Angel Reese stood on the familiar Wintrust Arena court in late April, firing jumper after jumper before the Atlanta Dream's first preseason game, which doubled as her debut with the team and her return to Chicago following a stunning offseason trade from the Sky. Under the basket, watching intently with his arms folded, was Dream coach Karl Smesko. His presence was conspicuous.
WNBA head coaches typically delegate on-court pre-game work to assistants and player development staff, but Smesko wanted to keep a keen eye on Reese's jump shot. "She has the green light to take open 3s right now," Smesko said later that night. "We've been together a week working on it.
This is gonna be a process that is gonna take a little time. But I will say that I've been very impressed with the progress that she's made already in practice. Now, the next step is solidifying that, and then the step after that is where you really start to feel comfortable doing it in games.
"Whenever you're trying something new, there's a time period it takes to really feel comfortable in it to where you'll use that during the game rather than your old habits. That's gonna take some time, so hopefully people will be patient with that." karl smesko watching on as angel reese works on her jumper before her first game back in chicago pic.twitter.com/DeCTBHbRmW Six months later, Smesko's patience and Reese's hard work have paid off. The Dream are two wins away from the first title in franchise history.
And notably, they are undefeated -- 9-0 in the regular season and 6-0 in the playoffs -- when Reese makes a 3-pointer, which has become an increasingly common occurrence. Reese made two 3s in the Dream's dominant win over the Golden State Valkyries in Game 3 of the 2026 WNBA Finals on Wednesday, and is now 8 of 17 (47.1%) from behind the arc in the playoffs. In the postseason, she's made as many 3s as DeWanna Bonner and more than Naz Hillmon, and has the best 3-point percentage of anyone in the Dream's rotation.
All season long, teams have ignored Reese on the perimeter in order to clog the paint. Even as she showed some improvement after the All-Star break, it was still a successful strategy. But in the playoffs, Reese has made teams pay.
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