For Angel Reese and the Atlanta Dream, defeat stings. And when you lose in the Finals of any sport, you know there’s no guarantee you’ll be back there again, no matter how much you believe it’ll happen.
The 24-year-old Reese didn’t rise to the occasion in Game 7—just seven points on 3-of-7 shooting to go with 12 rebounds—while Gabby Williams of the Valkyries pulled out a 30-point masterpiece to close out the championship. It’s a loss that should stick with Reese and her teammates all offseason, as they try to get back to this point.
But sometimes, losing truly is the best teacher. We’ve seen Reese take brutal lessons from losses, like terrible shooting nights or missing game-winning layups, and turn them into massive improvements in her game.
Here are a few things she can set her sights on as motivation to help her return to the big stage.
Add that middy
Yeah, sure, Karl Smesko’s offense is all about threes and layups. We heard.
We’ve seen what truly unlocks great players’ scoring abilities: being able to rely on midrange jumpers. You see it in A’ja Wilson, Paige Bueckers, and even Williams last night. I’ve said Caitlin Clark should practice it more next season given how much it helped her in her second full year of action. And Reese needs to shoot it, too.
She had an inconsistent midrange in Chicago, but that's partly shot mechanics and the fact that she had to create most of her offense on her own on a terrible team. The first part is something Smesko and her are already tackling, with splendid results from the three-point line down the stretch. The other is no longer an issue given the weapons on this Dream squad. Her fellow lefty-shooter Allisha Gray is also a midrange aficionado, using the spacing in Smesko’s system to attack downhill for pull-up opportunities.
If teams are going to keep giving Reese space while taking away her drives, she has to be able to shoot this shot. That layup form is not going to change. She’s going to get blocked at the rim sometimes. But if she can hit even a semblance of a middy, her game could become terrifying.
Become a true point-forward
The Dream do need a real backup point guard this offseason behind Jordin Canada, who absolutely needs to remain the engine running this offense. But when she’s in the game, Reese needs to continue growing her comfort as an operator in this regard.
She has rare ability among WNBA bigs to push the pace in transition and make passes in the half-court already. And we saw some hints of Smesko using her this way to get rim protectors like Kiah Stokes out of the paint, leading to her getting six assists in Game 6 of the Finals.
Reese's passing has always been underrated, given that she was once a guard. But facilitating hasn't been her primary role offensively in the WNBA, when she was the sole consistent playmaker near the end of her Chicago Sky career. But now, with an offseason to practice, gaining more confidence as a passer out of the post and as a driver would make her extremely hard to stop. Even now, with Reese still working on her interior finishes, defenses frequently send multiple players at her when she has the ball down low.
Let her start punishing that consistently, and we could see her go from "Double-Double Barbie" to "Triple-Double Barbie."
Never stop shooting
I wrote before Game 7 that the Dream needed Reese to shoot at least 15 times against the Valkyries if they were going to win. She didn’t even get half those attempts.
Sometimes, she made the right decision to pass out of the post to an open player. Sometimes, her teammates missed her down low when she had a mismatch. But other times, she just needed to put the ball up, even if it meant maybe getting blocked by Kiah Stokes, and didn’t.
That can never happen again.
Aside from continuing to retool her shot, her mental focus coming out of the off-season must be one of unmitigated aggression offensively. Reese has become too strong on that end, even with her wonky shooting mechanics, to allow an opponent to take her out of a game. (While we’re at it, Karl, how about getting your girl some touches, eh? Not everything has to generate a Rhyne Howard three.)
Even on a team with Gray and former No. 1 pick Howard, the Dream goes as she goes. It’s time for her to truly make this her team.
Don’t get discouraged. Don’t worry about getting blocked. Don’t think about the stat sheet. When your team needs you to shoot, you shoot.
Let’s see if Reese and the Dream get the message next year.
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