Angel Reese has recorded 73 points and 49 rebounds across the first four games of the 2026 WNBA Finals against the Golden State Valkyries, helping the Atlanta Dream level the series at 2-2. But the question, according to Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham, is whether Reese can consistently be that force the Dream are relying on her to be.
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“She’s killing it, Angel,” Cunningham said on the No Hesitation podcast. “That is no secret. Everyone is seeing the dominant player that she is. But I’m curious to know, she’s making a lot of shots right now, too. Now, if she has an off night, who’s going to step up? Are they going to be able to pick up those points? I hope she does. She’s playing phenomenal. But I’m curious to know: could she sustain it?”
Angel Reese’s struggles summed up Atlanta’s Game 4 loss at home. She shot just 16.7% from the floor, going 2-for-12 while missing several close-range chances, and accounted for six of the Dream’s 18 turnovers. Reese finished with eight points and nine rebounds, snapping her double-double streak through the first three games.
If the Atlanta Dream are going to win their first-ever WNBA championship, Angel Reese will need to produce, particularly the kind of dominant display she delivered in Games 2 and 3.
Looking at how the series has unfolded, the pattern is hard to ignore. In the games where the Valkyries have managed to keep Reese relatively quiet, they have found a way to win. In Game 1, even though she still produced a decent 14-point, 12-rebound double-double, it was a noticeably quieter performance relative to the outputs in Games 2 and 3 which the Dream won convincingly.
The contrast was even sharper in Game 4. The Valkyries did an exceptional job limiting Reese. The correlation between containing Reese and Golden State winning is now impossible to dismiss.
Reese has been the defining force for the Atlanta Dream all season. She averaged 16.4 points, 12.1 rebounds, and 2.8 assists per game during a regular season that helped the Dream secure a fourth-place finish and won the Defensive Player of the Year herself. And since the playoffs began, she has proven game after game to be the missing piece that the Dream desperately lacked in the three consecutive first-round exits that preceded this run.
Through nine postseason games in what is her debut playoff run, Reese is averaging 18.1 points, 10.1 rebounds, 2.1 assists, 1.7 steals, and 1.9 blocks per game. And she has been historic, particularly across her dominant opening three-game stretch in the Finals.
Her 30-point, 16-rebound explosion in Game 2 made her the youngest player in WNBA history to achieve a 30/15 stat line in the Finals, and only the third player in league history to reach that threshold on the Finals stage at all. And by pairing that with 21 points and 12 rebounds in Game 3, she became the youngest player ever to open a WNBA Finals with three consecutive double-doubles.
Game 4 was, however, a stark contrast to everything that preceded it. But it is also far from the first time Reese has had a quiet night in a long postseason run. And she has always found a way to bounce back.
She will be looking to do exactly that in Game 5. If she can rediscover the level of dominance she brought to Games 2 and 3, and sustain it through the remainder of the series, the Atlanta Dream may finally be looking at their first WNBA championship.
But regardless, after the Golden State Valkyries demonstrated what happens when Angel Reese is contained, the Dream may also need other players to step up if they are going to finish the job.