DeWanna Bonner is Playing Like She's Having the Time of Her Life | The Dream Win in New York 95-84

There is something about watching a veteran player find pure joy in the game again.

DeWanna Bonner has been in this league since 2009. Seventeen years. Four WNBA championships. Multiple All-Star selections. A career that has taken her from Phoenix to Connecticut to Atlanta and now, in what might be the final chapter of one of the greatest careers this league has ever seen, she is playing with a freedom and a happiness that is genuinely beautiful to watch.

Saturday night at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, Bonner scored a season-high 17 points in a Dream uniform. But the number is almost beside the point. The way she was moving on that court the smile, the confidence, the joy in every shot she took told the real story. This is a player who has found her place. And the Atlanta Dream are a better team because of it.

The Dream beat the New York Liberty 95-84 and improved the best starting five in the Eastern Conference to 28-8. But the night belonged to Bonner. And the moments that surrounded her were something else entirely.

Jordin Canada made WNBA history quietly, the way she always does

With her first assist of the game, Jordin Canada became just the fourth player in WNBA history to reach 300 assists in a single season. Four players. In thirty years. Canada joins an exclusive list of floor generals who have distributed at that level in one calendar year and she did it on the road in New York against one of the best defenses in the league without anyone even pausing to appreciate what they were watching.

She finished with 19 points, 9 assists, 3 rebounds, and 3 steals the kind of complete, leadership performance that defines what Canada has meant to this team all season. She scored 9 of those 19 points in the first quarter to set the tone before the Dream ever got rolling offensively. When Canada is aggressive from the jump this team is nearly impossible to stop. She knew what they needed in Brooklyn and she delivered it before halftime.

Rhyne Howard became the youngest player in WNBA history to reach 500 career threes

In just 178 games. The youngest ever. The fewest games ever. Howard hit her 500th career three-pointer Saturday night against the Liberty and added another line to a record book that already includes the WNBA single-season record for made threes this year with 129.

She finished with 16 points, 6 rebounds, 2 blocks, and a steal competing on both ends the way only Howard can. When she hit that three the bench erupted. The crowd felt it. Her teammates knew what it meant. In a game where the Dream needed her to show up, she did what she always does made history and won the game at the same time.

And then there was DeWanna Bonner

17 points. A season high in a Dream uniform. And every single one of them looked like it came from a place of pure love for this game.

I want you to understand something about DeWanna Bonner in Atlanta. She came here as a veteran player who has seen everything four championships, Olympic gold, seventeen years of early morning practices and late night film sessions and everything that comes with being a professional athlete for nearly two decades. She could be going through the motions. She could be coasting on her legacy and counting down to retirement.

She is doing the exact opposite.

Watching her play for this Dream team is watching someone who has rediscovered what it feels like to just play basketball. There's a looseness to her game right now. A joy that radiates through the TV screen. She's laughing on the court. She's celebrating her teammates. She's attacking with the confidence of a twenty-five year old who has nothing to lose and the wisdom of a seventeen-year veteran who knows exactly what she's doing. That combination is magical.

And Saturday night in Brooklyn it showed. 17 points off the bench attacking, moving, shooting with purpose. Playing like a player who is having the time of her life.

Karl Smesko has built something special in Atlanta and part of what makes it special is the culture he's created one where a veteran like DeWanna Bonner can walk into a new situation at this stage of her career and feel free. Feel happy. Feel like she belongs. And then go out and prove it with a season-high performance in one of the biggest arenas in the league.

The third quarter won this game

Down 38-32 at halftime, the Dream came out of the locker room and took over. Allisha Gray scored 12 of her 14 points in the third quarter alone leading all scorers in the period and single-handedly flipping the momentum that had been slowly building in New York's favor. Gray has been the most consistent scorer on this roster all season 813 points and counting, sitting in the top 10 in the league and when the game needed her most in that third quarter she was absolutely locked in.

Atlanta outscored New York 32-24 in the third. By the time the fourth started the Dream led by 8 and had the game exactly where they needed it.

Angel Reese recorded her 32nd double-double of the season

18 points and 10 rebounds her 10th straight game with a double-double and her 32nd of the season. The WNBA record that had stood since 2023 is not just broken anymore it's been shattered by a margin that is hard to comprehend. And every game she keeps adding to it. Reese competed physically against New York's frontcourt all night, secured her boards with the relentlessness that has defined her entire season, and scored efficiently in and around the paint.

She did not have her biggest night offensively. She didn't need to. She did exactly what this team needed rebounded, competed, and kept the possession count in Atlanta's favor all night long.

The defense was the difference

7 steals to the Liberty's 2. 11 turnovers forced that led to 14 points. In a game decided by 11 points against one of the best teams in the East, Atlanta's defensive activity was the separating factor. Breanna Stewart had 27 points and 14 rebounds and was magnificent that's who the Liberty are, that's who she is. But the Dream contained the rest of New York's offense and made them work for every single possession.

My take

28-8 with this starting five. Jordin Canada is the fourth player in WNBA history with 300 assists in a season. Rhyne Howard is the youngest and fastest player ever to 500 career threes. Angel Reese has 32 double-doubles and counting. Allisha Gray has 813 points this season. And DeWanna Bonner is playing like she's having the time of her life.

A win on the road in Brooklyn against the Liberty with all of that happening in one night. That's a special team doing special things.