Three games into the WNBA Finals, Angel Reese looked like the face of the series. She had Finals records, a 2-1 lead, and a crowd of people picking her for MVP. Then the next two games happened, and everything flipped. Now the Atlanta Dream are one loss away from elimination, and one well-known voice in sports media has a message for her.

“Angel, you can’t call for attention and hang up. Your game had called for attention. Absolutely balling. First three games of the WNBA Finals, you were averaging 21 points and 14 boards,” former NFL player and analyst Emmanuel Acho said on his Speakeasy podcast.

Acho said Reese earned all that attention by averaging 21.7 points and 13.3 rebounds in the first three games, and the Dream won seven of their first eight playoff games. And then she went quiet in the two games the Dream needed most. 

Part of the reason could be the Valkyries’ new plan. HC Natalie Nakase cut her rotation to seven players for Game 4, which kept the backup centers Reese had dominated off the floor, and GSV used more zone defense whenever Kiah Stokes sat.

“The Dream Live and Die by Angel Reese. They were living, sitting on the throne, yet these last 2 games they’re gasping for oxygen because Angel hasn’t shown up. Last game, Angel Reese went 2-for-12 from the field,” Acho continued.

Atlanta scored a season-low 62 points on 33.3 percent shooting in the 67-62 loss in Game 4. Reese also got little help from Dream Allisha Gray, who played only 22 minutes in foul trouble, and the two shot a combined 3-of-19. 

Stokes said she tried to make every look Reese had at the rim difficult. Reese took the blame afterward, saying she rushed her shots and did not finish around the rim the way she had in the first three games.

“This game, Angel Reese went 2-for-8 from the field combined. Y’all do the math. 4-for-20 from the field. You’re shooting 20% from the field in the Finals, the last two games. The whole world is now watching Angel Reese,” Acho pointed out for Game 5. 

Reese and her coach pointed to the officials. Reese said players on her team are getting fouled without a call, and Dream head coach Karl Smesko said the Dream should have had 16 more free throw attempts on the contact against Reese. Atlanta took only 14, a series low, and Reese took four.

Acho wants more from her. He compared Reese to NBA legends Giannis Antetokounmpo and Hakeem Olajuwon, saying fans would pounce if they scored seven or eight points in a Finals game after a 30-point night.

“But the play has been objectively atrocious, objectively atrocious the last two games,” Acho said.

Dream is now one game from elimination and has to deliver. The Valkyries lead the series 3-2 and can win the first title in franchise history in Game 6 on Thursday. They have to win that game and then Game 7 on Saturday in San Francisco. 

It is a sharp fall from the player Acho had praised only days earlier.

How Good Reese Was In The First Three Games

Reese came into the Finals as the Defensive Player of the Year in her first season with the Dream, then opened the series with 14 points and 12 rebounds in a 68-64 loss.

In Game 2, she took over with 30 points and 16 rebounds in a 79-65 win. She became the youngest player with a 30-point, 15-rebound Finals game. In Game 3, she added 21 points, 12 rebounds, three assists, and three steals in a 97-71 win.

That made her the first player with a double-double in each of her first three Finals games and the youngest with three in a row. She averaged 21.7 points and 13.3 rebounds on 56.4 percent shooting, and the Dream won seven of their first eight playoff games.

Smesko said she might be the most improved player from the start of the season to now. She shot 45 percent in the paint over the Dream’s first 21 games and 51 percent since, and she made 8 of 17 threes in the playoffs after making 3 of 25 before the All-Star break.

Acho was among those lifting her. Days before Game 5, he said Reese was two games from “legendary status” and that a Finals MVP would put her in rare company with Candace Parker and A’ja Wilson.

On Thursday, Atlanta will find out which Reese shows up in Game 6.