Angel Reese’s first playoff run gets its biggest test yet on Sunday afternoon.<\/p>\n
The Atlanta Dream host the New York Liberty in Game 1 of the WNBA semifinals at 2 p.m. ET on ABC, a series that pits the league’s new Defensive Player of the Year against one of the greatest forwards the game has ever seen.<\/p>\n
Reese, named the 2026 WNBA Defensive Player of the Year this week after earning 46 of 74 votes, leads the Dream (30-14) against Breanna Stewart and a Liberty team that just did something no one in league history had ever done: sweep the No. 1 seed as a No. 8 seed.<\/p>\n
Atlanta has every reason to feel good. The Dream went 2-1 against New York in the regular season, including an 83-65 demolition in Brooklyn on Sept. 24, when Allisha Gray poured in 24 points. The Dream are 9-1 over their last 10 games, averaging 92.1 points, and have not lost a playoff game yet, sweeping the Washington Mystics 2-0 in the first round for the franchise’s first playoff series win in 10 years.<\/p>\n
But the team wearing green on Sunday is not the underdog its seeding suggests. The Liberty swept top-seeded Minnesota with a defense-first surge, holding the Lynx to 73 points in the clincher, and Stewart was the best player on either roster. The two-time MVP totaled 55 points, 17 rebounds, 10 assists, four steals and four blocks across Round 1, and she has somehow found another gear since winning the FIBA MVP trophy during the international break. She is averaging 27.5 points, 8.5 rebounds and 3.0 assists this postseason.<\/p>\n
“If Stewart can get Angel Reese in foul trouble, the Dream might struggle to stop the league’s second-best player,” one pre-series betting analysis argued \u2014 a reminder that this series may be decided by which superstar frontcourt player imposes herself on the other.<\/p>\n
The supporting casts will have plenty to say about it. Gray is averaging 22.0 points in the playoffs after scoring 22 in each game against Washington. Rhyne Howard is right behind at 20.5 points per game, and her perimeter defense has been the league’s best all season. Jordin Canada has double-doubles in both playoff games and scored 13 of her 19 points in the fourth quarter of the clinching win.<\/p>\n
New York’s championship core \u2014 Stewart, Jonquel Jones and Sabrina Ionescu \u2014 won a title together in 2024, and that pedigree is why the Liberty are favored by some analysts to win the series despite being the lower seed. Jones shook off a quiet Game 1 against Minnesota with a 21-point, 13-rebound double-double in the clincher, and Ionescu is averaging 15.5 points and 6.5 assists this postseason.<\/p>\n
Atlanta’s defense will be its foundation. The Dream are fourth in the WNBA, holding opponents to 84.5 points per game, and Reese is averaging 14.0 points, 9.5 rebounds and 2.0 blocks in her first postseason. DeWanna Bonner, signed on Aug. 27 after a buyout from Phoenix, has added 10 points a night off the bench.<\/p>\n
Both teams are shorthanded up front: the Dream are without Brionna Jones (out for the season with a leg injury), while the Liberty lost Satou Sabally for the season with a head injury.<\/p>\n
“All we cared about was winning and advancing, and everyone did their part,” Dream coach Karl Smesko said after the Washington sweep. The assignment only gets harder now. Atlanta is chasing its first Finals appearance since 2013; New York is chasing history again.<\/p>\n
Sources: theScore and KB Sports Media pregame reports (Oct 3, 2026); BetMGM Game 1 preview (Oct 2026); Last Word On Sports semifinal preview (Oct 3, 2026).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Angel Reese’s first playoff run gets its biggest test yet on Sunday afternoon. The Atlanta Dream host the New York Liberty in Game 1 of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":94,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-93","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-angel-reese","category-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vacancyatmeta.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vacancyatmeta.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vacancyatmeta.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vacancyatmeta.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vacancyatmeta.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=93"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/vacancyatmeta.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":95,"href":"https:\/\/vacancyatmeta.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93\/revisions\/95"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vacancyatmeta.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/94"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vacancyatmeta.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=93"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vacancyatmeta.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=93"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vacancyatmeta.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=93"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}