The Atlanta Dream saw Rhyne Howard hit two milestones and Angel Reese reach a season-high, but its hopes of winning the Commissioner’s Cup were likely ended with a 104-90 loss to the New York Liberty on Thursday at Gateway Center.

The Dream was second behind the unbeaten Liberty in the tournament standings and needed to win to keep alive its chance of playing in the June 30 tournament final. New York improved to 4-0 and has two games left in the tournament. The Dream fell to 3-2 and has one game remaining at Toronto on Sunday.

“We’re still a really good team,” Dream Head Coach Karl Smesko. “New York’s a really good team, too.”

Atlanta (8-4) had a tough shooting and rebounding night against New York’s tight defense, one of the WNBA’s best. The Dream missed 20 of 29 3-pointers and was out rebounded by 16, 40-24. Atlanta hit just 15 of 27 free throws.

New York’s points were the most scored against Atlanta this season. The Liberty, using a lot of ball screens, hit 54% of its field goals, including 51.6% of its 31 3-pointers. Two were from very deep.

“They hit every shot,” Reese said. “When you hit 50% from 3 and 50% from (the) field it makes it tougher to win.”

Howard provided several highlights.

Howard hit her 400th 3-pointer, coming in the first quarter, to become the youngest player in league history to hit 400 3-pointers. Howard, 26 years old, needed just 147 games.

Howard’s 20th point in the fourth quarter moved her into fourth place on the Dream’s all-time scoring list (2,528 career points). She moved by Erika de Souza. Howard finished the game with 24 points.

Reese led the Dream with a season-high 25 points and nine rebounds. Her streak of games with at least 10 points and 10 rebounds ended at five. Allisha Gray added 18 points.

“I really wanted this one bad for the Commissioner’s Cup,” Reese said. “Career-highs don’t matter when you lose.”

The Dream used a 10-2 run to start the second quarter to take a 29-23 lead. The stretch featured the Dream’s first offensive rebound. It ended the half with three, but with a seven-point gap to make up because the Liberty’s Pauline Astier hit a 53-foot 3-pointer at the halftime buzzer. That was preceded by a 26-foot 3-pointer by Marine Johannes. The Dream was outrebounded 25-11 but kept it close by creating nine fast-break points to New York’s one.

“We'd make a run, and they're making a couple tough, tough threes, and these things start to add up, and you have to try and overcome them, but at some point it becomes too much,” Smesko said.

New York won the game in the third quarter. The Liberty hit 6-of-8 3-pointers, including back-to-back shots by Satou Sabally that lifted her team to an 80-62 lead. The 3s capped a 16-3 run.

Atlanta couldn’t match New York’s shooting. The Dream missed six of its eight 3-pointers, and six of its 10 free throws.

Smesko said they wanted to cut New York’s lead to eight with five minutes remaining in the game.

The Dream jumped out quickly in the last quarter, perhaps inspired by the Knicks’ historic rally against the Spurs on Wednesday.

Gray scored four quick points to cut the Dream’s gap to 80-69.

Jordin Canada stole the ball from Jonquel Jones and fed Reese, who hit a layup and was fouled by Astier. Reese gestured toward Astier. An officials' review ruled that Reese fouled Astier and committed a technical foul after the play. The points, which would have cut Atlanta’s deficit to eight, were taken off.

Breanna Stewart hit the free throw to increase New York’s margin to 81-69.

“I felt like we were onto something,” Smesko said. “That was definitely a setback. You’ve just got to try to make another run, and we never really got to make another serious push at it.”