Angel Reese’s first home game for the Atlanta Dream was nothing like she expected. The pressure was at it’s highest and the lights were brightest for her, setting a perfect atmosphere for Reese to prove her mettle and record a typical double-double against the Las Vegas Aces. But as fate would have it, there were just two things preventing this fairytale beginning- Reese herself and the ‘point gawd’ Chelsea Gray, who subsequently shared her feelings after leading the Aces’ narrow win over the Dream.

The Dream had almost gotten rid of the defending champions in the game. Through a hard-fought fourth quarter, Reese and co. were sitting on a one-point lead. But with just 3.1 seconds left in the game, Gray scored a 12-foot pull-up jump shot to make the score 85-84 and hand Atlanta a home defeat.

Speaking of her clutch play in the dying seconds of the game, Gray made a confident statement. “Nothing better than silencing the home crowd,” she said.

Chelsea Gray also echoed the same sentiment in the post-game press conference when asked whether she would prefer a game-winner at home or away. “I was going to say away,” Gray said. “It’s a silencer. We won all our championships away, so it’s a good omen, I feel like.”

Unfortunately for Angel Reese, Gray’s latest crowd-silencer came during her first home game for Atlanta. Notably, Reese, by herself, too, wasn’t quite substantial on the night. The Atlanta forward scored just 9 points in the game, with 1 of 8 from the field. Furthermore, she rolled the ball 8 times during the game, further hampering Dream’s chances of winning.

The game in itself was a roller coaster ride. The Aces had tipped off the game quite early in the first quarter. A’ja Wilson and Gray tipped off the first quarter with consecutive three-pointers to take momentum. Most of the time from that point, it was the Aces who were in the driver’s seat, but only until the fourth quarter.

Coming into the final 10 minutes of the stipulated time, the Aces were sitting on a comfortable 12-point lead. At that point, the Dream convincingly looked out of the contest. But with their veteran Allisha Gray firing on all cylinders, the Dream stitched a 21-point quarter.

The Atlanta Dream took a single-point lead over the Aces, eventually, with 41 seconds left in the game. The Aces were pushed to the backseat, having just 8 points in the fourth quarter by that time.

But in the crunch moment of the game, the ball landed in Gray’s hands, who eventually clinched the game for her team, diminishing Angel Reese’s hopes of starting her first home game for the Atlanta Dream with a win.

The sequence of play from Gray was breathtaking, so much so that even last year’s MVP A’ja Wilson had nothing but praise for her teammate. “I just knew I needed to get out of the way,” Wilson said. “When it’s in Chelsea Gray’s hands, I don’t worry about it at all. I’m grateful she’s on our team, and she’s our leader. She’s our point guard, and she led us to victory.”

A’ja Wilson and Chennedy Carter also scored 20 points in the win over Atlanta. From an overall team perspective, the Aces fared pretty well. Their shooting was precise, and so was their half-court and perimeter defense, restricting the Dream to just 22% from deep.

But for head coach Becky Hammon, there was just one player who deserved the special recognition after the game.

Becky Hammon Heaps Praise on Chelsea Gray Following Her Clutch Game Winner

Coming into the season, Chelsea Gray wasn’t in her best form. She did score a double-double in the Aces’ second game against the Connecticut Sun. Yet the flamboyance that the basketball romantics associate with the point guard was still missing.

But when the big game against an undefeated Atlanta Dream came, Gray flipped the conversation, recording a team-high 21 points. Head coach Becky Hammon summed up Gray’s performance in the best possible way while speaking in the post-game presser. “The bigger the game, the bigger she gets,” Hammon said.

“Chelsea, you know, just having multiple options at the end of the games to go to, but I think Chelsea as soon as she started to kind of back in, I was like let her go. I wasn’t going to call a timeout,” Hammon added further.

With this win, the Las Vegas Aces made it four back-to-back after their defeat to the Phoenix Mercury in the season opener. Furthermore, with Chelsea Gray retaining her best momentum, the Aces are locked in for an even more dominant stretch in their upcoming games.

The Aces will return to their home to host the LA Sparks at the Michelob ULTRA Arena on May 23 before going on the road to face the Dallas Wings and the Golden State Valkyries.