Reese Answers Game 1 With 30 and 16, Then Puts Atlanta Up 2-1 in the Finals

Game 1 of these Finals ended with a stat line that followed Angel Reese for two days: 14 points in the first half, none in the second, two shots taken after half-time, and a 68-64 Golden State win in a game Atlanta had led by five going into the fourth quarter. Her coach owned part of it, admitting Atlanta had not got her the ball enough. Reese owned the rest. Game 2, in the same building on Monday night, was her reply: 30 points and 16 rebounds in a 79-65 Atlanta win that ties the series and gives the Dream the first Finals victory in franchise history.

Updated October 21: Game 3 has been played in Atlanta, and the Finals’ television audiences have been reported. Two new sections below carry the 97-71 result, Reese’s third straight double-double, and the record viewership numbers.

What did Reese do differently in Game 2?

She got the ball, and she asked for it loudly enough to be heard over the Chase Center crowd. The Associated Press account describes Reese raising her voice to her teammates: “I need the ball.” She had 15 points and 7 rebounds by half-time and told the on-court interviewer she had left a lot of points on the board in Game 1. By the end she had 30 points and 16 rebounds on 10-of-16 shooting, a playoff career high, with 15 of the points coming in the second half that had shut her out two nights earlier. Afterwards she gave the short version to reporters, via Bleacher Report: “I was hungry. I wanted one. I think we let one slip away.” The longer version is in the numbers. This site’s explainer on double-doubles and triple-doubles uses the double-double as its teaching example; this one decided a Finals game and entered the record book while doing it.

How rare is a 30-point, 15-rebound Finals game?

Rare enough that the list now has three names. Reese joined Breanna Stewart and Jonquel Jones as the only players to record at least 30 points and 15 rebounds in a WNBA Finals game, per USA TODAY, and she is the youngest of the three. Stewart and Jones both sent her encouragement before the game, a detail Reese volunteered afterwards: they told her to go and get it. The franchise context sits underneath the personal one. Atlanta had been to three previous Finals and lost every game, 0-10 in all, so Monday’s win is the first Finals victory the Dream have ever recorded. Reese’s line is the performance that finally moved that number.

When did the game actually turn?

In the third quarter, and it is worth being precise about how. Golden State led 21-18 after the first. Atlanta edged the second 21-16, and the half ended on a small moment that read bigger in the building: DeWanna Bonner’s 18-foot pull-up with four seconds left put Atlanta up 39-37, and she shushed the Chase Center crowd on the way back down the floor. Then the third quarter ran away from the home team. Atlanta won it 21-9, shot 12 free throws in the period, and closed it on a 15-2 run to lead 60-46, the last word belonging to Jordin Canada, who banked in a three from 32 feet at the buzzer. Golden State scored nine points in twelve minutes. Reese had 24 points and 11 rebounds by the end of the third. The fourth quarter was level, 19-19, which is what a fourth quarter looks like when the game has already been decided in the one before it. Canada finished with 13 points and 10 assists, Allisha Gray with 18 points, and Rhyne Howard’s six steals set a WNBA Finals record on a night Atlanta recorded 14 steals and forced 18 turnovers. The lead reached 21 before it settled at 14.

What happened to the Game 1 collision players?

All three played, and their lines are the follow-up in full. This site’s Game 1 article left the series with open questions after the collision between Gabby Williams and Canada. Game 2 answered them. Williams, who scored 26 points in Game 1, was held to 14 on 3-of-15 shooting. Canada was not suspended and ran Atlanta’s offence for 35 minutes, finishing with the buzzer three and a double-double of her own. Tiffany Hayes, who left Game 1 after a faceplant, was confirmed good to go before tip and scored 14, level with Williams as Golden State’s joint top scorer, with Veronica Burton adding 11. One more line belongs in the record: Kiah Stokes blocked four shots for the second straight Finals game, joining Brittney Griner as the only players to do that in consecutive Finals games, per USA TODAY. Golden State’s defence has a foundation to build on in Atlanta. Its offence, held to 65 points and 34 percent shooting, is the problem making the trip.

What happened in Game 3 in Atlanta?

Atlanta’s first home Finals game in this series was not close for long. The Dream won 97-71 on Wednesday at a sold-out State Farm Arena to lead the series 2-1, and Reese set the tone in the first quarter again: two three-pointers in the first half, 15 points and 7 rebounds by half-time, and a profane taunt at Aminata Gueye after an and-one that the crowd answered with the loudest cheer of the night, per USA TODAY’s account. She finished with 21 points, 12 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 steals in 34 minutes, shooting 7-of-12 and making both of her threes. That is three double-doubles in three Finals games, one in each city the series has visited. The detail travelling with her shooting is becoming a storyline of its own: Atlanta is 14-0 this season when Reese makes a three, 9-0 in the regular season and 5-0 in the playoffs. Rhyne Howard scored 16, Naz Hillmon 15, and Golden State’s night included a technical foul on coach Natalie Nakase late in the third quarter for coming onto the court to protest a call. Game 4 is in the same building on Saturday.

Are the Finals breaking viewership records?

Yes, twice in three days, and the records are the broadcaster’s own numbers. Game 1 averaged 2.1 million viewers across NBC and Peacock, a record audience for a Finals opener, peaking at three million, per Bleacher Report. Game 2 averaged 1.33 million across USA Sports’ platforms, the most-watched Finals Game 2 ever on cable and up 9 percent on the 2025 Game 2, per USA Sports’ release of the Nielsen figures. USA Sports’ average across the whole playoffs is 1.25 million, up 37 percent on 2025. The context matters for how the numbers read: this is a Finals between an expansion team in its second season and a franchise that had never won a Finals game before Monday, with no legacy market on either side. The draw is the matchup and its central player, and Reese’s youngest-player records are part of the same story the ratings are telling.

What does Golden State have to change in Atlanta?

The adjustment ledger has flipped, and Game 3 flipped it further. Golden State’s Game 1 win was built on a defensive scheme that took Reese out of the second half; Atlanta’s answer was not a new scheme, it was Reese deciding the matchup herself, her guards keeping the pressure on, and, in Game 3, her threes stretching the scheme past its shape. Finals series turn on adjustments, and the next one belongs to Golden State coach Natalie Nakase, whose team is down 2-1 and has to find Reese a problem again in the same loud building on Saturday, with elimination two losses away. For readers following the series mechanics, this site’s pages on how long WNBA games run and the reset timeout dispute from an earlier Finals cover the format questions travelling with this series. Game 1 wrote the storyline, Game 2 answered it, and Game 3 confirmed which team is currently writing it.