Angel Reese Got Erased in Game 4 — Tonight in Game 5, the Finals Answer Back

For three games, this Finals belonged to Angel Reese. A double-double in the opener. Thirty points and 16 rebounds in Game 2. Twenty-one and 12 in Game 3. Then Saturday in Atlanta, the Golden State Valkyries took all of it away — 8 points, 2-of-12 from the field, six turnovers — and walked out with a 67–62 win that tied the WNBA Finals at two games apiece.

Tonight the series goes back to San Francisco for Game 5 (5:00 PM PT, Chase Center, USA Network and CNBC, streaming on Peacock), and it has narrowed to a single matchup: Reese against the woman who just erased her.

That woman is Kiah Stokes, and what she is doing in this series has never been done. In Game 4, Stokes grabbed a playoff career-high 16 rebounds and blocked three more shots, becoming the first player in WNBA Finals history with at least three blocks in four consecutive Finals games. Along the way she passed Sylvia Fowles and Brittney Griner for the most blocks ever in a Finals series — 14, with at least two games still to play.

The individual numbers are worse for Atlanta than the team ones. As Reese's primary defender, Stokes held her to 2-of-10 shooting in Game 4. Against every other Valkyrie who guarded her, Reese shot 68 percent in the series. Against Stokes: 22 percent.

"She's been the head of the snake for Atlanta all series," Stokes said. "For me, it was just trying to make every look that she had at the basket difficult. It's a tough job, but being our best defensive big, I gotta own up to that challenge."

Reese owned her side of it, too. "I think it was just me," she said after Game 4. "I rushed my shots. I didn't take my time and finish around the basket like I've been doing the last two games. We have to stand together. If we stand together and get back to our identity, we'll be fine."

The split in her series tells the story in one line: in Atlanta's two wins, Reese averaged 25.5 points. In its two losses, 11.0. The Dream are 2–0 when she eats and 0–2 when she doesn't — and Game 4 was the full famine: a season-low 62 points, 33 percent shooting, 18 turnovers, two fast-break points from the team that led the league in them, and nine missed free throws in a five-point loss.

Atlanta has real problems around her, too. Allisha Gray — 18 points in the Game 2 win at Chase — played just 22 minutes in Game 4 before foul trouble sat her down, and a seven-player rotation has no slack for that. The good news for the Dream: Gray is not on the Game 5 injury report. The bad news stays bad: Brionna Jones remains out, leaving Reese and Naz Hillmon to hold the paint against the hottest defensive frontcourt in the league.

Golden State of Mind's Game 4 recap had the same read on the other end. Golden State's own offense was no masterpiece — 4-of-25 from three — but it didn't need to be. Gabby Williams led them with 17, Tiffany Hayes scored all 13 of hers in the second half against the franchise she spent her first 10 seasons with, and the Valkyries won the paint 38–28 and the turnover battle 18–9. Coach Natalie Nakase's team has now held Atlanta to eight points in a Finals fourth quarter (Game 1) and 26 in a Finals first half (Game 4).

USA TODAY put the Finals MVP subplot plainly after Game 4: Reese won Defensive Player of the Year, but Stokes is winning their Finals matchup. There is a Finals MVP subplot running underneath all of it. Stokes did not receive a single vote for Defensive Player of the Year this season. The player who won the award is the one she's guarding. If Golden State finishes this, the most valuable player of this series might be the center who scored four points in the biggest game of it.

And neither team is playing for a repeat. The Valkyries, the No. 2 seed, are two wins from a championship in their second year of existence. The No. 4 seed Dream are two wins from the first title in the franchise's 19-year history. The winner tonight needs one more. Game 6 is Thursday in Atlanta, and if it goes the distance, Game 7 is back at Chase Center on Saturday.

Atlanta has already won in this building in this series, and led most of Game 1 here before losing it late. So the road isn't the problem. The problem is standing at the rim in a black jersey with 14 blocks in four games — and tonight, Reese has to go through her again.

Game 5 tips tonight at 5:00 PM PT at Chase Center — live scoring, the full box score and play-by-play: Dream at Valkyries — Game Center. More Finals coverage in the WNBA hub.

By the Numbers

• 8 — Reese's points in Game 4 (2-of-12 FG, 9 REB, 3 AST, 3 BLK, 6 TO), after double-doubles in Games 1–3 (14/12, 30/16, 21/12).
• 25.5 / 11.0 — Reese's scoring average in Atlanta's two Finals wins vs. its two losses.
• 2-of-10 — Reese's shooting in Game 4 with Stokes as her primary defender; she shoots 68% against all other Golden State defenders this series, 22% against Stokes.
• 14 — Stokes' blocks in the series, a WNBA Finals record (past Sylvia Fowles and Brittney Griner), and she's the first player ever with 3+ blocks in four straight Finals games.
• 62 — Atlanta's Game 4 point total, its lowest of the season; the Dream shot 33%, committed 18 turnovers and scored 2 fast-break points.
• 2–2 — the series, a best-of-seven. Game 5 decides who leads; nobody is eliminated tonight, and nobody lifts anything tonight. The winner needs one more win.