ATLANTA — Since letting Game 1 of the WNBA Finals slip away, the Atlanta Dream have taken command in the best-of-seven series against the Golden State Valkyries.
Now with a 2-1 lead in the series to move two victories away from the title, the No. 4 seed Dream will need to keep their offense flowing on Saturday afternoon when they host the cold-shooting Valkyries.
Atlanta, in search of its first WNBA championship, has won the last two games by a combined 40 points, including a 97-71 rout in Game 3 on Wednesday. Second-year Dream head coach Karl Smesko said his team is properly motivated to extend its series lead.
“Because you want to finish the job,” Smesko said. “These are two great teams going at it, competing at a high level and only one of us gets to be champions. So that should be enough motivation for everybody.”
While the Valkyries’ defense was the talk of Game 1, their offensive struggles continued on the road. Atlanta took charge of the series in Game 3 by shooting 49.3% against the league’s top-ranked defense.
Led by Angel Reese’s 21 points, Atlanta became just the second team all year to score 97 points against Golden State, which yielded just 75.1 points per game during the regular season.
“I knew it was coming, especially being back home,” Reese said of the team’s scoring touch. “You feel the environment; they’re cheering every possession defensively and it leads to offense. The crowd really poured into us. It feels good to be at home on your own court and seeing the basket that you shoot on every single day.”
Arriving in an offseason trade from the Chicago Sky, Reese has put a charge into the Dream. The 24-year-old became the youngest player in WNBA Finals history to record at least 20 points and 10 rebounds in consecutive games.
“My goal was to come to Atlanta and win a championship,” Reese said. “I think you become one of the greats when you impact winning, and that’s all I wanted to do coming here. Everything else really doesn’t matter to me.”
For Golden State head coach Natalie Nakase, the consecutive defeats haven’t been from a lack of effort.
“Our fight has never not been there,” Nakase said. “This is a long series. We’ve been down before. We’ve come back in games where we’ve been down, so now you just put that together in a longer series. … We’re resilient, we’ve done it before and they know that. It’s on my shoulders, though.”
The Valkyries have shot 33.7% across the first three games, while going 26 of 87 (29.9%) from 3-point range. Golden State has also committed a combined 33 turnovers the last two games in a surprising development after leading the league with an average of 10.4 turnovers during the regular season.
“It’s very uncharacteristic of us,” Valkyries guard Tiffany Hayes said. “But we know we’re going to make mistakes, everything’s not always perfect. It’s a series for a reason. We have to adjust, but we have to stay together to do it.”
–Field Level Media
