Angel Reese and Jonquel Jones didn’t back down on the court. As the New York Liberty faced off against the Atlanta Dream in a game filled with playoff implications, the frontcourt stars turned a celebration into a back-and-forth that immediately caught the attention of fans online.
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One sequence that caught attention took place in the third quarter, with 2:27 to go. Jones caught the ball at the three-point line and proceeded to back down Reese, who was guarding her, getting positioned deep in the paint. Jones then threw her shoulder at Reese as she turned around, sending the forward to the floor as she knocked down the layup, and hit her with a ‘too small’ celebration.
The sequence was caught by the broadcast, then clipped and posted to X by the WNBA on NBC‘s official account.
However, that was not where it began, because Jones’s move was a response to something Reese had done just a quarter earlier.
It all started in the second quarter, with 5:45 left on the clock. Reese, who held the ball at the nail, backed down Jones before throwing up a contested hook shot, which went in. Reese proceeded to stare down Jones and hit a ‘too small’ celebration, bringing the Dream within two points of the lead, at 31-33.
There was plenty at stake in the game, with Atlanta entering the game at the #4 seed, trying to hold onto home-court advantage, while New York sat at 26-16, trying to move up to secure the same advantage.
Unfortunately for Jones, the Liberty ended up losing 95-84 as the Dream closed strong, but it wasn’t without effort from their stars. Jones finished with 18 points and 12 rebounds as the second-leading scorer for the Liberty. Breanna Stewart, the veteran floor general, led the team with a game-high 27 points and 14 rebounds. But it wasn’t enough. Reese matched Jones in points but grabbed two fewer boards, but it was her team that made the difference.
The Dream were a much more efficient offense, knocking down 48% of their shots compared to the Liberty’s 42%, and made 23 of their free throws versus New York’s 17. Jordin Canada added 19 points, while recently acquired DeWanna Bonner came off the bench to put up a thrilling 17 points and six rebounds as Reese and Co pulled off their 29th win of the season.
Notably, this was not the first time Reese has pulled the ‘too small’ celebration against the Liberty. On June 11, Reese hit the same move against Breanna Stewart after scoring on her.
That wasn’t the only time she did so in that game either, because during the fourth quarter, she made the same gesture to rookie Pauline Astier. However, Reese herself wasn’t satisfied with the game, which the Dream ended up losing.
“I really wanted this one bad because I knew how much it meant for our standings in the Commissioner’s Cup,” she said after the game. “It was just frustrating because I think I could’ve done better, especially at the free-throw line and on ball screens. I’m just going to look back at film and clean it up.”
Those comments were made on a night when Reese dominated, but the rest of the team faltered. It seemed like the Dream learned from that matchup, because it was an all-around effort for them in their most recent game.
Out of the six players who logged double-digit minutes, five scored at least 14 points, with Naz Hillmon, the final player, scoring eight. A big part of the reason New York faltered was the way that Atlanta managed to stuff their three-point shooting. New York went 7-for-29 on their long-range attempts, which led to their three-game winning streak being snapped.
Now, the two teams have to prepare to face off in a rematch just days from now, on September 23. Though New York can no longer get home-court advantage in the postseason, their final game could be the difference between #8 and #6.
Both Jonquel Jones and Angel Reese had their moments in the game; both delivered the same message, but unfortunately for Jones, only one could walk away with the win.