Angel Reese Owns the Glass. Golden State Might Be the One Team Ready for It.

We already covered Angel Reese reaching the Finals. Now let's talk about what she's actually going to run into: Kiah Stokes, Kayla Thornton, and a Golden State Valkyries defense that just swept the defending champion Las Vegas Aces.

Reese averaged a league-leading 12.1 rebounds per game this season, including 4.8 offensive rebounds. She can turn a missed shot into two or three chances to score, which is why the box-score jokes about her game have always missed the bigger point.

What matters here

Golden State is not showing up to these Finals unprepared. Stokes and the Valkyries play physical defense, and Golden State swept Atlanta in the regular-season series. That does not determine what happens in October, but it is a real matchup issue.

The Dream have Rhyne Howard, Jordin Canada and help elsewhere in the rotation. This is about more than one rebounder's numbers. Atlanta needs clean offense off the second chances. Golden State wants every possession to be contested and costly.

My take

I'm looking forward to this series because it's not all going to be pretty jump shots. Somebody is going to have to do the ugly work inside. That's where the championship might be won.