Angel Reese and the Atlanta Dream Sweep Liberty to Reach WNBA Finals
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Angel Reese scored 22 points on Friday night in Brooklyn as the Atlanta Dream beat the New York Liberty 85-83 to complete a three-game semifinal sweep. The win sends Atlanta to the WNBA Finals for the first time since 2013, according to The Guardian and Fox News.
The Dream will face the Golden State Valkyries in a best-of-seven series that begins Oct. 17. Atlanta is seeking the first championship in franchise history, Fox News reported.
How the Dream got past the Liberty
The Guardian reported that Reese, 24, scored 18 of her points before halftime, including two three-pointers, in a game that eliminated the 2024 champions on their home floor. Fox News added that she finished with nine rebounds.
The Dream won without leading scorer Allisha Gray, who has a left hand injury and missed the last two games of the series. Atlanta also lost center Brionna Jones to a season-ending leg injury, Fox News reported. Reese said she told Gray she would help finish the job, and that she is glad to have her back for the Finals, according to The Guardian.
The training camp story behind her shooting
At the postgame news conference, Reese described a moment in training camp when coach Karl Smesko stopped a drill and told her she had to make two shots in a row before her teammates could continue. She said she was upset with him that day because she did not want to let the team down or feel embarrassed. Smesko, who recalled the episode, said it did not take her many attempts, according to Fox News.
Smesko told reporters that Atlanta had made substantial changes to her offensive game and had warned her they would not feel natural right away, The Guardian reported. Reese said it is hard for her not to rush success.
What the numbers say about her season
Fox News reported that Reese averaged a career-high 16.4 points this season, led the league in rebounding again and won her first Defensive Player of the Year award. Her shooting has improved less dramatically than her overall production:
- She made 45.1% of her shots in the regular season, slightly below the 45.8% she made in her second year with Chicago. In her rookie season she made 39.1%.
- Her 3-point rate in the regular season was 19.3%, up slightly from 18.2% last year, even though she attempted more threes.
- In the playoffs she has made five of 13 three-point attempts, or 38.5%, over a small sample of five games.
Why the story reaches beyond one game
Reese has been publicly criticized for missed layups and awkward moments since her early career. Fox News noted that she pushed back on that criticism in November 2024 and launched merchandise under the name “Mebounds” in 2025, a joking reference to the rebounds she collects after her own misses. The Guardian wrote that her career has long been compared with that of Caitlin Clark, and that the rivalry became a proxy for broader cultural arguments.
Reese reached the Finals before Clark. Clark averaged a career-high 22.3 points this season and helped lead the highest-scoring offense in WNBA history, but Indiana, the sixth seed, finished 28-16 and lost its first-round series at Las Vegas in the deciding game, Fox News reported. Clark missed the entire 2025 postseason with an injury.
What's at stake in the Finals
For Reese, the series is a chance at her first WNBA title. She arrived in Atlanta in an April trade from Chicago, which received two first-round draft picks. The Dream also gained a future second-round pick swap, according to Fox News. Chicago missed the playoffs in both of her seasons there and went 10-34 in 2025.
Atlanta matched last year's franchise-record 30 wins with a 30-14 record and earned the fourth seed. The Guardian reported that Reese watched last year's championship series from home and posted on social media that she was manifesting the finals. After the win, she said:
“I manifested this when I came to Atlanta.”
She also credited her faith and teammates, saying eight of the Dream's twelve players attend chapel. She said that the team is happy but not satisfied, and that the job is not done.
Around Prague, based on reporting by The Guardian, Fox News
