Angel Reese 500 rebounds | The Dream beat Chicago 106-81
At some point you run out of new ways to say it. This Atlanta Dream team keeps making history. Every single week. Sometimes multiple times in the same game.
Saturday night against the Chicago Sky was one of those nights.
The Dream beat Chicago 106-81 in a performance that was dominant from the opening tip 52.9 percent from the field, 50 percent from three, 46 points in the paint, 39 more from the bench, 13 steals and while the scoreboard told the story of a complete wire-to-wire win, the history that was made inside those 40 minutes is what will be remembered long after this season ends.
Angel Reese became the first player in WNBA history to record 500 rebounds in a single season
Five hundred rebounds. In one season. No player in the 30-year history of this league has ever done that before. Not once. And Angel Reese did it Saturday night against Chicago, grabbing her historic board and adding it to a season that has already included the single-season double-double record, the fastest player ever to 1,000 career rebounds, and now this.
She finished with 23 points, 10 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals, and 3 blocks her 31st double-double of the season and her 13th game with 20 or more points. She was everywhere on both ends all night. She was physical, she was relentless, she was unstoppable in the paint against a Sky team that had no answer for her size and hunger.
I have been covering Angel Reese every game with the Atlanta Dream this season and I want to say something clearly what she is doing right now is one of the most remarkable individual performances I have ever witnessed at this level. She came to Atlanta in a trade that looked good in April. Right now in September it looks like one of the greatest trades in franchise history. She is a generational player performing at a generational level and every record she breaks makes that clearer.
The Atlanta Dream set a new WNBA single-season steals record
374 steals as a team and counting surpassing the previous mark held by the 2009 Indiana Fever. An entire franchise record. Broken by this Dream team that has been picking pockets all season long. They added 13 more steals on Saturday night, with Gray, Borlase, Canada, and Howard all contributing.
This is not accidental. This is Rhyne Howard leading the league in steals per game. This is Jordin Canada being a nightmare in the passing lanes. This is Allisha Gray being disruptive on every possession. This is a defensive identity that Karl Smesko has built and these players have completely bought into.
Rhyne Howard reached 1,000 career field goals
With her fifth made field goal of the night, Howard became a member of a very exclusive club 1,000 career field goals in the WNBA. She finished with 14 points, 4 assists, a steal, and a block on a night that added another line to a career résumé that keeps growing every week. She also holds the WNBA single-season record for made threes with 129. She is leading the league in steals. She is the cornerstone of this franchise and she is playing the best basketball of her life.
Isobel Borlase had a career night
18 points. A career high. From the bench. On 50 percent shooting with 3 steals.
The Australian rookie has been developing all season hitting big threes in clutch moments, defending with toughness, competing every time her number is called and Saturday night was her biggest performance yet. 18 points in a playoff-caliber game against a team the Dream needed to handle cleanly. She delivered. The bench has been a huge part of this team's success all season and Borlase's career night was the latest example of a depth that makes Atlanta genuinely dangerous.
Jordin Canada's 10th game with 10 or more assists
11 points and 10 assists Canada's 10th game this season with double-digit dimes. Ten times. In one season. That is an extraordinary level of consistency from a point guard who has been the engine of everything this offense does. She runs the show with precision and composure every single night and her fingerprints are on every basket this team scores even when her name isn't in the headline.
Allisha Gray was Allisha Gray
17 points, 3 rebounds, 3 assists, and 3 steals. Gray has set the Dream's single-season scoring record this year. She is the all-time leader in scoring in franchise history. She told Atlanta she wants to retire here. And Saturday night she showed up in another complete, dominant performance that added to everything she has already built in this city.
52.9 percent from the field. 50 percent from three.
When this team shoots like this and defends like this the Dream are unguardable. Chicago had no chance from the second quarter on. The score was 51-47 at halftime and the Dream outscored the Sky 55-34 in the second half. That's what a championship-caliber team does when they flip the switch after halftime.
My take
27-8 with this starting five. The WNBA single-season steals record. The first player ever with 500 rebounds in a season. 1,000 career field goals for Rhyne Howard. A career night from Isobel Borlase. Canada's 10th double-digit assist game. Gray being Gray.
This Atlanta Dream team is doing something historic. Not just in individual performances in everything. The defense. The depth. The stars. The role players. The records. All of it coming together at exactly the right time of the season.
Final: Atlanta Dream 106, Chicago Sky 81
Angel Reese: 23 PTS, 10 REB, 4 AST, 2 STL, 3 BLK — 500th rebound of the season (first player in WNBA history), 31st double-double (breaks WNBA record), 13th game with 20+ points
Isobel Borlase: 18 PTS (career high), 3 STL
Allisha Gray: 17 PTS, 3 AST, 3 STL
Rhyne Howard: 14 PTS, 4 AST, 1 STL, 1 BLK — 1,000th career field goal
Jordin Canada: 11 PTS, 10 AST — 10th game this season with 10+ assists
Team: 52.9% FG, 50% from three, 46 points in paint, 39 bench points, 13 steals
Team steals record: 374 (new WNBA single-season record