Dream vs. Sparks: Angel Reese's WNBA-Leading 16th Double-Double of the Season Powers a 101-92 Win

On Saturday, Angel Reese sat on the Atlanta bench with her right foot in a boot. On Monday, with the Dream's fourth-quarter offense only just back from the missing-persons bureau and the game against the Los Angeles Sparks tied at 87, she let fly from 23 feet and watched her third made three of the entire season wander around the rim before deciding to help out.

Her 23 points and 13 rebounds added up to a WNBA-leading 16th double-double of the season, and it carried the Atlanta Dream past the Sparks 101-92 at Gateway Center. For a team that had dropped six of its previous seven, it was the kind of win that lets a whole building exhale, even a building with 3,592 people in it.

Punch, Counterpunch, Five Minutes of Nothing

The Dream looked ready to make this easy, then spent the evening making it hard. A 10-0 Atlanta run in the first quarter flipped a 13-11 deficit into a 21-13 lead, and the Sparks replied with a 10-0 run of their own across the quarter break to go up 28-25. Atlanta's answer was the best stretch of the night: 34 points in the second quarter and a 59-48 halftime lead. The Dream's edge eventually peaked at 14.

Los Angeles wouldn't stay down. A 9-0 run in the third trimmed a 66-53 hole to 66-62, and although Atlanta carried an 83-75 lead into the fourth, it promptly forgot how to make a shot. An 8-0 Sparks run tied it at 83 with 6:28 left. Dearica Hamby's driving layup at 4:21 made it 87-85 Los Angeles, the visitors' first lead since early in the second quarter.

Then came the stat that should have sunk Atlanta. Allisha Gray's 2-footer at the 4:07 mark, which tied the game at 87, was the Dream's first field goal of the fourth. That's nearly six minutes of crunch-time basketball without one, and the Dream still won by nine.

Reese Is Back, and So Is the Math

Reese missed Saturday's loss to Portland and showed no sign of rust, shooting 7 of 11, making all eight of her free throws and hitting her lone 3-point attempt in 33 minutes. Ten of her 13 rebounds came on the defensive end, and she added three steals. The free throws are the part worth lingering on. Sparks defenders spent the night deciding between giving up a layup and sending her to the line, and neither option worked.

Gray was the steadier hand, scoring 20 on 8-of-15 shooting with 3 of 6 from deep, and both of her fourth-quarter baskets were enormous. Jordin Canada had 16 points, nine assists and a perfect 5 of 5 at the line, and she set up both of the night's biggest threes. Rhyne Howard scored 11 and saved her best for last. The bench did real work too: Madina Okot had nine points and six rebounds in only 10 minutes, and Isobel Borlase scored 10.

The Sparks had plenty of reasons to feel good and one big reason not to. All five starters reached double figures: Erica Wheeler with 20, Nneka Ogwumike with 19, Rae Burrell with 18, Ariel Atkins with 13 and Hamby with 12. Ogwumike hit 3 of 5 threes and Burrell went 6 of 6 at the line. Los Angeles even shot better overall, 52 percent to 49. But the reserves produced just 10 points, and the depth problem isn't hard to explain with Cameron Brink (left ankle) missing an eighth straight game and Kelsey Plum (lower left leg) a sixth.

Nine Straight When It Counted

Everything turned in a span of 2:11. Gray's basket, off a Naz Hillmon pass, started it. Then came Reese's three off a Canada feed with 3:26 left, the shot that took its sweet time before dropping for a 90-87 lead. Reese went back to the line at 2:42 and made both, and Canada finished a running layup at 1:56 to make it 94-87. A game Atlanta had been losing a few minutes earlier now had a seven-point margin.

Los Angeles took one more swing. Wheeler buried a 27-foot three at 1:47 to get within four. Gray answered with a driving layup at 1:13, and Howard ended the conversation from 28 feet with 36.4 seconds left, another Canada assist, for a 99-90 lead. A run like that says something about this roster when it's right: the 9-0 featured three different scorers, and Canada had a hand in five of the nine points.

The Numbers That Mattered

• Points off turnovers: Atlanta 21, Los Angeles 15, despite nearly identical giveaway totals (18 for the Sparks, 17 for the Dream).
• Fast-break points: Atlanta 16, Los Angeles 4.
• Rebounds: Atlanta 35, Los Angeles 25, including a 12-6 edge on the offensive glass.
• Free throws: Atlanta 20 of 23, Los Angeles 13 of 16.
• Bench points: Atlanta 21, Los Angeles 10.

Where Things Stand

Atlanta improves to 14-10 overall and 8-4 at home. The recent stretch still isn't pretty: since a run of wins in June, the Dream have gone 2-6, with Thursday's victory over Seattle and this one the only bright spots. Still, a team with Reese back on the floor looks a lot different from the one Portland just pushed around. Toronto is next, on Friday.

The Sparks drop to 10-12 and 5-5 on the road, with a two-game winning streak gone after home wins over Indiana and Chicago. They get no breather either, with a trip to Minnesota and the league's best record on Wednesday.

Even Marvel Makes You Miss a Movie

Boot on Saturday, 23 and 13 on Monday. Even Marvel usually makes a hero sit out a whole film before a return like that, and the writers would have thrown out the friendly roll on the go-ahead three for being too convenient. Reese will take it. Atlanta has spent nearly three weeks waiting for a break of any kind. When the rim finally starts doing you favors, you don't ask questions. You just go get the rebound.

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