Angel Reese has hardly hidden her joy and confidence as she prepares to make her WNBA playoff debut with the Atlanta Dream.
BROOKLYN—Officially, these coming WNBA playoffs will produce what will be the first primary professional postseason contests for Angel Reese.
That's not to say, however, that Reese doesn't have experience in literal win-or-go-home contests: with her maiden WNBA postseason voyage looming, the Atlanta Dream paint presence recalled intense concrete-based battles with her younger brother and recent Washington Wizard Julian.
The box scores are long lost but the memories remain eternal.
"We had a court, we had a hoop in front of our house," Reese fondly declared before Atlanta faced the New York Liberty during the final week of the WNBA regular season. "We had to take it down because we used to fight and go at. It got intense for sure, but I love my brother."
One and (Far From) Done
Of course, Reese would've never made it this far if she hadn't showcased her prowess in elimination situations ... ones where the games aren't called due to sibling rivalry.
She rose to fame through her work during LSU's 2023 national title trek and was part of the first Unrivaled championship tour with Rose BC. Reese is fresh off obtaining international gold for Team USA: she and her fellow young interns offered sweet relief in the record-tying fifth consecutive FIBA Women's World Cup triumph.
The WNBA postseason is the last bit of hallowed hardwood that Reese's sneakers have yet to traverse but that's set to change when the tournament tips off on Sunday. It's quite a shift for Reese, who sat on the right side of the score board only 23 times during her pair of seasons with the Chicago Sky.
"This time last year, I was on an island somewhere ... I was not even thinking about basketball," Reese recalled. "This is what I came to the W for: to be able to compete for a championship. I'm really excited because I know this group is so, so good. Coming to Atlanta, they just continue to pour into me, to continue to allow me to be better. It allows team success and the team success leads to bigger things."
The realization of a postseason dream is starting to settle in for Reese who knows she was brought in for the purpose of soothing one of professional sports' most bittersweet landscapes.
"I watched them last year when they came up a little short to the Fever and I just wanted to be able to be ready for that moment, kind of pull everybody together, bring that energy every single day," Reese said. "All I wanted to do [was] just be consistent for this team. Whatever the team needs me to do, offensively or defensively, I just want to be able to be there for the team and do whatever it takes."
"I've obviously been in big moments. I've won a championship. This is a little different, where you have more games to play, opportunities to play. I'm going to treat every game like a win-or-go-home situation, no matter what it looks like. I'm looking forward to it."
The Dream's Dream
Coming up "a little short to the Fever" loomed large in Atlanta: the Dream (29-14) has posted the second-best win percentage in the WNBA's Eastern Conference since 2023, the year Allisha Gray began collaborating with Rhyne Howard. Prevailing in the playoffs, however, has been a different story.
Despite ample opportunity, Atlanta is the only team in the WNBA that has gone the last decade without winning a playoff series. Last year was particularly painful, as a franchise-best 30-win season went by the wayside after an opening round loss to an Indiana Fever team missing Caitlin Clark.
Angel Reese tonight:
— Women’s Hoops Network (@WomensHoops_USA) September 22, 2026
• 18 points
• 10 rebounds
• 2 assists
• 7/14 FG pic.twitter.com/LUyo5i3Yiz
Reese has routinely kept the Dream at the top of the leaderboard in more ways than one: her historic rebounding totals speak for themselves (though they undoubtedly loom larger as Reese accounts for the departed Brittney Griner and the ailing Brionna Jones) but Atlanta continues to stand at the door of the league penthouse thanks to a buried balance that could be lost due to pre-established narratives.
That sterling sense of adaptation has not been lost on Reese's new supervisor, especially considering the sense of turnover in that oversight position.
"She's played in a new system every year under a new coach," noted Atlanta head coach Karl Smesko. "[When] you're in a new system, you're kind of learning where you fit in. You're finding where your opportunities are. Then, as the season goes on, you don't have to think about where you're supposed to be next all the time. You can kind of just flow and play and know what you what what's available to you."
"I just think she feels a lot more comfortable now with what we do than probably the first 10 to 15 games. She's just gotten better as a basketball player because she's worked at it and she feels more comfortable with the system that she's in now."
Reese Eats, Dream's Supreme
Following a 95-84 win over New York on Monday, Atlanta improved to 18-4 when Reese hits at least six shots from the field. Her physical play makes her a prime target for the foul line but the Dream continues to boast a respectable 10-4 mark when she tires four singles or less. Atlanta's also a perfect 9-0 when she sinks a three ... and that still says nothing of the defense that threatens A'ja Wilson supremacy at the top of that board.
"She brings that energy. She impacts on both ends of the court. Personally, I think she's Defensive Player of the Year, just the way that she's able to just change the game," lauded Jordin Canada, she of two pre-Reese seasons in Atlanta. "She it runs through the whole team, she sets the tone. You can tell she wants it really bad, and we're there. We have her back every single day. We're just trying to feed her as much as possible and I think she is what we have been missing."
"You see the change in our team," Canada continued. "You see the aggressiveness, the intensity factor, just the energy. I think she has been a huge, huge, huge and key piece to our team and she brings it every single day, That allows us to bring it every single day and that's something that you can't teach. That's something that that just is in you. She's a dog, everybody knows that. We're just happy to have her on this team."
The Fate of the Fourth
With Reese standing as the biggest rostered difference from this year to last, it's hard to deny she's creating a new definition for the "V" in MVP.
Monday's emphatic win officially put Atlanta in control of the fate of the fourth seed, the last one to offer at least one round of homecourt advantage in the WNBA playoffs. The Dream gained a game on the pursuing Indiana Fever and can secure No. 4 outright with one more win in New York on Wednesday (8 p.m. ET, USA).
Angel Reese and Jonquel Jones going at each other and doing the "too small" celebration
— Ballislife.com (@Ballislife) September 22, 2026
Angel: 18 PTS, 10 REB (50% FG) W
JJ: 18 PTS, 12 REB (54% FG)pic.twitter.com/EFmFCKZBi7
It's perhaps the perfect pre-playoff prep for Reese, as Atlanta has spent the last month trying to avoid the logjam that is the bottom half of the WNBA standings.
"We're inching ourselves closer to getting our homecourt advantage, Reese noted. "[DeWanna Bonner] was telling us in the locker room. That's what you want when you're playing in the playoffs. Being able to get that first game [at home] is important and being able to have it in front of our amazing crowd and fans, I'm really looking forward to it if we get that opportunity."
While facilitation isn't an expected part of Reese's game, she hinted that one of her primary motivations over these final regular season hours is provide an assist and the first of presumably many thank you gifts for not only her new adoring Georgian public but for those that accepted her into these latest battles.
"I think when you play with players that challenge you every single day in practice in the game, it's huge," Reese said. "They put so much confidence into me to do literally everything ... Even when I wasn't making my threes tonight, they were telling me how I make them in practice all the time and just continue to keep shooting them. Sometimes, I second guess that because if I miss three, I'm like, well, they're not stopping me at the basket, so I got to keep going."
"But it's that next level of having people that push you and push you to the next level because they know how important it is for me to continue to be better individually for the team. So it's really kudos to them. You play with great players that just push you, challenge you, compete with you every single day, that say things to me that I might not want to hear in the moment, but I really, really need, I think it's really important. I'm just grateful to have them."
Geoff Magliocchetti is on X @GeoffJMags