Earlier in the season, Angel Reese exclaimed that “Anything that goes up is mine,” reflecting her mentality in the paint. Reese is now the WNBA’s Defensive Player of the Year. Grabbing 12.1 rebounds per game in the regular season, she is far ahead of any other player in that category, and her gritty style of play has made her a solid anchor for the Atlanta Dream. However, Flau’jae Johnson believes that if Reese can consistently deliver on a less talked-about aspect of her game, she can be nearly unplayable.

“On a defensive point, I wouldn’t say nothing. She’s just a dog, and when you a dog, things just happen on defense. She’s relentless. She was playing like a DB against New York. It’s relentless,” said Johnson on Sue Bird’s podcast, Bird’s Eye View.

“But I would say offensively, like that three-point shot. I’ve seen a couple of highlights on Instagram where Jonquel’s like Let her shoot. She’s knocking them down. And I think that’s the difference. If she could consistently do that, like you got to play them straight up and that opens up the lane. So I think like that’s like the evolution of like her game. But defense isn’t really worried about that.”

Johnson is reflecting on the moment when, during the third game of the series, Reese found herself alone at the perimeter, with Liberty player Jonquel Jones leaving her unguarded, and Reese knocking down the three comfortably.

Johnson hints that if Reese can provide that extra offensive threat for her team, it could open up more possibilities for teammates like Allisha Gray and Rhyne Howard. Opposing teams will no longer be able to leave Reese unguarded, and if she draws one or two defenders, it will make it easier for her teammates to take their shots.

Johnson’s point has come at the right time. Leading the game 1 of the Finals for 79% of the time, Atlanta failed to close it out in their favor. The second half of the game saw Reese go scoreless, taking just three shots and missing all of them.

And Reese took responsibility for the loss after the game.

“…Maybe that was just on me. I wasn’t aggressive enough with the ball, trying to get to the ball and get to my spots,” Reese said after the game.

Atlanta management and Reese are aware of this flaw in Reese’s game. Earlier in the season, Reese felt “embarrassed” when Karl Smesko asked her to knock down consecutive threes and stopped the entire training until Reese did so.

While working with Smesko on her shooting, Reese has also sought help from renowned basketball trainer Iren Rainey to work on her game, especially on the offensive side.

All these efforts have led to improvement in Reese’s shooting efficiency, but there is still a long way to go. Her 3P% is still just 19.3%. She has a modest FG% of 45.1%, converting 250 of her 554 shots in the regular season. Her FT% is also quite low, at just 72.1%.

So for Reese to draw defenders to herself and stretch the opponent’s defense, her metrics across all these categories will need to improve markedly. Still, in some respects, they are much better than they were last year. For example, Reese made 2 of 18 shots from the 20-24 Ft range last year, and this year she has made 10 of 52.

Atlanta will need to close out the games they are leading in this series, as with the tight defenses both teams are running, there will not be many second chances. Something that Karl Smesko has also reflected on after the game.

“I just think we need to maintain how we want to play for a whole four quarters. We had a couple of dry spells where we just weren’t working together as well as you need to against this defence. They are not just going to give you easy shots,” Smesko said. “So we are going to need to work together to create these advantages.”

Atlanta will hope that Reese can find her rhythm in Game 2, which will be held at the Chase Center on Monday.