Remember how Angel Reese showed up in that head-turning outfit to cheer on both the Minnesota Lynx and the New York Liberty during the WNBA Finals? After all, she was all smiles with Lynx star Napheesa Collier, even though her own team, the Chicago Sky, had lost every single matchup against the 2024 runner-ups. It looked all friendly and fuzzy at the time. But fast forward to Unrivaled, and well, things between Angel and Phee weren’t exactly sunshine and rainbows.

It started with a little bump and then escalated with every game. Fans would have bet it was a rivalry in the making. So, when the preseason schedule dropped, and we saw Sky vs Lynx twice, the hype was real. But did it deliver?

In their first showdown, Chicago was fresh off a win against Brazil, and Reese had every excuse to take it slow. She had just wrapped up a Met Gala weekend. But the Chi-Town Barbie suited up and got to business, dropping 9 points and grabbing 8 rebounds to help Sky snag a 74-69 win. Minnesota, missing four key players, started off ice-cold, shooting just 16.7% in the first quarter. They did rally with an 11-0 run in the second, but the Sky held on for the dub. That set the stage for game two on Sunday night in Minneapolis. The Sky came out gunning from deep early, while both teams got a little too wild toward the end of the half. 

Still, Minnesota took a 48-42 lead into the break. Chicago clawed back with an 11-1 run bridging the third and fourth quarters, making things real interesting. Then came a scoring drought that left Lynx fans sweating—it took them almost five minutes into the fourth to score a field goal.

But once the lid came off the basket, they went off, scoring on eight straight possessions. Despite a few lead trades from beyond the arc, Chicago just couldn’t match Minnesota’s late-game fire. The Lynx closed it out 92-87.

But hold on, it wasn’t just the final score that had fans talking. It was Angel Reese’s quiet night on the boards that raised eyebrows. She played 25 minutes, dropped 10 points but her rebounding? That’s where the questions started flying. 

One user on X wrote, “Angel didn’t grab a single rebound in 10 mins of action.” For the first ten minutes, not a single board. She ended the night with just three rebounds in total. For someone who built her college rep and rookie season cleaning the glass, that’s rare. So, obviously, it got everyone talking. 

Angel Reese’s rebounding dip had everyone talking

Remember how Angel Reese practically owned the boards in her rookie season? So when fans saw her go ten whole minutes without grabbing a single rebound against the Minnesota Lynx, the Twitter-verse practically exploded. One fan simply said, “HIGHLY unusual…” Because let’s not forget, this is Angel Reese we’re talking about—the Chi-Town Barbie, sure, but also the double-double queen. The last year when she played the Lynx, even though Chicago didn’t win a single game against them, she still showed out.

In fact, it was against Minnesota that Reese broke the WNBA single-season rebounding record last year in her rookie campaign. The one previously held by another LSU legend, the iconic Sylvia Fowles. And we all know Fowles isn’t just any name- she’s the WNBA’s all-time leading rebounder with 4,006 boards across 408 games. That’s the lineage Angel stepped into. 

Then came the “Wait what?” comments, because that 3-rebound stat line was actually the lowest of her pro career.  She led her team in rebounding in basically every game last year and before this, her lowest was five boards in a preseason game vs the New York Liberty. Even in the two preseason games just before this, Reese pulled down 10 and 8 rebounds respectively. So to see her go a full ten minutes without a single one, fans were stunned.

But then another fan added a bit of a theory- “I think the Lynx may have figured out how to stop Angel Reese.” Flashback to that one Unrivaled matchup in which Reese absolutely cooked against Napheesa Collier’s Lunar Owls with a 22-point, 21-rebound performance, eight of which were offensive. So maybe, just maybe, after all those reps in Unrivaled, Collier finally cracked the code to slowing down Reese’s board-hogging ways.

Another chimed in to say, “Phee has been guarding AR whenever AR is on the court,” and that checks out too. Collier is no joke on defense. She’s calculated, patient, and tough. And if there’s anyone who could slow down someone like Reese, it might just be Phee. But not everyone thought it was Collier. One theory floating around…“They have her sitting outside to make space for Cardoso,” a fan suggested. Kamilla Cardoso did top the rebounding chart with 9 boards in this one.

So maybe it was just a tactical thing- pulling Reese out of the paint, letting her take more of a point-forward role to give Cardoso room inside. Makes sense in theory, but fans still couldn’t help but feel weird seeing Reese that far from her rebounding throne. Then again, it was just preseason, so maybe this was the Sky trying a few new things.

Now, with the preseason wrapped, the Sky are gearing up to face the Indiana Fever and Caitlin Clark, who are coming in 3-0 from their preseason stretch. All eyes are on Reese to bounce back and, hopefully, start snatching boards like her usual self. Because come regular season, you best believe fans won’t settle for three rebounds and a quiet night.