Angel Reese notched 22 points, while DeWanna Bonner, along with Jordin Canada, came through in the closing stages as the Atlanta Dream beat the New York Liberty 85-83 Friday evening to secure a 3-0 semifinal win and earn their first WNBA Finals appearance since 2013.
Atlanta managed the feat despite missing its leading scorer during the regular season, Allisha Gray, who sustained an injury to her left hand and missed her second consecutive game.
Atlanta is undefeated in five games this postseason, having won all three against New York, and swept Washington in the previous round to start this journey. New York, the 2024 WNBA champion, beat Atlanta twice in regular-season meetings.
The Dream took the halftime lead with a 44-39 score, but the Liberty fought hard in the third quarter, outscoring their opponents 29-22. The Liberty took a 66-62 lead, but the Dream responded with Bonner and Reese. The Liberty held a narrow 68-66 lead with 30 seconds remaining, and Sabrina Ionescu scored from behind the arc to push it to 71-66 in the fourth.
However, the Dream answered with a 15-4 run in the period. DeWanna Bonner went to the line after being fouled from beyond the arc and made all three. That made it 81-75 for Atlanta with three minutes and 15 seconds to go.
Canada sealed the victory, and Atlanta, holding a four-point cushion with 1:04 remaining, withstood New York’s comeback attempts.
Reese, the Defensive Player of the Year who came via trade in the middle of the season, finished with 22 points.
New York, an eighth seed, reached the semifinal with a sweep over the No. 1 seed Minnesota, becoming the first eighth seed ever in WNBA playoffs to beat a No. 1 seed. They tried to advance to the Finals for the third time within four years.
Depth was the key to the Dream’s success in the series. In Game 1, Canada scored 25 points, 20 of them after halftime, while Bonner scored 23 from the bench after Gray’s injury, giving Atlanta a 92-82 victory. Canada later mentioned that “next man up” attitude.
In Game 2, both Canada and Reese scored 23 points. With 20.8 seconds to go, Naz Hillmon put Atlanta ahead after laying the ball in. With 4.3 seconds to go, Reese secured the 101–98 win with two free throws. The ending was clouded by controversy regarding New York’s timeouts. Breanna Stewart claimed that they had used up their timeouts, which was later contested in the officiating pool report.
“Remarkable performance by a lot of our players,” said Dream’s coach Karl Smesko in his interview.
Bonner, who ranks third on the all-time WNBA scoring list, switched teams in late August after agreeing to a contract buyout with Phoenix. She entered the semifinals having played in 100 playoff games, the most in league history.
Dream reached the Finals in 2010, 2011 and 2013 behind Angel McCoughtry and had been swept every time by Seattle (in 2010) and by Minnesota (both in 2011 and in 2013). This is the franchise’s quest for a Finals victory yet again. Atlanta has managed 30 wins in each of Smesko’s two seasons as head coach.
Dream will face the winner of the semifinal match between the Golden State Valkyries and Las Vegas Aces. Golden State leads the series 2–0 entering Game 3 in Las Vegas this Friday night.
WNBA Finals will start on October 17 with Game 1 at 3:30 p.m. EDT on NBC. The team that wins four games becomes the champion. As the No. 4 seed, Atlanta will open the Finals on the road against its opponent.
It is unclear where Dream will hold its home games in the Finals since the venue for Games 3 and 4, scheduled in Atlanta, wasn’t announced before the semifinals began. This is because State Farm Arena had a concert booked for Game 3 and the Atlanta Hawks’ home opener for Game 4.
