The Atlanta Dream are headed to the WNBA Finals for the first time in 13 years after Angel Reese led an 85-83 road clincher that swept New York.
Friday night at Barclays Center, Atlanta finished what it started. The Dream beat the New York Liberty 85-83, sealed a three-game semifinal sweep, and ended a long wait for another shot at a title.
It was Atlanta’s fourth trip to the WNBA Finals and the first since 2013. The franchise last reached the semis in 2018. Now it sits four wins from its first championship, with the Finals set to open Oct. 17.
Newsweek reported that Reese led the way with a team-high 22 points, while Rhyne Howard added 21 and Jordin Canada posted 19 points and 11 assists in the clincher.
DeWanna Bonner supplied the last swing. The veteran forward finished with 13 points and 13 rebounds and sank both free throws with 6.2 seconds left to put Atlanta up for good.
Atlanta came out hot. The Dream hit five of their first eight three-point tries and led 25-18 after one quarter.
Reese scored 10 in that opening period, including two threes. Howard dropped 11 of her own. By halftime Reese had 18 points and Atlanta held a 44-39 edge.
The Liberty, the No. 8 seed that had already knocked off the top-seeded Minnesota Lynx, did not fold. New York outscored Atlanta 29-22 in the third and took a 68-66 lead into the fourth.
Breanna Stewart and Jonquel Jones each finished with 26 points and carried that second-half push. The home crowd had reason to believe a comeback series was alive.
Then the Dream clamped down. New York managed only 15 points in the final period.
After trailing by four early in the fourth, Atlanta ripped off eight straight points. The visitors led 83-81 in the closing seconds.
Stewart had a look to tie or take the lead. Her contested layup with nine seconds left would not fall. Bonner stepped to the line, made both, and the sweep was complete on New York’s floor.
Allisha Gray, one of Atlanta’s leading scorers, missed a second straight game with a finger injury suffered in Game 1. The Dream still closed the series without her, after taking Game 2 in overtime to go up 2-0.
Reese did more than fill the box score. Fox News reported she also finished with nine rebounds, three assists, and two blocks in the clincher, and that she had been named the league’s Defensive Player of the Year.
After the win she tied the moment to a message she posted a year earlier. On Oct. 10, 2025, she had written that she was “manifesting the Finals.” The Dream’s clincher fell on Oct. 9, 2026.
Reese made the connection plain after the game.
"I manifested this," Angel Reese told ESPN after the Game 3 win.
She went further on the timeline she set for herself.
"I posted and tweeted, 10/10/25, that I was manifesting the Finals, and this is my moment," Angel Reese said.
Atlanta acquired Reese in an offseason trade. Under head coach Karl Smesko, the club has taken a clear step forward, sweeping its first two playoff opponents on the way to this Finals berth.
The Liberty’s season is over. An eight-seed that toppled the Lynx could not solve Atlanta three straight times.
The Dream’s opponent will come from the other semifinal, where the defending champion Las Vegas Aces met the Golden State Valkyries. Fox News framed Atlanta’s Finals path as a matchup with Golden State; the larger point is unchanged either way. Atlanta has earned the stage it has not reached since the early 2010s.
Prior Finals trips in 2010, 2011, and 2013 all ended short of a title. This group gets a fresh chance starting Oct. 17, with Reese, Howard, Canada, and Bonner carrying the load and Gray’s status still a question.
Playoff basketball rewards teams that close. Atlanta led early, absorbed New York’s surge, locked down the fourth, and hit free throws when the series was on the line. That is how you end a 13-year drought.
Championships are not claimed on social media or in press-room speeches. They are won on the floor, possession by possession, and the Dream just bought themselves four more chances to prove it.
