{"id":694881,"date":"2026-06-10T04:05:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T04:05:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/694881\/"},"modified":"2026-06-10T04:05:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T04:05:09","slug":"angel-reese-returns-to-haunt-sky-with-rebounding-theyre-missing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/694881\/","title":{"rendered":"Angel Reese returns to haunt Sky with rebounding they’re missing"},"content":{"rendered":"

There was some poetic justice in Angel Reese returning to Wintrust Arena, months after being traded to the Dream, to face a Sky<\/a> team that so struggles to do the thing she did for them.<\/p>\n

Rebound.<\/p>\n

They haven\u2019t been able to shoot, either, the thing they supposedly were going to do more of in her absence.<\/p>\n

Oh, and the biggest thing: They haven\u2019t done much winning lately<\/a>, having dropped seven of their last eight games. The Dream improved to 8-3 with an 82-75 victory Tuesday, and Reese finished with 17 points, 17 rebounds and four assists.<\/p>\n

Reese has been for the Dream much of what she was for the Sky, who suspended her last season for publicly criticizing the team. She\u2019s still the best rebounder in the league and an elite defender.<\/p>\n

Her main weaknesses remain, too. She\u2019s not as efficient around the rim as peers of her caliber, she\u2019s turnover-prone and she\u2019s still not really an outside shooter. But she credits Dream coach Karl Smesko for helping her make progress.<\/p>\n

Reese made her second three-pointer of the season against the Sky, and her form looked markedly improved.<\/p>\n

Smesko is investing in Reese heavily. He even coaches her during pregame warmups. His theory of development: When trying to improve something complicated, such as shooting mechanics, pick one thing to focus on. Keep it simple.<\/p>\n

\u2018\u2018We\u2019re just trying to shoot it straighter,\u2019\u2019 he said before the game. \u2018\u2018Right now in practice, it\u2019s looking much improved over the beginning of the year. Now it\u2019s just one of those things where being comfortable shooting it in a game takes a little longer. But she\u2019s been willing to put it up. That\u2019s the beginning, and then you can start evaluating the releases and [whether we] are getting what we\u2019re looking for.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

Before the game, Reese seemed at ease with where she\u2019s at and the work left to do.<\/p>\n

\u2018\u2018Just time and effort,\u2019\u2019 she said of her improvement. \u2018\u2018I think just putting in a lot of work. Karl works with me all the time. It\u2019s gonna take time and patience. .\u2009.\u2009. It\u2019s not gonna happen every night, and he tells me to give myself grace and continue to take the shot.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

Reese credited Smesko with affecting other areas of her game, too. His unique coaching style relies on quizzing players for understanding and bringing them analytical insights. Reese said it has touched every part of her game. She thinks it even has made her a better rebounder.<\/p>\n

\u2018\u2018He\u2019s done a great job statistically about breaking things down,\u2019\u2019 she said. \u2018\u2018He\u2019s just so smart and thinks about things that I don\u2019t personally think about. He\u2019s opened my eyes to a lot of things.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

If only the Sky could have been the ones to open them. They certainly could\u2019ve used Reese on Tuesday, once again losing the rebounding battle, this time 36-25.<\/p>\n

But they did play better overall. The fight and connection were back. They shot 8-for-15 from three-point range, their best showing of the season, and led with three minutes left.<\/p>\n

\u2018\u2018Now we know we can do it,\u2019\u2019 center Kamilla Cardoso said after the game. \u2018\u2018We know we can play hard. We\u2019ve just gotta be able to put that together for 40 minutes.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There was some poetic justice in Angel Reese returning to Wintrust Arena, months after being traded to the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":694882,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[99,434],"class_list":["post-694881","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/694881","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=694881"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/694881\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/694882"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=694881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=694881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=694881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}