'I need the ball': Inside what fueled Angel Reese to one of the best performances in WNBA Finals history

Reese demanded the ball and supplied the Dream with 30 points and 16 rebounds in Game 2 against the Valkyries

Oct 20, 2026 at 12:38 am ET • 4 min read

SAN FRANCISCO -- Ninety minutes before tip-off on Monday, Angel Reese finished her pre-game warm-up and walked straight to a scrum of a dozen media members waiting in a tunnel. 

The youngest member of the Atlanta Dream's starting five made no excuses for how Game 1 ended. She only promised that Game 2 would be better. 

"I can't let my team down," Reese said. 

In front of another hostile Ballhalla crowd that booed her introduction louder than any other Atlanta player, and erupted every time she was called for a foul, Reese carried the Dream to a 79-65 win over the Golden State Valkyries in Game 2 of the 2026 WNBA Finals. She finished with a playoff-career-high 30 points on 10 of 16 from the field, 16 rebounds, three assists, a steal and two blocks in 34 minutes. The best performance of her young career not only evened the Finals at 1-1, but gave the Dream their first Finals victory in franchise history. 

"That's what we expect from her night in, night out. She's young and she hasn't been here before, but that's not an excuse," DeWanna Bonner told CBS Sports after Reese became the third player in WNBA history with 30 points and 15 rebounds in a Finals game. "We ride her back, we ride her coattail, we ride her energy. We expect that from her every single game."

Dream coach Karl Smesko had a feeling Game 2 would go his team's way when he walked into the locker room before tip-off and made eye contact with Reese. "I was like, 'Oh, I like that look," Smesko said. Reese's teammates saw it too. "You can just see that she wants it really bad. She's such a competitor and we feed off of her energy," Jordin Canada said. "She set the tone for sure, and it trickled down to the whole team."

Reese, who didn't score in the second half of Game 1 and took only three shots in the final 26 minutes, pledged to be more "assertive" on Monday. She followed through immediately. Forty seconds in, she had to reach back and make a catch with one hand because she was trying to drive before she even had the ball. Once she had possession, she blew past Cecilia Zandalasini for a layup. 

Reese ran in transition. She rolled and drove to the basket, going around or through whatever defender the Valkyries threw in her path. By halftime, she was up to 15 points, and the Dream had a two-point lead. 

But early in the third, it seemed Reese and the Dream might be in for a repeat of Game 1. Kiah Stokes demolished Reese's first shot attempt of the second half and she went nearly four minutes without getting another look. In the middle of the frame, Reese got so frustrated that she threw her arms up in dismay in the middle of a possession and screamed at the bench. At one point she was like, 'I need the ball, I need the ball,'" Canada said. "We gave her the ball, and she went to work."

The very next time down the floor, Reese took a hit-ahead pass from Allisha Gray, surged down the lane for an and-one and let out a roar as she celebrated with her teammates. The three-point play broke a tie and was the start of an 18-4 run to close the third that put the Dream up by 14 and the game out of reach. Reese had nine of the 18 points. 

"I wanted to make sure I came out tonight and left my mark and did whatever I could to get the win, and I think I did that," Reese said.

What Smesko called a "superior performance" from Reese was the latest in an incredible first playoff run for the third-year forward. The Dream acquired Reese in the offseason from the Chicago Sky because they thought her "drive to win," in addition to her talent, could put them over the top after three consecutive first-round exits. 

No matter what happens in the rest of this series, Dan Padover and Co. have already been proven correct. Allisha Gray missed all but 11 minutes of the semifinals with a hand injury and Rhyne Howard is shooting 22 of 82 (26.8%) over her last five games, but Reese has picked up the slack. She's in double figures in all seven playoff games and is averaging 19.1 points, 10 rebounds, 1.9 assists, 1.6 steals and two blocks on 46.8% shooting, while being the team's emotional leader. 

And Reese has done it despite facing what Bonner called "a different type of pressure." 

"The women's game has changed and she's part of the reason why it has. People expect a lot of things out of Angel," Bonner said. "She focuses on what Angel can control and what Angel can do. She accepts the challenges that she gets from her coaches and teammates, and she just performs."

Far from letting her team down, Reese's latest performance has the Dream three wins away from the first title in franchise history.