t allowed a bunch of great individual performances this year.
Only 13 times has a player logged a Game Score north of 20 this season (regular season + playoffs), the fewest allowed by a team all year.
It’s fitting that it’s taken, well, historic performances to knock off the Valkyries this postseason. The top game against them? Arike Ogunbowale’s 45-point, record-setting masterpiece. Next on the list? Reese’s 30-16-3-1-2 masterpiece from Monday night.
Zoom out, and the Dream have ultimately gotten a road split as the series shifts back to Atlanta. Shifts to State Farm Arena, a larger venue that Reese’s presence dictates as a home. The Valkyries will go back to the drawing board, looking to showcase better ball control (18 turnovers, tied for their season-high) and ultimately open things up offensively.
In the meantime, we should sit with this Reese performance. It’s not every night that you see history made; you should appreciate it in real time.