Entering Game 2, Angel Reese was already pissed off. The Atlanta Dream had not lost on the road since August 28. But one game in the Ballhalla cauldron and that streak came to an end. She wasn’t concerned about where they played or who they played, though. She was focused on what she could control and what she missed in the close 68-64 Game 1 defeat.

The 79-65 comeback win on Monday gave all the answers, as Angel Reese seemingly overtook the entire group of players on the hardwood to finish with 30 points and 16 rebounds. “We ain’t f—ing around,” Reese said. She quite literally manifested the win. That hunger to win was not lost on her veteran opponent.

“She does a great job of taking advantage of mismatches,” said the Valkyries’ Kiah Stokes in her press conference. “So I was really just trying to stay with her when she started to get going. But she just has a great motor. She works really hard. She makes it difficult not to foul her.  And like you said, she can finish with her right and her left hand. So for me, it’s just trying to make her score over me.

“She [Angel Reese] had a great game today. So we just gotta get back to the drawing board and see what else we can come up with.”

The 11-year veteran with two WNBA All-Defensive Second Team nominations had the assignment of guarding Reese in Monday’s Game 2. While Stokes was trying to keep up with her, the forward showed off everything she worked on while trying to prove herself worthy of this position.

We all know the fight she puts up for a board. But we usually tend to forget that while Reese is 6-ft-4, she isn’t the tallest. She is also not the quickest. So how does she do what she does in the paint?

“I just know it,” she once plainly said of her rebounding skills during a practice at Gateway Center Arena during the regular season.

But it isn’t that simple.

You see, even her LSU head coach Kim Mulkey used to say that she has the innate talent to just know where the ball will drop. But she has practiced it all over the years. The latest ammo in her gauntlet, though, is her ability to create mismatches and outperform her opponents in the paint.

If you notice a sequence of her offensive rebounding and putting the ball back, the naturally right-handed player catches the ball off the board with her right hand, and while her opponents think she will make the layup with that same hand, she pushes it off from her left. The worst part for her opponents is that she can do the same thing in reverse. We even saw it on Monday.

With 4:49 left in the third quarter and the score tied at 42-all, Angel Reese drove for a basket off a pass from Allisha Gray, facing both Kaitlyn Chen and Kiah Stokes. But the Defensive Player of the Year powered through both to sink a left-handed layup, though she is primarily right-handed.

While the cameras caught some frustration from Reese in Q3, she scored 15 points in the first half before going on a nine-point rampage in the third, the same as the entire Valkyries squad scored in that quarter. Her capability to force a foul is another example.

In one possession, Reese took the ball and drove right into the paint and into her defender. Considering that it was an illegal defensive screen, the forward also got an and-1 opportunity.

Angel Reese was the most fouled player in Game 2, going to the free-throw line 11 times. Of those, she made nine, shooting 81.8%. Even beyond that, Reese had an incredible Game 2, shooting 62.5% from the field and making the one three-pointer she attempted at a moment that brought back the confidence in the Dream.

As the series now moves to Atlanta’s State Farm Arena, this mismatch creation from Reese could be the biggest problem for the Valkyries. The answer, though, might be right in front of their eyes. 

Angel Reese will have one massive problem come Game 3

Expectedly, the Finals has been a defensive matchup, and it has not disappointed as of yet. But there’s one player who outshone many on the hardwood.

Kiah Stokes, the former Las Vegas Aces player under the then-assistant coach Natalie Nakase, has been integral to the Valkyries’ defense in both the regular season and the postseason. She is one reason head coach Nakase’s squad boasts the highest regular-season defensive rating.

As both teams hunt their first WNBA championship, Stokes seems to be the only player on the Valkyries who can keep Reese from scoring, forcing her to take difficult shots over the 6-foot-3 big. After Game 2, Yahoo Sports’ Nekias Duncan and Steve Jones Jr. discussed Stokes’ role in the 2026 postseason. 

“Quick shoutout to Kiah Stokes. This defensive run has been kinda nuts for her,” said Duncan. “None of them have had a good time against Kiah Stokes when she’s had to guard them. This has been an incredible defensive season for Kiah; this has been an even more insane postseason for her.”

Let’s have a quick look at the damage she has done through the postseason:

The 2026 regular season saw Stokes average 4.5 defensive rebounds per game, while adding 0.6 steals and 1.7 blocks in 43 regular season games she started. Her stats improved in the playoffs, averaging 6.8 defensive rebounds to go with 2.5 blocks per game in eight games so far.

The Valkyries will need to better mobilize Stokes to keep Angel Reese in check, as Atlanta’s roaring crowd will be ruthless in its support. Coach Nakase’s stifling defense will need to show up as the Valkyries try to curb the Dream’s scoring core in Game 3 on October 21 (rescheduled after arena change), or they may have to bid adieu to their second-season title hopes.