Photo courtesy of the Atlanta Dream
LOS ANGELES — Angel Reese keeps finding new ways to put her name in the history books, and this time she brought the entire Atlanta Dream offense along for the ride. The Dream demolished the Los Angeles Sparks 124-88 on Thursday night at Crypto.com Arena, Atlanta set franchise records for points and assists in a game while Reese authored one of the cleanest, most complete stat lines of her career.
Reese didn’t just have a big night — she had a perfect one. She hit all nine of her field goal attempts, setting a new franchise record for most made shots without a miss. She finished with 20 points, 10 rebounds for her 25th double-double of the season, eight assists, and three steals. And with 2:04 left in the second quarter, she grabbed her second offensive board of the night — her 173rd of the season — breaking her own WNBA single-season offensive rebounding record, a mark she originally set back in 2024.
“You want to be consistent,” Reese said afterward. “This is my first time looking forward to a postseason. We’re kind of leaving a taste in everyone’s mouth right now what it’s like for the Atlanta Dream going into the postseason.”
Fast Start, Total Domination
Any suspense in this one evaporated in the opening 10 minutes. Atlanta jumped out to a 34-12 lead in the first quarter, punctuated by a Rhyne Howard 3-pointer at the buzzer, while shooting 66.7% from the field and holding the Sparks to just 31.3%. Reese was locked in from the jump, going a perfect 3-for-3.
She wasn’t done. Reese drilled two more 3-pointers to push the Atlanta lead to 47-21 with 6:21 left in the second quarter — the second of those threes capping a personal 10-0 run in which she scored every single point herself. By halftime she’d gone 5-for-5 from the field, and the Dream carried a commanding 62-41 lead into the break, setting a new franchise record for points in a half (59) — a mark the team had now hit twice this season, both times against these same Sparks.
Atlanta never let up. A 32-point third quarter, tying a season high, extended the lead to 94-62 heading into the fourth, at which point Head Coach Karl Smesko was able to rest his starters for most of the frame with Saturday’s game at Phoenix already on the horizon.
A Full Team Effort
This wasn’t a one-woman show, even with Reese’s record-breaking night stealing headlines. Rhyne Howard led all scorers with 26 points, connecting on 5 of 8 attempts from deep. Naz Hillmon chipped in 14 points and four blocks, Allisha Gray added 13, and Madina Okot scored 12 off the bench. Remarkably, every single Atlanta player who saw the floor scored — and the Dream racked up 35 assists on 46 made field goals, a testament to how freely the ball moved all night.
The final numbers were staggering across the board: Atlanta broke its own franchise records for points (124) and assists (35) in a game, posted its second-largest margin of victory (36) of the season, and shot 63.9% from the field — while also setting a season high in 3-point shooting at 61.5%.
“I felt good about when the game started that we would play well today, and so many people did,” Smesko said. “So, that was good.”
Hillmon echoed the sentiment postgame, pointing to the team’s growing consistency as the season winds down. “Tonight was a great win,” she said. “Just putting together 40 minutes; for the last two games we’ve been able to do that.”
Where the Dream Stand
The win keeps Atlanta (23-13) rolling on its four-game West Coast road trip — this marked their second straight victory on the trip — and holds steady at fifth in the overall standings, one game behind third-place Las Vegas and a half-game behind fourth-place Indiana. The Dream sit 1.5 games ahead of sixth-place Washington and seventh-place New York, and 2.5 games clear of eighth-place Dallas as the playoff picture continues to take shape.
With a statement win like this in the books, Atlanta doesn’t have much time to enjoy it — the Dream turn right around for the next stop on their road trip, a matchup at Phoenix on Saturday.
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