ATLANTA - Angel Reese can feel the momentum shift. The swing is as much mental as it is physical.
After dropping a tense Game 1 of the WNBA Finals against the Golden State Valkyries last Saturday at Chase Center, Reese and the Atlanta Dream entered a flow, won the next two decisively and gathered a sold out, raucous home crowd at State Farm Arena to back them.
Conversely, the Valkyries are tasting their first bits of vulnerability, palpable enough to spill over when Gabby Williams gave her teammates a heated pep talk following their Game 3 loss at State Farm Arena on Wednesday.
Reese is making sure the Valkyries know she and the Dream are confident and can smell blood.
"I think it's a mental game," Reese said Friday ahead of Saturday's Game 4 in Atlanta. "Like they're playing into my mental game where I can take their confidence and just try to do whatever to mess them up."
Reese is talking trash overtly enough for broadcast cameras to capture - whether she's blocking shots and showing Valkyries players they're "too little" by pressing her fingers together or offering up dismissive words to those who attempt to defend her - and can feel its impact on Golden State.
"I think you can see it in their emotions, in their facial expressions," Reese said Friday. "A lot of us are looking at that, too. Making sure we can find any little thing to get our edge and have leverage over them. I think all of us are looking at that. I'll come to the timeout and say, ‘They're tired.' Looking at those small things that can give us a bit more of an edge."
The Valkyries' defense has been able to vanquish stars in its path this postseason - the Dallas Wings' Paige Bueckers and Las Vegas Aces' A'ja Wilson to name two - but Reese presents a different type of challenge.
Not only is she playing at her best on both ends, but the entire offense is feeding off a Dream defense that is largely outdoing Golden State's unit. Atlanta is forcing turnovers and getting its offense in transition - beating the Valkyries handily at their own game.
Two days between Games 3 and 4 give the Valkyries plenty of time to review the film and iron out kinks. They can be more careful with the ball, Veronica Burton said, to avoid taking the passing lanes the Dream defense is effectively blocking. But adjustments to the Xs and Os aren't going to cut it, they have to push back in the mental game.
"I think we have to be able to step up and take it, but give it back. Some people don't talk trash, but being more physical, making sure we're imposing, dictating a lot more," Kaila Charles said, adding that the days off were spent discussing why the Valkyries weren't "playing like themselves."
"Understanding that this is the Finals. There's no other chance after this," Charles said. "There's no point in holding back. It's about leaving everything out and understanding that the opportunity we have, not a lot of people get to the stage."
Williams' animated huddle moment might be viewed as a low point of the series externally - the team leader upset at the series deficit - but for the team it proved a moment to regroup and kick their fight to the next level.
"I think I've been a little bit too loose as a leader, and that's kind of where, especially like Coach (Natalie Nakase) has been pushing me," Williams said. "I think I've been a little bit too much of, ‘It's all right. We'll figure it out. We're good. We're good.' So I just wanted to show my team like something different because we need something different.
"I mean, these are two games that just haven't been us, so I had to get out of my comfort zone and try to, you know, re-motivate the troops. I guess so. That's what that speech was about, you know. And then we'd be able to go back in the locker room and talk more about it. But yeah, it's never easy to do. But I definitely just wanted to show my teammates a different kind of fire."
The Valkyries have an opportunity Saturday in Atlanta to even the series 2-2 and shift the momentum back their way. They'll play a Game 5 at home regardless and have home-court advantage the rest of the way.
With a wild crowd just as engaged as they were deafening from tip off to the final buzzer, Atlanta proved Wednesday its home-court advantage is just as strong - if they can play Game 6 at a large capacity arena. Chase Center boasts stars like George Lucas, E-40, Too $hort and Steph Curry at the Valkyries games, but Atlanta countered with actress Kerry Washington, and rappers Ludacris and 2 Chainz.
The Valkyries will be in better shape if they can notch a road win, something Reese and the Dream have already done at Ballhalla. Reese had thoughts on the difference between the two home crowds.
"Atlanta is like, Gen Z. Like everybody knows what's going on," Reese said. "Like it's just if you know, you know, and that's the experience here. Like I don't know how in words to explain it, but like everybody's just like cousins and brothers and sisters, and everybody's just rallying together, and they just want to see that one team win. And I think that's just really cool.
"Like Ballhalla doesn't intimidate me. I feel like if I was on the other side and I was coming to Atlanta, it would be a little intimidating to see all these people."
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There’s more to San Francisco with the Chronicle. Subscribe today for just 25¢.This article originally published at Atlanta's Angel Reese convinced Dream now holds mental edge on Valkyries.