Reese gives Dream the response they needed in Finals Game 2

By Rodney Holloway

Recap · Dream

The Dream didn’t need a great shooting night to get back into the Finals. They needed Angel Reese, a steady supply of free throws and enough defensive pressure to keep Golden State from finding an answer.

They got all three on October 19. Reese finished with 30 points and 16 rebounds in Atlanta’s 79–65 road win, tying the 2026 WNBA Finals at one game apiece. Jordin Canada added 13 points, 10 assists and seven rebounds. Allisha Gray scored 18 and grabbed five boards.

Atlanta shot just 21-for-62 (33.9 percent) from the field and seven-for-25 from three. The free-throw line made up much of the difference: 30 makes in 35 attempts, an 85.7 percent clip. Golden State went 16-for-19. Atlanta’s 14-point edge in made free throws matched the final margin.

That wasn’t the whole game, but it was a substantial part of the scoring. The Dream found a way to keep putting points on the board without waiting for jumpers to start falling.

Rhyne Howard supplied a different kind of contribution. She finished with five points and six steals. DeWanna Bonner added nine points, and Atlanta’s official recap credited the team with 19 fast-break points and 24 points off turnovers. Those scoring categories can overlap; they aren’t two separate piles of points to add together.

Golden State had its own shooting problems, making 21 of 61 field-goal attempts and seven of 24 threes. Atlanta also led 36–32 in credited player rebounds. That count excludes any separately recorded team rebounds.

Our read: Atlanta’s route to the win matters as much as the result. Reese provided the scoring and rebounding foundation, Canada helped organize the offense, and Howard disrupted possessions even on a quiet scoring night. That gave the Dream several ways to stay in the game when their outside shots weren’t dropping.

The next task is to make the half-court offense more dependable. Free-throw opportunities and opponent turnovers can change from game to game. Atlanta can welcome both without assuming either will arrive in the same quantities again.

Game 3 was scheduled for October 21 at State Farm Arena. With the series level after two games, the immediate question was whether the Dream could turn their road response into a lead at home.

Statistics

Angel Reese drives for the Atlanta Dream against Minnesota at Target Center on May 27, 2026. Regular-season image; not the 2026 Finals. Photo: John McClellan (John Mac). Image source. CC BY-SA 4.0; resized derivative retains the same license; source crop retained where applicable.