Reese drops career-best 31 points as Dream clinch playoff spot - ESPN

PHOENIX — Angel Reese scored a career-high 31 points and grabbed 14 rebounds for her 25th double-double of the season and the Atlanta Dream clinched a playoff berth with a 99-89 win over the Phoenix Mercury on Saturday night.

Rhyne Howard added 20 points, Allisha Gray had 17 and Jordin Canada 12 for the Dream (24-13), who have won five of their past six games. They moved a half-game ahead of Indiana, which lost earlier in night, for the fourth seed, with seven games to go for Atlanta.

Reese, a 43% shooter for the season, was 14-of-21 from the field after going 9-of-9 the previous game. Her previous career high for points was 27 in 2024 when she was a rookie with Chicago. She has set the Atlanta single-season record for double-doubles and is three shy of the league record.

«Just staying poised and not letting anybody speed me up,» Reese said. «I think I'm at my best when I'm around the basket, so just staying confident in the shots I know I can make around the basket, the shots that I work on in practice. Just taking my time and finishing those. I knew they were going to step up and trap or hedge our guards, so I knew I was going to be open down low. I just had to finish.»

Dream coach Karl Smesko praised Reese for improving her offensive game.

«I think she keeps getting better and keeps being able to expand her game,» he said. «I think she really found her opportunities to be physical. They weren't really sending doubles, so she had her opportunities to catch the ball in the short and do some post moves to score. She was able to get behind on some ball screens for some layups where our guards were able to find her, got a couple of put-backs. She was scoring in a multitude of ways, had a really great fourth quarter for us