Angel Reese is heading to the WNBA playoffs for the first time in her career. The three-time WNBA All-Star missed the playoffs in the first two seasons of her career with the Chicago Sky. Now a member of the Atlanta Dream, Reese scored a career-high 31 points against the Phoenix Mercury on Saturday to win 99-89 and clinch a playoff berth for the Dream.
"Just staying poised and not letting anybody speed me up," Reese said after Saturday's game. "I think I'm at my best when I'm around the basket, so just staying confident in the shots I know I can make around the basket, the shots that I work on in practice. Just taking my time and finishing those.
I knew they were going to step up and trap or hedge our guards, so I knew I was going to be open down low. I just had to finish." Atlanta is the fifth team to clinch a playoff spot this season, joining the Minnesota Lynx, Golden State Valkyries, Las Vegas Aces and Indiana Fever. In addition to scoring 31 points, Reese collected 14 rebounds.
She is the Atlanta single-season record-holder for double-doubles and is just four away from breaking Alyssa Thomas' 28, which is the WNBA single-season double-double record. "I think she keeps getting better and keeps being able to expand her game," Dream coach Karl Smesko said. "I think she really found her opportunities to be physical.
They weren't really sending doubles, so she had her opportunities to catch the ball in the short and do some post moves to score. She was able to get behind on some ball screens for some layups where our guards were able to find her, got a couple of putbacks. "She was scoring in a multitude of ways, had a really great fourth quarter for us, and it's good to see her have one of her best games of her career, offensively." Reese will look to carry that offensive dominance into her first WNBA playoff run.
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