Welcome to the trap: swaggering Atlanta Dream turn WNBA finals into a hometown spectacle

The Atlanta Dream were exactly where they wanted to be on Wednesday night, comfortably ensconced inside their downtown arena for Game 3 of the WNBA finals against the Golden State Valkyries. Kerry Washington, Ludacris and Cam Newton led the courtside celebrity delegation. Quavo and TI headlined the halftime show, while two more hugely popular Atlanta rappers performed during other extended play stoppages – a mini-spectacle that speaks to the city’s deep bench of hip-hop talent.

Related: Angel Reese stars again as Atlanta Dream thrash Valkyries to seize WNBA finals lead

But it was the crowd that really made State Farm Arena a house of horrors for Golden State. They didn’t just fill the 20,000-seat venue. They donned matching sky-blue T-shirts and waved rally towels. They sang along with their favorite emcees and lived and died with every point. They were so loud in the first quarter that I couldn’t hear the referee’s whistle from my 100-level press seat. They stayed to the end – well, two minutes from the buzzer anyway (gotta beat traffic) – and, with the 97-71 win sealed and DJ Khaled’s All I Do Is Win blasting through the arena speakers, serenaded the departing Valkyries with the unofficial Atlanta battle cry: “ATL hoe!”

Angel Reese never knew basketball could be like this. “When you can have at the end of the quarter a performance,” she gushed after a 21-point, 12-rebound effort. “And at the timeout, another performance. You smell the chicken, you smell the fish. It’s a blue-out in here. I didn’t even get to see Kerry. You don’t know who you gonna see in the A.”

Atlanta has always been a strange sports town – one where fans learn not to fall too hard, lest they get burned by teams that either get ahead of themselves, self-destruct or wear out your patience with their underachieving. So fans proceed with apprehension. They find out-of-town teams to insulate themselves from disappointment, leave games early when defeat seems imminent and convince themselves they’re just beating traffic. They enjoy the music, the invitations to sing along and swag surf.

The last time a playoff basketball game was played at State Farm Arena, the Knicks routed the Hawks to seal their Eastern Conference first-round series – and by the end, the New York fans had cleared out most of the Atlanta supporters and glitterati. With the Hawks down some 40 points, rappers Young Joc and Lil Boosie performed their hits for a crowd that half-bobbed along. It was hard to imagine the Atlanta sports scene getting more unserious.

Then the Dream reached the WNBA finals, only to learn they wouldn’t be able to play at State Farm Arena – their occasional home court. The Hawks, State Farm’s main tenant, were opening their season, while rising emo-pop artist Sombr had a gig scheduled. The Dream faced the possibility of hosting their first WNBA finals game in 13 years at the 3,500-seat airport arena where they played most of their home games, with neither the local college arenas nor the 13,000-seat suburban concert venue available. Gateway would have made for a jarring contrast with Chase Center – the NBA arena where the Valkyries’ passionate, violet-clad fans have created Ballhalla, one of the WNBA’s toughest places to play. The racial and economic makeup of the Atlanta and Golden State crowds would have surely added another dimension. But a combined effort by the teams, the league and the arena to bring the games to State Farm spared us that discourse.

It allowed Dream fans to show they can match that home-court advantage when Atlanta has a team worth believing in and the right venue. Three previous times the Dream have reached the finals, only for all three appearances to end in sweeps. But no one was thinking much about that on Wednesday night. Not with the Dream holding the Valkyries scoreless for the first five minutes before picking up where they left off in Game 2 and smothering them with their defense. Not with Reese jawing at the Valkyries bench after tough layups and, for good measure, setting off the crowd with a pair of open threes as her college coach, LSU’s Kim Mulkey, looked on in her blued-out pantsuit. Not with the Dream’s length and speed throwing a spanner into the Valkyries’ carefully choreographed offense, forcing Golden State to heave away at the basket late in the shot clock.

Only thanks to three-point shooting from Cecilia Zandalasini and Gabby Williams did Golden State cut the deficit to six by halftime, then pulled level at 48 in the third quarter, with Zandalasini perfect beyond the arc to that point. Otherwise, a Valkyries team that prides itself on depth and balance was mostly caught off guard by a Dream team beating them at their own game while also doing what they do best: short-circuiting the pick-and-roll, winning extra possessions on steals and rebounds and scoring in transition.

Rhyne Howard, one of three Dream players named to the WNBA’s all-defensive team last week, became the first player to record five or more steals in consecutive finals games. Reese, the newly crowned defensive player of the year, became the youngest player in WNBA history to record a double-double in three straight finals games and joined A’ja Wilson as the only players to record at least 20 points and 10 rebounds in consecutive finals games. The Valkyries bench was a major factor again, outscoring the Dream reserves 38-27. But that advantage counted for little with Atlanta neutralizing Golden State starters Kiah Stokes, Veronica Burton and Kayla Thornton, who combined for five points on 2-of-11 shooting.

When the final buzzer sounded, the Valkyries slinked off the court in defeat, while the Dream gathered at midcourt to drink in the atmosphere and toss mini balls into the stands, hard-won souvenirs for the sixth man who showed up and showed out. Hardly a Sombr crowd. And to think: if it hadn’t been for a sloppy final two minutes in Game 1, Atlanta would still have a perfect playoff record and be looking at a chance to clinch a title in Game 4 on Saturday afternoon in front of their fans. Instead, they’ll look to exploit their fearsome new home-court advantage. If Golden State have Ballhalla, beware Atlanta: home of the trap.