The Dream Are Making Bully Ball Literal

There’s a sequence from the first quarter of Game 3 of the WNBA Finals, in which the Atlanta Dream walloped the Golden State Valkyries by a score of 97-71, that would still be grinding my gears if I were a Valks fan. Angel Reese, fresh off her Game 2 masterpiece, started Game 3 aggressively, going right to the rim. She scored the first two points of the game on a nifty duck-in, and then tried to drive on Kiah Stokes on two straight possessions. Stokes blocked her both times, and then blocked a Jordin Canada layup. And then, with just over five minutes left in the quarter, Stokes was subbed out of the game.

One of the most noticeable subplots of these Finals is what Reese is able to do when Stokes is and is not matched up with her. When defended by Stokes, she has sometimes struggled to reliably get off clean shots; against every other big on the Valks’ roster, she has enjoyed a feast of layups and fouls. Things were no different on Wednesday night: As soon as Aminata Gueye subbed in for Stokes in the first quarter, Reese went straight at her for a bucket and a foul. When Stokes was subbed out again with 7:23 left in the second quarter, Reese got right back to work by hitting a three in Gueye’s face and then bumping her out of the way for another layup.

The Valkyries and Dream are stylistically similar in a number of meaningful ways, but one area where they diverge is their depth. Golden State has ridden its 10-player rotation to the Finals by believing in every player’s ability to contribute, and by prioritizing meaningful amounts of in-game rest for the starters. The Dream, meanwhile, are happy to share minutes among just seven players. A deep roster full of talented players is the kind of thing that can help carry a team through the regular season and a long playoff run, but a dogmatic commitment to using a big rotation can make it harder to navigate that other all-important principle of playoff basketball: matchups.