The GIST: The best-of-seven WNBA Finals is knotted at one after the Atlanta Dream topped the Golden State Valkyries 79\u201365 in Monday\u2019s Game 2, the franchise\u2019s first-ever Finals win. Let\u2019s take stock of the top storylines as the series shifts to Atlanta for tonight\u2019s 8 p.m. ET Game 3.<\/p>\n
\ud83e\udea3 Angel Reese is that girl for the Dream: Always a defensive juggernaut, this Barbie has elevated her offense since arriving in the W, becoming more efficient (she shot 62.5% in Game 2) and adding a three-point shot to her repertoire. At age 24, she\u2019s the youngest player in league history to record at least 30 points and 15 rebounds in a Finals game. What, like it\u2019s hard?<\/p>\n
Reese was unequivocally the difference maker in Game 2, outproducing Valkyries standout Gabby Williams. It was an uncharacteristic off night for Williams, who posted a dismal 20% shooting percentage from the floor<\/a>. Defense wins championships \u2014 but so do superstars.<\/p>\n \ud83d\udccb Valkyries head coach Natalie Nakase\u2019s Game 3 outlook: Nakase\u2019s brilliant halftime adjustments<\/a> silenced Reese in the second half of Game 1, so what\u2019s up her sleeve ahead of Game 3? TBD \u2014 but she pointed to two key improvements Golden State must make: limiting turnovers (the Valks had a season-high 18 in Game 2) and effort.<\/p>\n \ud83c\udfe0 Dream steal home-court advantage: Ballhalla had been a haven for the Valkyries\u2026until Game 2, where Golden State lost at Chase Center for the first time this postseason. Now, the edge goes to Atlanta, who host the next two tilts at State Farm Arena. Not only does the venue house a Finals-worthy 17K fans<\/a>, the Dream are also a perfect 3-0 there in the 2026 playoffs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The GIST: The best-of-seven WNBA Finals is knotted at one after the Atlanta Dream topped the Golden State…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":940983,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,82,630],"class_list":["post-940982","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/940982","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=940982"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/940982\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/940983"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=940982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=940982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=940982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}