Sophie Cunningham Gets it Right About Angel Reese's Bad WNBA Finals Body Language

Atlanta Dream star Angel Reese was visibly frustrated during a stretch of Game 2 of the WNBA Finals.

Reese was jockeying for position in the paint on consecutive possessions without getting the ball. After the second possession, she seemed to give up on the play and said something to her bench while teammate Allisha Gray was taking a three-pointer.

Clips of this went viral on social media, as some fans tried to call Reese out for what they believed was conduct detrimental to her team.

Angel Reese was PISSED her teammates wouldn't pass her the ball and QUIT on the play 😬 pic.twitter.com/NiUciI16Y0
— BrickCenter (@BrickCenter_) October 20, 2026

Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham didn't see it this way, which she conveyed during an episode of her "No Hesitation" podcast that was published on Friday.

"You could probably clip almost everybody in the WNBA, in the NBA, that has [the frustration] clips like this. You could 100% do that. That's what you get when you're playing at a high level, when you're a competitor, especially when you're trying to get a championship. Like, this s*** is going to happen. I'm not surprised by that," Cunningham said.

"Do I like the body language? Do I think that it could have been better? Absolutely. And I think if she watches this back, I think she would have said the same thing," Cunningham added. "But sometimes you got to do it. If your team's not getting you the damn ball, then if you see one of your star players getting frustrated, getting pissed off, then it's like, 'Oh, you know, they're not messing around. We need to get her the damn ball.'

"And I think the coaching staff saw it; I think everyone on the bench saw it; her teammates felt the energy. And, you know, she did what she needed to do in order to put yet another game on her back," she added.

Sophie Cunningham Understands Meaning Behind Angel Reese's Body Language

Cunningham has been critical of other elements of Reese's postseason run. But she nailed this defense of Reese's body language during the game.

For one, Reese's historic performances over the past two WNBA Finals games have proven that the Dream need to feed her the ball as much as possible.

Plus, Cunningham's Fever teammate, Caitlin Clark, is notorious for not always having the best body language. She often shows frustration with referees during games and has been visibly irked by her teammates' actions on the court.

But this is a byproduct of Clark's competitive fire and desire to win. The same goes for Reese, who is one of the WNBA's fiercest competitors. This fire propels both Reese and Clark, and creates energy that their teammates can feed on.

The Dream proved this by winning the past two WNBA Finals games. And it's why Cunningham was right to defend Angel's actions.

Add us as a preferred source on Google