Atlanta Dream beat the Golden State Valkyries 97-71 for a 2-1 lead in the WNBA Finals

ATLANTA (AP) — Angel Reese had 21 points and 12 rebounds to help the Atlanta Dream beat the Golden State Valkyries 97-71 on Wednesday night and take a 2-1 lead in the WNBA Finals.

Rhyne Howard added 16 points and Naz Hillmon had 15 for the Dream, who host Game 4 on Saturday.

It was the second straight strong game for Reese, who had 30 points and 16 rebounds in Game 2, which the Dream also won for their first victory ever in the finals. She now has a double-double in each game of the Finals.

“It feels good when you’re in the finals. It’s a long season and you play against everybody and go through and push through, but when you can do it at the highest level, this is what you live for, this is what the offseason is for,” Reese said. “I put the work in for this moment and I’m just happy I could lead the team to a win. We’re feeling good going into Saturday.”

With the game tied at 49 in the third quarter, Atlanta scored eight straight, including four by Reese. Golden State got within 59-55 on Tiffany Hayes’ layup, but could get no closer as Atlanta closed the quarter scoring 12 of the final 14 points.

Atlanta has dominated the third quarter so far in the series, outscoring Golden State 63-35 combined in the three games.

With Atlanta up 17 in the fourth quarter, Jordin Canada overthrew Reese on the break, but she saved the ball by throwing it over her head underneath the basket to Howard, who got fouled.

Golden State could never recover. Gabby Williams scored 15 points and Hayes added 14 for the Valkyries.

This game was originally scheduled to be played on Thursday at the Gateway Center Arena, where the Dream play most of their home games. The league was able to work with the Atlanta Hawks and State Farm Arena to play the next two games of the championship series there so that they could have a much bigger crowd. Gateway only seats 3,500. State Farm Arena can seat more than 17,000 fans.

“Protect home court,” Howard said of the team’s focus. “Giving our fans a show. We fought for this arena so we had to protect it. It’s big. We went and stole one but we can’t let them come in and do the same thing.”

Wednesday night’s game was sold out as is Game 4 on Saturday, which will also be played at State Farm Arena. The crowd included many music stars, including Ludacris. Former NBA player Enes Kanter Freedom said he was going to be at the game. The Atlanta Dream and State Farm Arena offered him a private suite for his protection. He refused to sit in it and was removed from the game.

The game got off to a slow start as Atlanta led 9-1 after the first five minutes. Golden State missed its first eight shots before Aminata Gueye scored the first basket for the Valkyries with 4:39 left. They got within 13-10 before Naz Hillmon hit consecutive 3-pointers and then Reese hit one. The Dream led 23-15 after the opening quarter.

The hot 3-point shooting continued in the second quarter as Atlanta built its lead to 37-26 midway through the period. Golden State was able to hang around and only trailed 46-40 at the break as the teams combined to shoot 15-for-31 (48%) from behind the arc. That was more made 3-pointers in the first 20 minutes then in either Game 1 or Game 2.

Reese had 15 points and WNBA Sixth Woman of the Year Janelle Salaun had 11 for the Valkyries.

Game 1 and 2 had huge ratings with the opener on NBC averaging 2.1 million, the most ever to watch a first game of the Finals. Game 2, which was broadcast on USA Network, averaged 1.33 million viewers.

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Doug Feinberg, The Associated Press