One game after getting embarrassed by the Portland Fire, the Atlanta Dream had two choices.
They could let that loss create questions about whether this team was really ready for playoff basketball.
Or they could answer those questions against arguably the best team in the WNBA.
Atlanta chose the second option.
The Dream defeated the league-leading Minnesota Lynx 89-81 on Sunday, improving to 26-14 and heading into the FIBA World Cup break with one of their most impressive wins of the entire season. Minnesota entered the game 31-8.
And after watching how Atlanta responded, I’m starting to believe something about this team that would have sounded ambitious a few months ago:
The Dream have a legitimate chance to make a deep playoff run.
This Was Exactly the Response Atlanta Needed
Friday’s 101-83 loss to Portland was ugly.
Portland scored 50 points in the paint and essentially beat Atlanta at its own game. Even with Rhyne Howard scoring 26 and Angel Reese putting together another 16-point, 16-rebound performance, the Dream never looked like themselves.
That’s why Sunday’s response mattered so much.
Karl Smesko said afterward that Atlanta played with a different pace and energy from the beginning, and that’s exactly what this team needed.
Anybody can look like a contender when everything is going well.
What interests me is what happens after you get punched in the mouth.
Atlanta responded by beating Minnesota.
That’s playoff-team behavior.
Allisha Gray Reminded Everyone How Dangerous This Team Can Be
Angel Reese is understandably receiving a ton of attention right now, but Allisha Gray deserves her flowers after this one.
Gray finished with 23 points and 11 rebounds while knocking down six three-pointers against Minnesota. She also became the first player in Dream history to record at least 20 points, 10 rebounds and five made threes in the same game.
That is exactly what makes Atlanta so dangerous.
It doesn’t have to be the same player every night.
Reese can dominate the glass.
Gray can torch you from outside.
Rhyne Howard can take over stretches offensively.
And now DeWanna Bonner is entering the equation.
Against Minnesota, Howard scored 16 points — all in the second half — while Atlanta maintained control as the Lynx attempted to make their comeback.
Think about that.
Atlanta beat the WNBA’s top team despite one of its best scorers going scoreless for an entire half.
That’s depth.
Angel Reese Just Made WNBA History — Again
At this point, I’m running out of ways to describe what Angel Reese is doing.
Reese finished Sunday’s game with 15 points and 11 rebounds, giving her 29 double-doubles this season.
That broke Alyssa Thomas’ previous WNBA single-season record of 28.
And somehow, that’s not even the only WNBA record Reese has broken recently.
Just six days earlier against Los Angeles, Reese grabbed 26 rebounds, breaking the WNBA single-game record while also surpassing the league’s single-season rebounding record.
We’re not talking about a nice stretch anymore.
We’re watching one of the most dominant rebounding seasons the WNBA has ever seen.
And the timing couldn’t be better for Atlanta.
DeWanna Bonner Is the Piece That Could Matter Most in October
Sunday also gave us our first look at DeWanna Bonner in a Dream uniform.
And while nobody should expect Bonner to walk into Atlanta and immediately become the team’s leading scorer, that’s not why this signing matters.
Bonner brings something this roster desperately needed:
Playoff experience.
The 39-year-old arrived in Atlanta with 98 career playoff appearances, two WNBA championships and six All-Star selections. She entered the Dream averaging 10.6 points and 6.1 rebounds this season with Phoenix.
Atlanta already had talent.
Now it has another player who knows exactly what postseason basketball feels like.
That’s a significant addition to a team whose core is still learning how to win together at this level.
This Dream Team Is Starting to Feel Different
Here’s the biggest takeaway for me.
Atlanta isn’t simply beating bad teams.
The Dream just beat Minnesota.
Before that, Atlanta completed a perfect 4-0 West Coast road trip, including a win over Phoenix that officially clinched the franchise’s fourth consecutive playoff appearance.
Reese is breaking records.
Gray is playing like an All-WNBA caliber guard.
Howard gives Atlanta another legitimate star-level scoring option.
Bonner adds championship experience.
And Smesko has a team that just demonstrated it can respond immediately after one of its worst performances of the season.
Minnesota is still the standard. One regular-season win doesn’t suddenly make Atlanta the championship favorite.
But it absolutely changes the conversation.
The question shouldn’t be whether the Atlanta Dream are good enough to make the playoffs anymore.
They’ve already answered that.
The question now is how far this team can actually go once the playoffs begin.
And after what we just watched against the best team in the WNBA, I’m becoming increasingly convinced that nobody should want Atlanta sitting across from them in a playoff series.
This team is becoming dangerous at exactly the right time.
