Dream’s First-Round Matchup With Mystics Puts the Spotlight on Angel Reese
Angel Reese is having her best season yet. She has been scoring incredibly efficiently lately, still rebounds like no one else, and is even in the running for Defensive Player of the Year. Most importantly, she is finally contributing to a competitive team. Her growth and production have been huge for the Atlanta Dream with Brionna Jones out for most of the season. She only played nine regular-season games and will miss the playoffs.
Reese will be tested anew in the playoffs. The Dream will have to face the Washington Mystics in the first round. Washington may be young and inexperienced, but the team is also big, physical, and excellent defensively. Kiki Iriafen and Shakira Austin are two of the best young bigs in the game and a top frontcourt duo in the W.
If the Dream want to move past the first round, they will have to limit Iriafen and Austin. Reese will be the key to accomplishing that.
Iriafen and Austin have been a problem for the Dream before
Atlanta lost the season series to Washington 1-2. The Dream took the first game 109-77, but that was in June, when Georgia Amoore was still working her way back from an ACL tear and most of the Mystics’ roster was adjusting to life as a WNBA rookie.
In July, the Mystics beat the Dream 81-76. About a month later, they secured the head-to-head tiebreaker with a 79-74 victory. Austin and Iriafen were huge in both of those wins.
Austin finished the first game with 21 points and 9 rebounds, while Iriafen scored 14 points and grabbed 10 rebounds. In the final game, Austin had 21 points and 11 rebounds, and Iriafen had 15 points and 7 rebounds.
If the Mystics get that kind of production out of Austin and Iriafen in the playoffs, it could become a real problem for the Dream—especially if Sonia Citron, Georgia Amoore, and Michaela Onyenwere also produce from the perimeter. Reese cannot shut down both of them at the same time, but if she can bother at least one of Iriafen or Austin, it will go a long way for the Dream.
However, defense isn’t everything. Iriafen and Austin are both excellent defenders in their own right, and Reese will have to figure out how to score against them. She did so very well in the first regular-season meeting, scoring 18 points along with 17 rebounds. She was also solid in the second game, finishing with 13 points and 13 rebounds. The final meeting looked quite different. Reese finished that one with just 7 points on 1-for-12 shooting from the field and 16 rebounds.
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Elaine Blum covers women’s basketball for On SI from Europe. She has been writing about women's hoops since 2023 and holds a Bachelor’s degree in English and Journalism and a master’s degree in American Studies with a focus on women’s and gender studies. She started playing basketball when she was 10 years old and won several league and state championships at the youth and senior level.