Angel Reese’s eventful weekend ended with an injury and one of her worst performances of the season.
The Atlanta Dream star left Sunday afternoon’s game against her former team, the Chicago Sky, after her left leg appeared to give out as she attempted a layup early in the fourth quarter.
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Reese fell to the floor after missing the shot, briefly got back to her feet and then went down again. She eventually returned to Atlanta’s bench, but the Dream ruled her out for the remainder of the game with a left leg injury.
But Reese wasn’t playing particularly well before leaving the game.
And that’s actually putting it kindly.
The 24-year-old finished with eight points and five rebounds in 20 minutes. She shot an abysmal 3-of-13 from the field, missed her only three-point attempt and committed three turnovers. She finished with a minus-7 rating in Atlanta’s 93-91 victory. Her minus-7 was the worst mark among Dream players, and she committed three fouls.
Not good.
In addition, Reese grabbed just one defensive rebound. Four of her five boards came on the offensive end, including two “mebounds” where she grabs her own rebound after missing a short shot.
That’s become a familiar part of the Angel Reese experience.
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She is unquestionably one of the best rebounders in women’s basketball. She also regularly pads those totals by collecting misses around the basket, including her own.
On Sunday, even that wasn’t enough to make the box score look respectable.
Reese entered the game averaging 15.7 points and a league-leading 11.8 rebounds per contest. She had recorded 23 points and 12 rebounds against Toronto on Friday, her league-leading 17th double-double of the season.
She followed that performance by missing 10 of 13 shots against the team that traded her during the offseason.
The rough outing wasn’t caused by the injury, either.
Reese had already logged 20 minutes before getting hurt 14 seconds into the fourth.
Again, the injury is unfortunate. There’s nothing funny about a player getting hurt, and the hope is that Reese avoided anything serious.
After the game, Dream head coach Karl Smesko said Reese was in “great spirits celebrating with her teammates.”
According to WNBA reporter Wilton Jackson, Smesko noted that Reese “wanted to go out there and keep playing” but that he “didn’t feel comfortable with it because she looked like she was in a lot of pain.”
Despite the injury, it’s hard to look past just how bad Reese was prior to getting hurt.
Fortunately for the All-Star forward, her teammates bailed her out.
Atlanta led by as many as 22 points before allowing Chicago to erase the deficit. The Dream led by one point when Reese exited.
Atlanta guard Jordin Canada made a game-winning layup as time expired and the Dream escaped with a 93-91 victory over the 9-17 Sky.
The Dream improved to 16-10 and Reese is now 2-0 against the Sky since Atlanta acquired her for two first-round draft picks in April.
Still, this wasn’t exactly the revenge performance Reese probably envisioned against her former team.
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She had more missed shots (10) than either points (8) or rebounds (5). She also turned the ball over three times and committed three fouls before hurting her leg.
The good news for Atlanta is that they don’t play again until July 29, which gives Reese plenty of time to recover. The bad news is that the WNBA All-Star Game is on July 25 and the league certainly prefers that Reese plays in that game.
Say what you will about Reese, but she’s arguably the second-biggest draw in the league after Caitlin Clark. Despite this poor performance, there’s no question Reese adds intrigue to the All-Star Game.
Hopefully, she recovers in time to play.
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