Dream Delivers History-Making Performance to Beat L.A.

Angel Reese made history again, and the Atlanta Dream rolled over the Los Angeles Sparks 124-88 on Thursday at Crypto.com Arena.

Reese hit each of her nine shots to set a franchise record for most field goals without a miss and broke her own WNBA rebounds record to lead the Dream to its second consecutive win on its four-game West Coast road trip.

Reese filled up the box score: 20 points and 10 rebounds for her 25th double-double, eight assists and three steals. Reese grabbed her second offensive rebound, and 173rd this season, with 2:04 remaining in the second quarter, to re-set her league record first established in 2024.

“You want to be consistent,” Reese said. “This is my first time looking forward to a postseason. We’re kind of leaving a taste in everyone’s mouth right now what it’s like for the Atlanta Dream going into the postseason.”

Rhyne Howard led all scorers with 26 points, hitting 5-of-8 3-pointers; Naz Hillmon added 14 points and four blocks, Allisha Gray 13 points, and Madina Okot 12. Coach Karl Smesko was able to rest his starters for most of the fourth quarter ahead of Saturday’s game at Phoenix. Every Atlanta player scored against Los Angeles. The team had 35 assists on 46 field goals.

Atlanta’s offense was smoking: it broke its franchise record for points (113) and assists (32), and had its second-highest margin of victory (38) and shooting percentage (63.9). It set a season-high for 3-point shooting percentage (61.5).

“I felt good about when the game started that we would play well today, and so many people did,” Smesko said. “So, that was good.”

With the win, the Dream (23-13) remained fifth in overall standings, one game behind third-place Las Vegas, one-half game behind fourth-place Indiana, 11/2 games ahead of sixth-place Washington and seventh-place New York, and 21/2 games ahead of eighth-place Dallas.

The Dream eliminated any drama by taking a 34-12 lead, capped by a Howard 3-pointer to end the first quarter. Atlanta hit 66.7% of its shots and limited the Sparks to 31.3% shooting. Reese went 3-for-3.

Reese hit two 3-pointers to increase the Dream’s lead to 47-21 with 6:21 remaining in the quarter. The last 3 capped a 10-0 run, all points scored by Reese. She finished 5-for-5.

The Dream led 62-41 at halftime. It broke its mark for most points (59) in the first half, set twice this season, both against Los Angeles.

The Dream scored 32 more points in the third quarter – tying its season-high mark – to take a 94-62 lead into the fourth. Reese went 1-for-1.

“Tonight was a great win,” Hillmon said. “Just putting together 40 minutes; for the last two games we’ve been able to do that.”