Dream vs. Mystics: Angel Reese's Season-High 17 Rebounds Lead a 109-77 Rout After Sydney Johnson's Ejection

By the time Sydney Johnson's day ended with 3:52 left in the third quarter, the scoreboard had already issued its own ruling. Atlanta was running away, Angel Reese was treating the glass like a personal storage unit, and Washington's coach was headed for a long walk to the tunnel after two quick technicals.

The Atlanta Dream beat the Washington Mystics 109-77 on Saturday at Gateway Center, the Dream's highest-scoring game of the season. Reese finished with 18 points and a season-high 17 rebounds, Rhyne Howard added 19 points and six steals, and every one of the 11 Atlanta players who checked in got on the board. The most talked-about moment of the day had nothing to do with any of them.

Washington Had a Lead, Briefly, Then a Problem

The Mystics actually jumped ahead 16-12 in the first quarter, and that four-point edge was as good as things got for them. Atlanta answered with eight straight, Howard's 3 with 3:44 left in the period put the Dream in front for keeps, and it was 28-20 after one.

The second quarter brought a 10-0 run that stretched a 32-25 lead to 42-25 by the 4:04 mark. Washington got to the break down 46-34. Then Atlanta came out and won the third 32-18, including another 10-0 burst between the 8:45 and 6:50 marks that made it 58-37.

Next came the sequence everyone will be sharing. With 3:52 left in the third, Alicia Florez was called for a foul while defending a Reese drive, and Johnson, in his second season running the Mystics, took his case to the officials. He was hit with two technicals in quick succession and ejected. Iriafen and members of the coaching staff stepped in to try to hold him back. Once things cooled, he left the floor accompanied by three police officers and reached the tunnel with an assistant at his side. Emre Vatansever ran the team from there.

"I lost my cool," Johnson said afterward. "There's nothing more than that. That's it. Officials did what was appropriate, and that's all I can say."

As postgame accountability goes, that was short and direct. The Dream led 78-52 going to the fourth and kept pouring it on, using an 8-0 flurry in well under a minute late in the game to reach 107-72, the 35-point high-water mark.

Reese Eats, Howard Steals

Reese's 25 minutes were absurd. She had 17 rebounds, seven of them offensive, along with four steals and a perfect 10-of-10 at the line, and she got to 18 points on only nine shots. That made it four straight double-doubles and seven on the season. Washington never found anyone who could keep her off the glass, and her second-chance work kept Atlanta's offense humming even when a possession broke down.

Howard was the other half of the problem. She made 4-of-7 from 3, had three assists and collected six of Atlanta's 16 steals, which is an outrageous number for 21 minutes of work. Allisha Gray delivered one of the more bizarre lines you will see this season: 15 points on one made field goal, with 12-of-15 at the foul line and five assists. Jordin Canada had 11 points, five assists and zero turnovers.

The bench deserves its flowers too. Madina Okot scored 11 in 18 minutes, Sika Kone had nine with five offensive rebounds in 12 minutes, and rookie Isobel Borlase, who entered with 20 points on the season, scored nine and finished plus-27, the best number in the game.

Iriafen fought through all of it for Washington, scoring 24 on 8-of-15 shooting with seven free throws. Sonia Citron returned from a one-game absence with a foot injury and added 18 points and six assists. Beyond those two, the Mystics had little. Georgia Amoore went scoreless in 23 minutes, Shakira Austin had seven points and three blocks but finished minus-29, and Florez shot 1-of-7.

The Third Quarter Was the Whole Ballgame

The ejection will get the clips, but it was punctuation rather than the cause. Atlanta was already up 58-37 with 6:50 left in the third, nearly three full minutes before Johnson's exit. The Dream's pressure had turned Washington's offense into a series of rushed decisions, and those turned into transition chances the other way. Atlanta put up 21 fast-break points for the game, and the third quarter was when that speed became impossible to survive. Washington spent the last 26-plus minutes trailing by double figures, and it had nothing left to rally with when the sideline changed hands.

Stats That Matter

• 16-4: Atlanta's steals edge, with the 16 tying a Dream season high.
• 32-of-41: Dream free throws, season highs for both makes and attempts.
• 42-26: The rebounding margin, including 16 offensive boards for Atlanta.
• 21-5: Fast-break points, a clean summary of who was dictating the pace.
• 13-of-25: Atlanta from 3, a tidy 52 percent to go with all that work at the rim.

Where Everybody Stands

Atlanta moves to 7-3 and 4-1 at home, bouncing back from an 83-71 loss at Indiana on Thursday in about as emphatic a way as you can. The Dream have now won four straight against Washington, which still leads the series 34-33. Next up is a Tuesday trip to Chicago.

Washington slides to 4-5 and 3-3 on the road, a rough comedown after a 90-72 win over Chicago on Tuesday. The Mystics host Indiana on Monday, and they will presumably prefer a quieter day on the sideline as well as on the scoreboard.

The Trailer and the Movie

Johnson's ejection is the viral trailer moment. The 32-point demolition around it is the actual movie, and that is the part the rest of the league should sit through. Atlanta reached 109 on a day when Gray made one field goal, when a rookie with 20 points on the season scored nine and when 11 different players scored. Good teams beat you with their stars. Scary teams beat you with their stars while the rest of the roster treats garbage time like an audition, and on Saturday the Dream looked very much like the second kind.

Stats from the official box score via ESPN. Postgame quotes as reported by the Associated Press.