ATLANTA -- Late Wednesday morning, hours before 17,099 fans packed a sold-out State Farm Arena to watch Angel Reese rattle off 21 points, 12 rebounds, three assists, three steals and two 3-pointers to help fuel the Atlanta Dream to an emphatic 97-71 victory and a 2-1 series lead over the Golden State Valkyries in the 2026 WNBA Finals, Dream assistant coach LaToya Sanders sat in comparative silence before shootaround and tried to find the words to describe what makes Reese so special. "There's this confidence that just can't be taught. You don't have to pull it out of her.
You don't have to motivate her. She has her built-in motivation for herself, Sanders told CBS Sports. "She has that ultimate confidence, but she also takes the time to instill that in her teammates.
Somebody could be shooting bad or just had a turnover or whatever. Like she's gonna go to them and she's gonna motivate them and she's gonna continue to tell them that they're the best person on the planet. She takes that confidence in herself and tries to spread it." In Game 2 of the series on Monday night, Reese laid down a 30-point, 16-rebound virtuoso performance that almost single-handedly lifted the Dream to a 79-65 victory in front of a hostile Ballhalla crowd in San Francisco.
All of Reese's individual talents were also on full display in Game 3 in front of celebrities such as Kerry Washington, Monica, Cam Newton and Reese's college coach Kim Mulkey, who teamed with Reese to win the 2023 NCAA national championship at LSU. In Game 3, she had help; five Dream players scored in double figures and the team shot 49.3% from the field and 40.9% from long range. In person, what stood out the most was exactly what Sanders talked about -- not just Reese's confidence, but the way she wielded it.
You could see her use her confidence to crash the boards and fight for rebounds and jump balls early in the game when buckets were hard to come by for both teams. You could see the confidence transfer to her teammate Naz Hillmon, who hit back-to-back 3-pointers late in the first quarter that brought the crowd to its feet; then to rookie Isobel Borlase as she nailed a pullup jumper early in the second; over to 15-year-veteran DeWanna Bonner, who came alive off the bench after halftime to help give the Dream breathing room; and to Rhyne Howard, who put an exclamation mark on Atlanta's third-quarter prowess with a block late in the frame that absolutely brought the house down. Reese's confidence sucked the life out of the Valkyries, then ricocheted across every corner of the arena, exploding in the fourth quarter as the crowd swag surfed in celebration, the reality of a 2-1 lead in the Finals washing over them.
State Farm Arena originally wasn't going to host the Finals games because of prior scheduling arrangements, but Reese's popularity gave the Dream, the WNBA and the Atlanta Hawks the confidence that if they moved things around, the fans would show up. "Angel shows up in every game," Hillmon, who finished the game with 15 points, said postgame. "Some people only show up in big games, but she's consistent with that, and she brings her teammates along.
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