Imagine the Golden State Valkyries running out of options against a player at the highest stage of the WNBA season. A probable name on that list of players would have been A’ja Wilson. The Valkyries swept Wilson and her Aces, but it seems like they have finally met their ultimate bully in Angel Reese. In the first three games of the Finals, Reese has been the best player in the series, and according to former NFL player Emmanuel Acho, those who were still finding faults in Reese’s game, were either “racist” or “misogynist.”

“I want to encourage people to look at what she’s doing now. Look at how she’s balling now. She’s dominating, and her game is talking even more than her words now. She’s still talking, but she’s got the game to truly back it up,” Acho said on Speakeasy on YouTube. “[Angel has] got the delivery to back it up…So I’m not going to encourage people to stay on the side of criticism when there’s not really much to criticize.

“You criticize when there’s something to criticize. There aren’t really all that much to criticize with Angel Reese anymore. She’s just getting busy.”

Although Atlanta lost Game 1, Reese played an excellent first half, scoring all of her 14 in the first 20 minutes. However, she was barely involved in the offense in the second half and failed to score a point, and Dream lost the lead in the last two minutes before losing the game. After letting Game 1 slip away, Reese vowed to come back with a different energy. 

“As soon as she stepped on the court, she was like, I’m going to be the best player on that court tonight,” DeWanna Bonner said, recalling Reese’s message before Game 2. 

Reese was true to her words. She has responded with utter dominance in Game 2. She led the Dream to a dominating 79-65 win with 30 points, 16 rebounds, 3 assists, a steal and 2 blocks. Reese was Atlanta’s anchor on both ends of the floor, and she ‌answered every time the Valkyries challenged her. 

She was equally dominant in Game 3, although the crumbling offense of the Valkyries added to the visitors’ downfall without much fightback. In a 97-71 win, Atlanta’s star scored another game-high 21 points and shot 7 of 12 from the field, including all of her two 3-point shots. She also recorded 12 rebounds and 3 steals.

Reese has been doing all this while trash-talking her opponents during the game. During the opening quarter of Game 3, Reese bullied the Valkyries’ Aminata Gueye for an and-one. She then walked past her opponents’ bench, taunting them. In the following quarter. Reese executed the same play. While she jogged back, she had one message for the Valkyries.

“You can’t guard me! You can’t guard me!” she said.

She will tell you that she was ‘just enjoying the moment,’ but Reese’s is not deaf to all the outside noise. She is answering her critics with her game. 

The Dream star has been outstanding on the defensive end, and she also won the Defensive Player of the Year award. However, in her first WNBA Finals, Reese is proving the versatility of her offense. She has been Atlanta’s best offensive player, averaging 21.7 PPG and 13.3 RPG while shooting 56.4% from the field. She is the first player since A’ja Wilson to do so in a three-game Finals span. She is also the second player since Wilson to have back-to-back games with 20-point double-doubles in the Finals. 

Reese’s game is not beyond criticism, but right now, there is hardly a part of her game you can criticize. She is destroying the Valkyries’ defense while taunting them; she is setting the tone for her teammates, and she is leading them on every front. Atlanta will need that again on Oct. 24.