Angel Reese and the Atlanta Dream are headed to the WNBA Finals, and Reese is beating Caitlin Clark there. Atlanta finished a three-game sweep of the New York Liberty on Friday with an 85-83 win, punching their first Finals ticket since 2013.
After the game, Reese told reporters about a training camp moment that stuck with her all season. Coach Karl Smesko once stopped a drill cold and refused to let it continue until Reese made two 3-pointers in a row, in front of the entire team.
“It’s really hard for me to not want to rush success, and Karl told me how patient I had to be with it. I remember a very moment in training camp where we were going through drills and he stopped everybody and told me I had to make two in a row in front of everybody,” Reese said. “And you never want to shutdown your teammates, you never want to let your teammates down, and we couldn’t resume the drill until I made two in a row, and I was upset with him that day for sure. Because I didn’t want to let the team down, I didn’t want to feel embarrassed and in how long it coulda took me to make them. But now it’s like so easy.”
Asked how many shots it took her to finally drain two straight, Reese said she didn’t know. Smesko jumped in: “It wasn’t that many.” Reese added, “My teammates are cheering for me on the sideline, and I was pretty embarrassed.”
Reese has built a reputation as a shaky shooter, and she’s leaned into the joke herself, launching a merchandise line called “Mebounds” in 2025 — a nod to the rebounds she grabs off her own misses. She pushed back on criticism of her missed layups back in November 2024, after a rookie season in which she shot 39.1%.
The numbers have moved, but slowly. She shot 45.1% from the field this regular season, just under the 45.8% she posted last year in Chicago. From deep, she attempted threes more often in Atlanta but still made under one in five — 19.3%, barely up from 18.2% the year before. In the playoffs, though, she’s hit 5 of 13 threes, a 38.5% clip over five games.
Friday’s win capped a strong season for Reese overall. She averaged a career-high 16.4 points, led the league in rebounding again, and took home her first Defensive Player of the Year award. In the clinching game she put up 22 points and nine rebounds.
How She Got to Atlanta
Reese arrived in Atlanta via an April trade that sent two first-round picks and a future second-round pick swap to Chicago, where she’d spent her first two seasons without making the playoffs. The Bulls finished 10-34 in 2025.
She joined a Dream team that already had a franchise-record 30-win season under its belt, with All-Star guards Allisha Gray and Rhyne Howard and two-time champion Jordin Canada on the roster, in coach Karl Smesko’s second year. Atlanta matched that 30-14 mark this season, earning the fourth seed and home-court advantage through the first two playoff rounds against Washington and New York.
The Finals run came despite losing center Brionna Jones to a season-ending leg injury and playing the final two games against New York without Gray, who was out with a left hand injury.
Clark Watches From Home
Caitlin Clark, who entered the league with Reese in 2024, made the playoffs first, in their rookie year. But she missed the entire 2025 postseason with an injury after Indiana eliminated Atlanta last year before falling one win short of the Finals against Las Vegas.
This season Clark averaged a career-high 22.3 points and helped power the highest-scoring offense in WNBA history, alongside Kelsey Mitchell and Aliyah Boston. Indiana finished 28-16 but was knocked out in the first round by defending champion Las Vegas.
Reese now chases her first championship. The Finals start Oct. 17, with Atlanta looking for the first title in franchise history.
