an 80-69 Game 6 victory<\/a>, Reese did the things that had worked for her earlier in the series, grabbing and going after defensive rebounds without getting the ball to a guard. Not all of those forays led to points for Atlanta, but they increased the overall tempo, which had slowed to a crawl in the previous two games.<\/p>\nShe was her usual dominant self on the glass and contributed to an 11-4 advantage in second-chance points for the Dream. She attacked Kiah Stokes more often on drives than in the post, benefiting from Atlanta\u2019s improved spacing.<\/p>\n
The Dream also put the ball in Reese\u2019s hands more often to start Game 6, and she finished with six assists, a series-high for her. Golden State\u2019s ball pressure had sped up the Dream in their prior two losses, so Atlanta adjusted. One frequent set stationed Reese in the middle of the floor with a shooter (usually Rhyne Howard or Allisha Gray) in one corner and the other three Atlanta players involved in a weakside action. That let Reese\u2019s playmaking shine. She found Gray on the wing for Atlanta\u2019s first 3 of the game, then Naz Hillmon on the ensuing possession at the top of the key.<\/p>\n
For a Dream team that shot 10 of 49 from 3-point range over the previous two contests, all they needed was to see the ball go through the net a couple of times. That opened the floodgates for Jordin Canada, Gray and Howard to hit four 3-pointers in the span of five possessions. Atlanta blew open the game in the first quarter, taking a 17-point lead that wouldn\u2019t drop to single digits until 1:15 remained in the game.<\/p>\n
Gray made five 3s to lead Atlanta with 23 points, and Howard added four triples for 21. Both players had their best scoring games of the finals on Thursday.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe played with a different spacing and pace,\u201d Dream coach Karl Smesko said. \u201cIn truth, it\u2019s how we are supposed to play. In the first half, you saw it. The catch and ready to shoot, the pace of one action leading directly into another action, to getting the ball out and going and putting some pressure on them in transition. It\u2019s just the way that we are capable of playing and the way we\u2019re supposed to play.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reese got into the 3-point party herself after lamenting her failure to take any 3s in Game 5. She has shot well from long range during the postseason, making 38.5 percent of her triples on 2.4 attempts per game, but she turned down a couple of open looks amid Atlanta\u2019s overall shooting struggles.<\/p>\n
Reese\u2019s shooting may not meaningfully change the way opponents defend the Dream, but her 3s are backbreakers. Atlanta is 16-0 when she makes a 3, and the other Dream players are well aware of that stat. She let it fly Thursday, with her first shot attempt coming from beyond the arc. Reese finished with 15 points and 14 rebounds on 2-of-8 shooting from 3 and 5-of-18 from the floor.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe tell her she needs to shoot, and we kept drawing up plays so she could shoot the ball,\u201d Howard said postgame.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt definitely was tough, and always frustrating, especially for 3s, because they keep telling me to shoot and I don\u2019t like when I\u2019m not making the shots,\u201d Reese said. \u201cBut my teammates still trust and pass it to me. I\u2019m also really, really grateful to them for always putting confidence into me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even in victory, the shooting efficiency wasn\u2019t there for Reese. She made 30 percent of her shots from inside the arc and committed six turnovers. Still, her shot creation and distribution gave Atlanta the early push it needed to force Game 7, which is set for 8 p.m. ET Saturday in San Francisco.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was just a mental mindset of me just being able to go out there and try to lead the team as best I can, no matter how ugly it could be, as long as we came out with the win,\u201d Reese said. \u201cI just wanted to do whatever it took to win.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ATLANTA \u2014 Heading into Game 6 between the Atlanta Dream and Golden State Valkyries, it seemed like all…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":951250,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[732,49,48,1612,82,630],"class_list":["post-951249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-atlanta-dream","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-golden-state-valkyries","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/951249","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=951249"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/951249\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/951250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=951249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=951249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=951249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}