Dream vs. Fever: Atlanta Scores Franchise-Record 113 Points as Reese Becomes WNBA's Fastest to 1,000 Rebounds

Indiana made its first eight shots on Saturday and scored 37 points in the first quarter, the third-most in any quarter in Fever history. By the end of the afternoon, that was the footnote.

Rhyne Howard's 24 and Allisha Gray's 22 led an Atlanta attack that set a franchise record for points in a game, and the Dream finished off the Fever 113-96 with 17,044 people packing a sold-out State Farm Arena. Along the way, Angel Reese hit 1,000 career rebounds in her 79th game, the fastest any player has gotten there in WNBA history.

Indiana Fired First, Atlanta Fired Longer

The opening 20 minutes were a track meet with Caitlin Clark setting the pace. She had 13 in the first quarter as the Fever went up 37-30, and when the lead hit 44-33 in the second, it looked like Atlanta's big day in the big building might go sideways in front of everyone. Then the Dream scored eight straight, Kelsey Mitchell's 12 second-quarter points kept Indiana from fully coming apart, and the teams went to halftime at 59-56 with Indiana still in front.

The third quarter is where this stopped being a shootout and started being an Atlanta statement. The Dream outscored the Fever 28-15 in the period, and they carried that momentum straight through the break between quarters, stretching an 82-74 lead to 90-74 with 8:02 left in the game. Indiana did not seriously threaten again. A 9-0 Atlanta run late in the fourth pushed it to 108-86, the lead peaked at 22, and Indya Nivar's 24-footer with 39.2 seconds left put 113 on the board.

A Starting Five With No Off Switch

Howard did her damage from everywhere, going 4-of-10 from 3 and a perfect 8-of-8 at the line. Gray shot 9-of-18 and added five rebounds and three steals. Naz Hillmon scored 19 on 8-of-13 shooting, and her plus-26 was the best number on the sheet. Te-Hina Paopao came off the bench to hit three of her four 3s for nine points in 16 minutes, just in case anybody thought the starters were doing this alone.

The most satisfying line belonged to Jordin Canada, who had 12 points, 12 assists, seven rebounds, three steals and zero turnovers in 32 minutes. Zero. In a game with 113 points on one side and all that pace, she never gave it away once, and eight of her points came in that decisive third quarter.

Then there is Reese, whose afternoon deserves its own paragraph. She scored 18 on 7-of-14 shooting and grabbed eight rebounds, four on the offensive glass, and those boards carried her past 1,000 for her career faster than anyone the league has ever seen. Seventy-nine games. She does not need a highlight to change a game, just a missed shot.

Clark gave Indiana everything she had on the scoring side, with 26 points on 11-of-18 shooting and seven assists. The team says no player in WNBA history has reached 300-plus points and 100-plus assists to start a season faster: she did it in 16 games, beating her own mark of 19 from 2024. The seven turnovers were the problem, and her minus-19 reflected it. Mitchell finished with 16, all of them before halftime. Aliyah Boston had 13 points, nine rebounds and six assists, and the team notes she also passed 800 career defensive rebounds, joining Tamika Catchings as the only players in Fever history to get there. Sophie Cunningham scored 13 as well, four of them on a late four-point play that hardly mattered.

The Turning Point: Thirteen Straight in the Third

Indiana led 65-60 with 7:16 left in the third and was playing well enough to keep it that way. Over the next three and a half minutes, the Dream scored 13 in a row and turned that five-point deficit into a 73-65 lead. The Fever spent the rest of the quarter chasing, with Canada slicing through what was left of their defense. A team that had put up 59 points in a half was held to 15 in the period that decided the game.

Stats That Matter

• 19 turnovers: Indiana's total, which Atlanta turned into 18 points. Atlanta gave it away just nine times.
• 20-2: The fast-break margin, and yes, that is the correct number.
• 54-34: Atlanta's edge in the paint, where the Dream shot through a defense that was forever a step behind.
• 10-1: The steals count. Clark had Indiana's only one.
• 12-4: Offensive rebounds, the difference between a good first shot and a second one.

What It Means

The Dream are 11-4, 5-2 at home, and winners of three straight, including two over Indiana in three days after a 108-101 result on Thursday. With the Fever's 83-71 win on June 4 now looking a long way off, Atlanta holds a 2-1 lead in the season series. Toronto visits on Monday.

The Fever fall to 9-7 and 3-4 on the road, and the four-game winning streak they carried into Thursday now sits behind two straight losses. The good news is a home game with Phoenix on Monday. The less good news is that giving up 108 and 113 in back-to-back games does not fix itself in one practice.

This was also a real event. The Dream are playing only five games this season at State Farm Arena, home of the NBA's Hawks, instead of Gateway Center Arena, their usual 5,000-seat home in College Park. South Carolina coach Dawn Staley got a standing ovation while watching seven of her former players across the two rosters. The Hawks' Jalen Johnson and C.J. McCollum and the Falcons' Avieon Terrell were on hand too.

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Grammy-nominated Latto was also in the building, and she has a song that sums up the whole afternoon: Big Energy. A sellout crowd got a franchise record, a league milestone and 113 points in a borrowed arena. If the Dream ever need a business case for more dates downtown, this game is the entire slide deck.

Stats from the official box score via ESPN. Game details as reported by the Associated Press and the Indiana Fever.