Angel Reese keeps finding new ways to leave her fingerprints on the Atlanta Dream record books — and Friday night at Gateway Center Arena, she added another line to her growing legend, powering the Dream to a 98-89 win over the Seattle Storm.
With a putback in the fourth quarter, Reese grabbed the sixth offensive rebound of her night — and the 137th of her season, breaking the franchise’s single-season offensive rebounding record previously held by teammate Brionna Jones. It’s a mark she’ll have 16 more regular-season games to extend.
“I’m just trying to do my job,” Reese said afterward, characteristically matter-of-fact about a moment that’s anything but ordinary. “Honestly, every night I just want to come out, just be consistent for my team, and give them opportunities, just to get a second chance.”
That relentlessness at the rim has become Reese’s calling card, but Friday she showed she’s more than a bruiser on the glass. She finished with 13 rebounds and a team-high 21 points for her 19th double-double in 28 games — and she did it while knocking down two 3-pointers, the first multi-make outing from deep of her season.
“These are shots that we work on every single day,” Reese said. “It obviously always doesn’t show up right away when you want it to, but it feels good for the small win.”
Head coach Karl Smesko said the coaching staff has been breaking down Reese’s shot on film, and it showed: her release looked comfortable, and she’d been draining 3s from all over the arc during pregame warmups. On a night when the Dream shot just 38.5% from the field as a team, Reese’s growing range gave Atlanta another way to answer Seattle’s punches.
Thunder Twins, and a Triplet, Power the Frontcourt
Reese wasn’t alone up front. Naz Hillmon — the other half of what Reese has dubbed the “Thunder Twins” — scored 18 points, while Jones, the newly-anointed “Thunder Triplet,” added 14. Jordin Canada ran the offense with 10 points, Rhyne Howard chipped in nine, and Jaylyn Sherrod added seven off the bench.
It was that frontcourt pressure that set the tone. Atlanta piled up 17 second-chance points and used it to build a lead as large as 17 in the first half — even as the Dream struggled to find its shot, hitting a scorching 87.2% (34 of 39) from the free-throw line and forcing Seattle to miss 18 of its 23 attempts from deep.
A Fourth-Quarter Wobble, Then a Reese Answer
Seattle wasn’t going away quietly. The Storm trimmed Atlanta’s cushion to seven entering the fourth quarter, and it looked for a moment like the game might slip away when sloppy ball-handling let the lead shrink to five.
That’s when Reese took over. She drilled back-to-back 3-pointers in the final period — the first pushing the lead to 10 seconds into the quarter, the second, paired with a Canada layup, restoring a 76-66 cushion after Seattle had crept back within striking distance.
“There was a point in the game where it might have gotten to four points, and we were able to pick it back up and stretch it back out to 10,” Hillmon said. “It just shows that when we’re on, we’re on, and we can really get it going quickly.”
Reese’s record-breaking rebound came moments later, and she cashed in the putback to push the margin to 83-72 with 4:51 remaining. Seattle made one final push, cutting the deficit to 92-88 with 43 seconds left, but free throws from Allisha Gray sealed it, extending the Dream’s winning streak to five.
Smesko didn’t sugarcoat how tight it felt down the stretch. “I didn’t think the game was comfortable until the last 10 seconds,” he said.
Looking Ahead
At 18-10, the Dream ride their longest winning streak of the season into a Monday home date with Las Vegas at State Farm Arena — a game in which Smesko could also move into third place on the franchise’s all-time coaching wins list.
Smesko sees a team still trending upward. “We have the makings of a great team, but the best teams do it for longer periods of time,” he said. “We’re getting better. Every team is getting better. If you aren’t getting better, you’re getting left behind. We have one more big step left to take, and we’re capable of taking it.”
With Reese rewriting the record book on a near-nightly basis and the Thunder Twins — plus a Triplet — rounding into form, Atlanta looks like a team building real momentum heading into the stretch run.
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