Angel Reese's 30-and-16 Powers Dream Past Valkyries, Evens WNBA Finals

Angel Reese scored 30 points and pulled down 16 rebounds, and the Atlanta Dream forced 19 Golden State turnovers into 24 points on Monday night, as Atlanta beat the Valkyries 79-65 in Game 2 of the WNBA Finals at Chase Center to even the best-of-seven series at one game apiece.

The official box score shows Golden State led after the first quarter, 21-18, before the two defensive-minded clubs traded the lead repeatedly through a tight first half that left the Dream up 39-37 at the break. Atlanta then seized control in the third quarter, outscoring Golden State 21-9 while going a perfect 12-for-12 from the free-throw line in that span alone, and never trailed again.

The numbers

Reese went 10-for-16 from the field and 9-for-11 at the line, adding three assists, two steals and two blocks in 34 minutes for the best Finals performance of her career. Allisha Gray scored 18 points on 4-of-11 shooting while making 7 of 8 free throws, and point guard Jordin Canada added 13 points, 10 assists and seven rebounds. Naz Hillmon, who played 30 quiet minutes on the stat sheet, finished a team-best plus-14.

Both offenses struggled against the league's two best defensive units from the regular season, Atlanta shot 34% from the field and Golden State matched that mark almost exactly, each team also hitting fewer than 30% of its three-point attempts. The difference showed up at the free-throw line and in transition: Atlanta went 30-for-35 on free throws to Golden State's 16-for-19, and the Dream scored 19 fast-break points to the Valkyries' zero.

• Atlanta: 21-62 FG (34%), 7-25 3PT, 30-35 FT, 36 rebounds, 17 assists, 14 steals, 14 turnovers
• Golden State: 21-61 FG (34%), 7-24 3PT, 16-19 FT, 32 rebounds, 10 assists, 8 steals, 19 turnovers

Golden State's leading scorers were Tiffany Hayes with 14 points and Gabby Williams with 14 points on an inefficient 3-of-15 shooting night; center Kiah Stokes grabbed 11 rebounds and blocked four shots but did not score. Guard Veronica Burton added 11 points but was one of several Valkyries who struggled to hold onto the ball against Atlanta's pressure.

How the series got here

Golden State had won Game 1 on Saturday, 68-64, behind its defense, which ranked first in the league this season; Atlanta's ranked second. Reese, who managed just 14 points on 5-of-11 shooting in that opener and was visibly frustrated with her own passivity in the second half, said she had vowed to be a different player in Game 2. This is Reese's first season with Atlanta after being traded from the Chicago Sky in the offseason, and she enters this series as the league's reigning Defensive Player of the Year.

The matchup pits two franchises that have never won a WNBA title. Golden State is in just its second season of existence after becoming the league's first expansion team to reach the playoffs in its inaugural year in 2025; this is the Valkyries' first trip to the Finals. Atlanta, by contrast, is making its first Finals appearance since 2013 and had gone 0-10 across its three prior Finals trips dating back to 2010 before Monday's win, the first Finals victory in franchise history, according to ESPN's recap.

Reaction

Reese described the mindset shift after Game 1 in blunt terms. "I let my team down last game, not really contributing as much as I could in the second half," she said, according to ESPN's game recap. "I just wanted to make sure I came out tonight and left my mark. And I think I did that."

"I was hungry. I think we let one slip away [Saturday]. You can't do that. We all came together and were pissed. We felt disappointed, we felt embarrassed. I walked off the court not feeling like myself, and I wanted to make sure that this game, I did everything I could do to walk off the court and feel like who I am." — Angel Reese

Atlanta coach Karl Smesko said he caught Reese's eye in the locker room before tipoff and liked what he saw. On the other bench, Golden State coach Natalie Nakase was measured in her postgame assessment of the physicality that produced Atlanta's 30 free-throw attempts, saying her staff would review film before Game 3. "We're going to see how close these fouls were," Nakase said. "[The Dream] do lunge forward at times. We've just got to make sure we take a close look. We have to play harder, No. 1, but we have to play smarter as well."

Nakase was more direct about the turnover problem that Atlanta exploited for the second straight game of real defensive pressure, telling reporters, according to ESPN, that the Dream's "effort, their hustle, their fight" had disrupted Golden State's offense. "It's frustrating, that's been part of our identity. Because our identity is defense, we hang our hats on that," she said. "The hustle is the turnovers because in order for you to get turnovers they have to kind of outhustle you to create the turnovers." Guard Veronica Burton, who had three of Golden State's 19 turnovers, put the responsibility on herself: "We were just a little too loose with the ball. It starts with me. I think we had a lot of times where we were hesitant or we weren't on that same page, and that's where it led to turnovers."

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution's live coverage of the game similarly emphasized how much of Atlanta's third-quarter surge came directly off Golden State giveaways, turning a tied game into what became a 14-point final margin.

What happens next

The series shifts to Atlanta for Game 3 on Wednesday night, where the Dream will try to take their first lead of the Finals in front of a home crowd. Golden State, whose roster and coaching staff are detailed on the Valkyries' official site, won all three regular-season meetings between the clubs this year, giving Nakase's team a recent track record to lean on even after Monday's setback. Both coaches made clear that ball security and foul discipline, not shot-making, will be the focus heading into Game 3, with neither offense having shot better than 34% in either of the first two games of the series.