Angel Reese dominated the New York Liberty on offense from the opening tip, making sure they felt her presence every second she was on the floor during Game 1 of the Atlanta Dream’s semifinal series. Amid her team’s dominant defensive showing, Reese swatted ball after ball away from the net, but one moment involving Breanna Stewart has given fans another reason to talk about the 2026 Defensive Player of the Year.
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The moment came during the second quarter, with 3:24 left on the clock. Angel Reese, guarding New York’s Li Yueru, was rotating from the right corner to the top of the key when Reese noticed Stewart. The Liberty forward had just driven the ball to the nail and began to rise up for a jump shot, but Reese noticed it and immediately doubled her, before swatting her shot and drawing a foul from Pauline Astier. The sequence was clipped and posted online, gaining significant attention on X.
One fan, who can seemingly lip-read, transcribed what they believed Reese had said.
“I’m on that,” Angel Reese supposedly said after blocking Stewart, according to @ShowCaseShabazz on X.
The moment came as the Dream walked away from State Farm Arena with a 92-82 win over the visiting New York. Jordin Canada and DeWanna Bonner led the charge, combining for an explosive 48 points on 19-for-32 shooting. Reese was the clear defensive mastermind behind the win. While the account has no verified lip-reading credentials, Reese did seem to be on top of the Liberty offense all game.
The 2026 DPOY finished with 17 points, seven rebounds, four steals, and three blocks, helping the Dream force 21 turnovers, which they converted into a massive 32 points, nearly a third of the team’s points. It also tied the WNBA playoff record for most points off turnovers in a single game.
Reese has been ‘on it’ the entire season too. Over 43 games in the regular season, Angel Reese has averaged a double-double of 16.4 PPG and 12.1 RPG. She finished the season with a WNBA single-season record of 521 total rebounds. She also set the WNBA record for the most rebounds in a single game, recording 26 rebounds in a game against the Los Angeles Sparks on August 24.
However, the block on Stewart wasn’t Reese’s only defensive highlight. Even her second block, which also came during the second quarter, was enough to send the crowd into a frenzy. That second block came on Sabrina Ionescu, who was denied at the rim and stared down by Angel Reese. Ionescu was the leading scorer for the Liberty, finishing with 27 points, but Reese’s blocking shut her down too.
Atlanta head coach Karl Smesko was impressed with his team’s play and how they were able to rise from a three-point deficit at halftime to a solid lead by the time the game was finished.
“I thought we had a great third quarter,” he said postgame. “They made a run at us, but we were just able to make enough plays down the stretch to close them out.”
Q3 saw the Dream go on a 15-3 run to start the second half, and for the rest of the quarter, Angel Reese and the Dream defense held the Liberty to only 15 points, while the offense racked up 32 points. While the Liberty did outscore the Dream in Q4, it was too late to mount a comeback as the Dream’s lead was too large to cover.
Stewart, who finished with 19 points on 6-13 from the field, admitted that the turnovers were what ultimately made the difference in favor of the Dream, urging her team to perform better in the postgame conference.
“Live ball turnovers [were the difference],” she said. “We couldn’t get a basket until pretty late in the third. We know what Atlanta likes to do. Similar situation to what happened to us at home [in last week’s regular season match-up], where they just came out and raced it down our throats. We need to be better.”
Notably, it wasn’t all smooth sailing for the Dream. During the second quarter, they lost starting guard Allisha Gray, who was forced to exit the game with a left hand injury. She seemingly dislocated a finger while deflecting the ball, going down in pain as the injury occurred. She later returned, took off the tape on her fingers, but reinjured the same hand while attempting a steal.
Her status for Game 2 is unclear and will be closely monitored as the series continues.
Atlanta now leads the best-of-five series 1-0, making them the only undefeated team remaining in the playoffs. This also marks the team’s first win in the second round since 2018. The team has also not made the finals since 2013, but with Angel Reese on the team, a title charge could be possible. If they win, the Dream will face off against the winner of the series between the Las Vegas Aces and the Golden State Valkyries.
Atlanta now prepares to host the 2024 champions on October 7 and will look to take a commanding 2-0 lead.