Angel Reese’s game-sealing steal capped a wild comeback as the Atlanta Dream beat the Phoenix Mercury 82-80 at home on Friday, erasing a 15-point deficit and improving to 4-1 on the season.
Reese finished with 17 points, 10 rebounds, four assists, three steals and a block, but the game turned late on plays from several teammates. Rhyne Howard led Atlanta with 21 points, Allisha Gray added 18, and Jordin Canada finished with 11 points and a game-high 14 assists along with seven rebounds and three steals.
The sequence that decided it came in the final minute. With 1:03 remaining Canada tied the game on a tough and-one layup and then made the free throw to put Atlanta up by one. Canada later found Howard for a clutch 3-pointer that extended the Dream’s lead, and Reese’s steal on Phoenix’s next possession preserved the two-point margin that became the final score.
Phoenix was led by Alyssa Thomas, who had 20 points, 12 rebounds and seven assists, and Kahleah Copper, who scored 20. Despite those numbers, the Mercury could not hold the lead; Atlanta had trailed by eight entering the fourth quarter and had been down by as many as 15 earlier in the game.
The win’s weight can be seen in the box score and the ledger. Atlanta improved to 4-1 after the comeback and has now begun the season with back-to-back wins, a one-point loss to the Las Vegas Aces in the third game, and this gritty victory. Allisha Gray had already totaled 75 points across the Dream’s first three contests, and Rhyne Howard’s surge — including a 25-point outing in a 17-point win over the Dallas Wings — has given Atlanta multiple scoring options.
Context matters: the Dream’s record sits at 4-1, but the path to that mark has been uneven. The team opened with consecutive victories, dropped a one-point decision to Las Vegas, then dominated Dallas before needing late-game heroics against Phoenix. Those swings underline a team finding its identity — depth shows up on the stat sheet, but the Dream have needed second-half adjustments and late execution to secure wins.
The tension in Friday’s game is clear in the contrast between Phoenix’s early control and Atlanta’s late poise. The Mercury produced two 20-point scorers and a near triple-double from Thomas, yet Atlanta erased a 15-point hole and entered the fourth down by eight. That the Dream still needed a tied layup with 1:03 remaining and a clutch 3 from Howard to pull ahead suggests Atlanta’s late-game resilience is real but still being tested.
This was, for Angel Reese, a reminder that impact is more than scoring. Her double-double and the decisive steal mattered most when the play clock and scoreboard were shrinking. The Dream travel to face the Minnesota Lynx on Wednesday; whether Atlanta can convert earlier advantages into full-game control — instead of multiple comebacks — will shape the narrative around a 4-1 start.
