If you want to know early whether the Atlanta Dream will win the decisive Game 7 of the WNBA Finals, watch the 3-point line \u2014 and watch Angel Reese. <\/p>\n
In one of the more uncanny stats of the season, the Dream are 16-0<\/a> when Reese hits at least one 3-pointer, including all three wins in their series<\/a> with the Golden State Valkyries. That might seem like a dicey proposition for a career 18.9% 3-point shooter, except for one thing that has defined Atlanta\u2019s playoff run: Reese has gotten better. <\/p>\n Through 11 postseason games, the Randallstown native and three-time All-Star has shown the work<\/a> she\u2019s put in to develop an offensive skill set that seemed unpolished when she entered the league. She\u2019s made 10 of 26 (38.5%) attempts from 3-point range, and in the three Dream wins in the Finals, she\u2019s shot 47.8% from the field, up from her career mark of 43.4%. <\/p>\n When Reese is having an efficient shooting night, it\u2019s a bellwether that Atlanta is going to win \u2014 and it may be the factor that swings Game 7, as Reese has struggled when matched up with Valkyries shot-blocker Kiah Stokes<\/a>. But Reese and the Dream don\u2019t get one win away from a title without her leap on offense, which the 24-year-old has long felt was coming.<\/p>\n \u201cNobody around me is surprised,\u201d she said. \u201cBut they didn\u2019t know how fast it was gonna come.\u201d<\/p>\n For a long time, Reese\u2019s offensive game took a backseat to her much more developed defense and rebounding. Her left-handed shot, with an exaggerated snap of the elbow, has a clunky look. For most of her career, her shooting percentages reflected these mechanics. In two seasons with the Chicago Sky, she took just 38 shots from long range, making seven, and her overall field-goal percentage was 42.1%.<\/p>\n Reese\u2019s celebrity has made her a target in many ways \u2014 viral lowlight clips of her missed shots are one example. Even as Reese has set league records for rebounding<\/a>, her critics have claimed her numbers are inflated because she gathers her own misses (known derisively as \u201cme-bounds\u201d). <\/p>\n But the Atlanta coaching staff sought to insulate Reese from outside noise. From the moment Reese came to the Dream in April<\/a>, she told them she wanted to work on her offense \u2014 and that\u2019s what they\u2019ve done. <\/p>\n \u201cShe\u2019s handled it with grace \u2014 it\u2019s not something that ever comes up between us,\u201d assistant coach LaToya Sanders said of outside noise. \u201cWe just truly try to focus on her, you know, how can we make her game grow.\u201d<\/p>\n When Reese was working out a trade from Chicago this spring, she told her agent she wanted to go to Atlanta because of the Dream\u2019s coaching staff. Reese admired the development of forward Naz Hillmon, the 2025 Sixth Player of the Year<\/a>, and had heard head coach Karl Smesko played a big role in Hillmon\u2019s development. She wanted that for herself. <\/p>\n \u201cWith [Hillmon\u2019s] shot in her individual development, I thought that was important,\u201d Reese said. <\/p>\n Smesko and Sanders met with Reese soon after she landed with the Dream. Only 10 minutes after that first sit-down, they were on the court: Why wait?<\/p>\n Reese, Smesko and Sanders developed a shooting routine that Reese does faithfully after every practice. She makes a certain number of 3-pointers, then works on finishing from different areas of the court and in different situations: face-ups, back-to-the-basket, in traffic. <\/p>\n On average, Reese\u2019s routine takes 30 minutes. The first few times, it dragged on as Reese struggled to make shots. But as the months went on, she found a groove.<\/p>\n \u201cNow, because she\u2019s hitting shots, that actually goes by pretty fast,\u201d Sanders said. \u201cShe\u2019s kind of got the muscle memory down a little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n Reese\u2019s in-game numbers improved, too. In the first two months of the regular season, she shot 41.3% from the field. In the last two months, she hit 48.6% of her looks (including six 3-pointers). <\/p>\n Some of the improvement, Sanders said, came from learning to trust her teammates, like All-Stars Rhyne Howard and Allisha Gray. Reese has a lot more help on the Dream than she had on the Sky, and she\u2019s learned the best move is often to pass to one of them. <\/p>\n But Reese has become better at reading the court and her matchups. Her worst habit as a rookie was rushing shots, even when she was matched up against a talented blocker. The Dream staff has worked with her on targeting matchups that are more favorable and thinking her way out of problems instead of charging headfirst.<\/p>\n Sanders pointed to a Game 3 sequence in which Reese got a steal and swept down the floor in transition. In previous years, she might have forced her way into traffic for a tough finish. Instead, she feigned a drive to attract a defender, then passed to Howard, who nailed a 3-pointer.<\/p>\n