ATLANTA — Speaking to reporters Wednesday, less than 24 hours before Game 6 of the WNBA Finals for the Atlanta Dream, veteran forward DeWanna Bonner insisted the team would be “crazy to lose confidence” offensively in the WNBA Finals despite the Dream’s recent shooting woes.
“We shoot these shots throughout the series, so just knocking down a couple is enough,” Bonner said. “You start feeling good about yourself. The crowd started getting behind it. And then, ‘Here we go.’ That’s ATL basketball.”
As it turns out, Bonner, 39, is the third-leading scorer in WNBA history and the second-leading scorer in WNBA playoff history, but she’s also a prophet.
The Dream defeated the Golden State Valkyries 80-69 on Thursday afternoon to force the first Game 7 in WNBA history. There was plenty of sideline buzz from fans and critics alike heading into Thursday’s Game 6 at 12:30 p.m. ET. because an embarrassing web of scheduling conflictsleadership failures and bureaucratic blame games tried to make everyone reflect on bad choices and save face until closing time and tickets going on sale Monday afternoon.
But none of that noise could hold a candle to the noise of the sold-out crowd at State Farm Arena at lunchtime.
“First of all, shout out to the crowd for being here on Thursday at 12:30,” said Angel Reese, who had 15 points, 14 rebounds and six assists. “There’s a lot going on in the world, from school to work to everything. And we’re just so grateful. We’ve fed off their energy. They’ve been vocal from the beginning. So we’re definitely grateful for that. But we wanted to make sure we made the most of this opportunity.”
While the atmosphere at State Farm for Games 3 and 4 last week was phenomenal, this crowd brought an extra level of excitement from the start. Maybe it was the desperation of an elimination game, or the novelty of escaping the monotony of a midweek job and family responsibilities to witness. The dream regains its charm. Or maybe it was a concerted effort, one magical afternoon, to dispel the suspicions of anyone who marginalized or counted out the Dreams, the city of Atlanta, or the WNBA, or women’s sports, or even women collectively.
Whatever the reason for the extra energy and decibels, it created a palpable electricity—it was deafeningly loud—that animated the Dream players.
The Valkyries, who started and ended the game with 40 minutes left to capture the WNBA title in the franchise’s second year of existence, took a 2-0 lead on the second possession of the game on a Veronica Burton layup. But then Allisha Gray, playing this series with just eight healthy fingers and struggling with her shot after injuring her hand in Game 1 of the semifinals, caught Reese’s pass 23 feet outside the basket, dodged her defender, shot the ball and saw it hit the front of the hoop, leaping high into the air for a Dream2 lead. 9:04 left in the first quarter.
It was a sign of things to come: Golden State wouldn’t sniff a lead the rest of the game.
“It was a great feeling,” Gray said when asked how it felt to see that shot drop. “My plan was to come off the bounce and be aggressive. My teammates really wanted me to play my game and have my back. So I got the shooter rolling.
As Bonner said, once the Dream players saw the ball bounce their way, it snowballed. Raine Howard followed up Gray’s 3-pointer with a hard block on Gabby Williams, then Naz Hillmon hit a 3-pointer that brought the roof down. The exclamation points kept coming throughout the first quarter, with the Dream leading by 25 before halftime. In the first quarter alone, the Dream shot 73.3% from the field and 75% from beyond after barely shooting above 35% all series.
“All we needed was a little courage, a little confidence,” Reese said.
T-Pain really drove home Dream’s game motto during his halftime performance — probably the only weekday 1:30 p.m. performance of his career — as he sang his iconic line, “All we do is win, win, win, whatever.”
The Valkyries, to their credit, outplayed the Dream in the second half and cut it to nine with just over a minute remaining. But when the tension on the holiday began to seep out, it broke — what else? — Game-sealing Gray 3-pointer. It was not necessary to roll a shooter; all were pure.
By 2:50 p.m. — time for the afternoon coffee break — chants of “ATL HOE” rang out so loudly at State Farm Arena when the Atlanta Hawks took the same court for their game Thursday night — and they likely will still be in the air long after.
Game 7 is Saturday at the Chase Center in San Francisco, or more appropriately, the Ballhalla on Halloween. The Dream still have a mighty tall mountain to climb if they want to capture the first WNBA title in franchise history. But what mattered Thursday was that the Dream’s year — and the WNBA’s 30th season — didn’t end with the matinee show.
The finale of this series will take place in primetime.
“It’s not over,” Reese said. “Right now we can definitely be happy about that, but we have a lot more work to do. I think we definitely have another level that we can reach.”