jonquel jones

SAN FRANCISCO — Angel Reese had 30 points and 16 rebounds, Allisha Gray added 18 points and the Atlanta Dream stymied Golden State on both ends in the second half, beating the Valkyries 79-65 on Monday night to even the best-of-seven WNBA Finals at one game apiece.

Rhyne Howard set a Finals record with six steals, while Jordin Canada contributed 13 points, 10 assists and seven rebounds as the Dream earned the franchise’s first Finals victory after going winless in three previous trips — 0-10 overall. They now head home having salvaged a split in front of the boisterous “Ballhalla” crowd at Chase Center.

“This environment is tough to play in. Shoutout to the fans. Shout out my team, though,” Reese said. “We came and fought. I mean, that Game 1 was tough for us. But we moved on.”

Reese became the third player with at least 30 points and 15 rebounds in a Finals game, joining Jonquel Jones for Connecticut in 2019 and Breanna Stewart for Seattle in 2020.

“She was definitely way more aggressive, she had a great game,” Valkyries center Kiah Stokes said. “We let everyone kind of have their way.”

Game 3 is Wednesday in Atlanta, where the next two matchups were moved to the NBA Hawks’ State Farm Arena so more fans could attend. It holds more than 17,000, as opposed to the Dream’s regular home, Gateway Center Arena, which accommodates only 3,500.

Chase Center holds 18,064 and has sold out every game since the Valkyries began playing last year.

Gabby Williams finished with 14 points on three-for-15 shooting after she was the only Golden State player to score in double figures with 26 points in Saturday’s 68-64 Game 1 win. The Valkyries shot 34.4% and went seven for 24 from three-point range.

“We shot terribly,” point guard Veronica Burton said. “We missed shots that we make all the time.”

Foul trouble almost did in the Dream this time — but Reese simply wouldn’t have it. She went scoreless in the second half of the opener but delivered the big baskets and key defensive stops two days later, finishing 10 for 16 from the floor while dishing out three assists and blocking two shots.

“We watched film and saw the things that we messed up on. When I said that they didn’t do anything to mess us up, it was literally just us,” Reese said. “And we can see that tonight. And we’re gonna carry that over in Atlanta. Atlanta, y’all better pull up and pop out, I’m looking forward to it.”

Atlanta scored 24 points off Golden State’s 19 turnovers to hand the Valkyries their first loss in regulation since a 73-70 defeat at Chicago on Aug. 21. The Dream had just eight points off turnovers in Game 1 but returned to the defensive formula that advanced Atlanta this far.

Sept. 29, 2026 9:13 PM PT

NEW YORK — The New York Liberty are peaking at the right time and were able to complete a historic sweep of the Minnesota Lynx to advance to the semifinals of the WNBA playoffs.

Jonquel Jones had 21 points and 13 rebounds and the No. 8 seed Liberty beat the top-seeded Lynx 87-71 in Game 2 of their WNBA playoff series Tuesday night. New York became the first No. 8 seed to eliminate a No. 1 seed in the league’s 30-year history.

The WNBA has undergone a number of different playoff formats. And in many of the formats, it wasn’t possible for those seeds to match up. However, in 2022, the league changed to the current format in which the top eight teams play in the quarterfinals.

“It feels good, we understand who we are as a team,” Jones said. “We’re not listening to outside noise, we understand that we can do a lot of great things. We feel like we can play with anybody and beat anybody. That’s the mindset we have moving forward. It feels good to make history. It had to be done for us to advance. It’s nice to say it’s been accomplished, but we have a lot of work to do.”

Breanna Stewart added 21 points and Sabrina Ionescu had 18 for the Liberty, who await the winner of the Atlanta-Washington series. The Dream are up 1-0 and play at Washington on Wednesday night. The semifinals begin Sunday.

A year after losing in the first round to Phoenix after going up 1-0 in that series, New York was determined not to have that happen again.

The Liberty were up five points after one quarter and led 40-35 with 2:39 left in the half. New York scored nine of the final 11 points in the second quarter to go up 49-37 at the break.

New York was up 52-39 with 6:26 left in the third when Stewart drove to the basket and was hit in the face by Olivia Miles as she tried to block the shot. Stewart was down for a minute as the officials reviewed the play and upgraded the play to a Flagrant-1 foul.

As Stewart walked off the court, she raised her hands to the sellout crowd of 17,593, who serenaded her with “MVP!” chants. Stewart hit both free throws.

Minnesota couldn’t get closer than seven points the rest of the way.

“New York is a great basketball team,” said Courtney Williams, who led Minnesota with 18 points. “You dig a hole for yourself and try to get out of it. We wanted to go on a run, but they had answers for everything.”

The Lynx’s season ended in disappointment again. The Lynx had the best regular-season record, but just couldn’t put it together against New York. On Monday, Cheryl Reeve won the league’s coach of the year and Miles was a unanimous choice for rookie of the year.

Miles struggled in both games against New York. She had five points, missing seven of her eight shots in 17 minutes, on Tuesday night. The Liberty’s size and ability to protect the rim bothered the stellar first-year player.

Reeve said she offered encouragement to her star rookie after the game.

“As I told her. When was the last time a rookie led the first-place team? Never happened before,” Reeve said. “That’s what we shared with her. This hurts for her.”

Napheesa Collier and Kayla McBride each added 14 to for the Lynx.

Feinberg writes for the Associated Press.