As it turns out, the Atlanta Dream will not miss Angel Reese’s presence as they face the league’s top-seeded team, the Minnesota Lynx, on August 30. But the loss was not the biggest concern for the Dream right now, as Reese was on the way to a one-game suspension for a technical foul. But Dream head coach Karl Smesko came to the rescue with an appeal.

ESPN reporter Alexa Philippou posted on X with an update on Angel Reese’s most recent technical foul.

“News: The technical foul that Angel Reese received tonight has been rescinded, the league confirmed to ESPN. She is back at seven technical fouls on the season. An eighth would lead to an automatic one-game suspension.”

The Dream walked away with a disappointing loss on Friday, falling 101-83. Angel Reese picked up her eighth technical foul of the season in the fourth quarter, which sent Carla Leite to the free-throw line, where the Fire guard extended her team’s lead to 13 points.

If the technical foul call would not have been rescinded, the Double-Double Barbie would have had to sit out for a game, which the Dream cannot afford against a strong side like the Lynx. Prior to the rescission, head coach Karl Smesko has made it clear that the team will push for the league to overturn the call.

“Yeah, I’m sure that we’ll appeal it,” Smesko said in the post-game conference posted to The Ballers Magazine YouTube channel. “From my vantage point, it didn’t look like something that was tech-worthy, so hopefully it’ll be rescinded. But I haven’t had the benefit of watching it on film yet or anything like that. But I think that’s probably something that we’re going to try to get rescinded.”

But Smesko did not stop at that. He also had plenty to say about what went wrong for the Dream throughout the game against the Portland Fire, especially after Atlanta allowed Portland to take control of the game early and never found a consistent way back into the contest.

The loss snapped the Dream’s four-game winning streak, so Smesko made it clear that Atlanta “didn’t show up ready to win a basketball game.”

“We made some runs, but we could never really fully catch up. We put ourselves in that position by mentally not being locked in from the very beginning… We should be playing playoff basketball now.”

The Dream are now 25-14 on the season, and although they have already clinched a playoff berth, losing to a team that will not be part of the postseason will be difficult to overlook.

Angel Reese finished the night with her 28th double-double of the season, but she still struggled to find her rhythm. In 38 minutes, she shot just 5-of-14 from the field and committed four turnovers despite finishing with 16 points and 16 rebounds.

But the Dream still has a silver lining. As Angel Reese remains on the squad for the Lynx game, DeWanna Bonner also joins the roster from the Phoenix Mercury. The Dream has a strong squad going into the playoffs.