Angel Reese now leads the WNBA in double-doubles outright. The Atlanta Dream forward posted 10 points and 12 rebounds against the Golden State Valkyries on Wednesday, her 11th double-double in 17 games. This makes it just one more than Dallas Wings center Jessica Sheppard, to take the top spot on the league leaderboard, as per Real App.

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It came in a 77-66 loss at the Chase Center. The Dream entered on a four-game winning streak. However, the Valkyries ended it with a clinical shooting performance, going 45% from the field and 47% from the deep. Reese’s output on the glass was consistent regardless. However, the night also exposed the parts of her game that remains work in progress.

Reese’s consistency on the boards has been a career-long fixture. Earlier this month, ahead of Atlanta’s game against the Chicago Sky, she became just the fourth player across WNBA and NBA history to record 50 double-doubles in her first 75 professional games. She achieved this milestone in the game against the Washington Mystics. The pace she has set at the professional level has few comparisons in the history of the league. And on Wednesday, she just added to that count.

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Angel Reese

Imago

What complicates the picture, however, is the scoring line alongside. Reese went 3-for-12 from the field, a shooting struggle that has surfaced regularly this season. Despite Reese’s seven offensive rebounds, Atlanta could not covert those second-chance opportunities into points. Furthermore, she went 4-for-9 from the free throw line, accounting for five of Atlanta’s 10 missed foul shots.

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All of these raise sharp concerns on Reese’s productivity for the team. A double-double built heavily on rebounding output may still qualify but what the Dream need from Reese is both columns firing, not one carrying the other. And this is what she addressed directly after the game.

Angel Reese Pinpoints Shooting Struggles Behind Atlanta Dream’s Defeat to the Valkyries

Going into this game, the Atlanta Dream were the third-best offensive team in the league, as per WNBA.com. They left having shot 25-of-64 from the field, 4-of-18 from three, and missed 10 free throws. Only three players scored in double figures: Reese (10), Rhyne Howard (12), and bench contributor Madina Okot (16). Atlanta won the rebounding battle 34-32, yet converted almost none of it.

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“I think we just didn’t shoot the ball great, not like us,” Reese said in the postgame conference. “I think our bench come in and did a great job of bringing us back in the game. We’re fighting and quiet, but it’s time for that first five.”

On what she wants to see fixed, Reese was specific.

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“I mean, offensively, I think we can or myself finish a lot better…I think we got every shot we want. We literally got every shot we want. But we just didn’t make them tonight.”

The rematch of this fixture comes quicker than expected. The Dream will face the Valkyries again on June 26 at the Chase Center. The turnaround gives them little room to sit with the result, which may exactly be the point.

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Soumik Bhattacharya

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Soumik Bhattacharya is a staff writer at EssentiallySports covering the NBA and WNBA. He specializes in day-to-day league developments with a focus on roster movement and injury updates. Soumik has covered multiple sports, including tennis and volleyball, and reported extensively on the 2024 Paris Olympics, highlighted by the men’s 100m final featuring Noah Lyles and Kishane Thompson.

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Siddid Dey Purkayastha