{"id":918171,"date":"2026-10-02T19:06:07","date_gmt":"2026-10-02T19:06:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/918171\/"},"modified":"2026-10-02T19:06:07","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T19:06:07","slug":"atlanta-dream-dpoy-angel-reese-gears-up-for-1st-wnba-semifinals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/918171\/","title":{"rendered":"Atlanta Dream DPOY Angel Reese Gears Up for 1st WNBA Semifinals"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">No. 4 Atlanta\u2019s Angel Reese rules the paint, earning <a href=\"https:\/\/justwomenssports.com\/reads\/angel-reese-atlanta-dream-2026-wnba-defensive-player-of-the-year-award\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">2026 Defensive Player of the Year<\/a> on Thursday to bring home the Dream\u2019s first-ever WNBA DPOY award.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Reese tallied 46 of 74 votes, beating out Golden State\u2019s Gabby Williams (20), Las Vegas\u2019s A\u2019ja Wilson (4), and Washington\u2019s Shakira Austin (2).<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cShe\u2019s not afraid of any challenge,\u201d said head coach <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/wnba\/story\/_\/id\/50077871\/dream-angel-reese-named-wnba-defensive-player-year\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/wnba\/story\/_\/id\/50077871\/dream-angel-reese-named-wnba-defensive-player-year\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Karl Smesko<\/a>. \u201cShe relishes these opportunities and steps up in big moments.\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Atlanta will lean on its defensive centerpiece on Sunday, as the Dream tips off its <a href=\"https:\/\/justwomenssports.com\/reads\/dream-vs-mystics-wnba-playoffs-sweep-game-2\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">best-of-five semifinal series<\/a> with No. 8 New York \u2014 aiming to reach the WNBA finals for the first time since 2013.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Atlanta took the pair\u2019s regular-season series 2-1, but the Liberty\u2019s recent surge \u2014 including this week\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/justwomenssports.com\/reads\/lynx-vs-liberty-wnba-playoffs-upset-sweep\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">first-round upset<\/a> of No. 1 Minnesota \u2014 underlined its depth and physicality when healthy.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe are an eight-seed even though we don\u2019t feel like it,\u201d forward <a href=\"https:\/\/justwomenssports.com\/reads\/liberty-vs-lynx-wnba-playoffs-2026-game-1-upset\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"40864\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Breanna Stewart<\/a> said. \u201cWe need to be that&#8230; have that chip on our shoulder.\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Atlanta hosts New York on Sunday (details TBD).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"No. 4 Atlanta\u2019s Angel Reese rules the paint, earning 2026 Defensive Player of the Year on Thursday to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":918172,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[316313,178578,316314,724,732,49,48,3457,82,630],"class_list":["post-918171","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-2026-wnba-defensive-player-of-the-year","tag-2026-wnba-playoffs","tag-2026-wnba-playoffs-round-1","tag-angel-reese","tag-atlanta-dream","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-new-york-liberty","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/918171","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=918171"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/918171\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/918172"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=918171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=918171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=918171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}