Written By | Sports Desk
A 97-71 Game 3 rout in Atlanta, a record-setting stretch from Angel Reese and an NBC opener that made television history have turned a tight series into the sport's biggest stage yet.
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ATLANTA
The Atlanta Dream spent the first night of their home stand in the WNBA Finals doing what the Golden State Valkyries had done to them in Game 1: taking control late and refusing to give it back. This time the margin was not four points but 26. Atlanta beat Golden State 97-71 on Wednesday night to seize a 2-1 series lead, with Game 4 set for Saturday at 1 p.m. ET on NBC.
It was the kind of result that reshapes a series, and it arrived against a backdrop that would have sounded implausible to anyone who followed the league a decade ago: sold-out arenas on both coasts, a Finals opener that set a viewership record, and a young star putting together a run that is already being measured against the best in the league's history.
A game decided in the third quarter
For a half, Game 3 looked like it might follow the tight script of the series opener. Through the third quarter, the score was tied at 49. Then Atlanta reeled off eight straight points. Golden State fought back to within 59-55, but the Dream closed the period on a 12-2 run and never looked back, outscoring the Valkyries 51-31 over the second half.
The third quarter has become Atlanta's weapon in this series. According to NBC Sports, the Dream have outscored Golden State 63-35 in the third quarter across the three games so far. That is a halftime-adjustment advantage that coaches build seasons around, and it is showing up at precisely the moment it matters most.
The Dream finished with 26 assists, shot 9-of-22 from three-point range, forced 15 turnovers and scored 20 points from 29 free-throw attempts, according to Bleacher Report's box score. Rhyne Howard added 16 points and Naz Hillmon scored 15. For Golden State, Gabby Williams led with 15 points and Tiffany Hayes added 14. A sold-out crowd of 17,099 packed State Farm Arena.
Angel Reese keeps making history
At the center of it all was Angel Reese, who finished with 21 points, 12 rebounds, three assists and three steals. She had already posted 30 points and 16 rebounds in Atlanta's Game 2 win. Yahoo Sports reported that the Game 3 double-double made her the first player in WNBA history to record a double-double in each of her first three career Finals games, and the youngest to record three consecutive Finals double-doubles.
ESPN Insights, cited by Yahoo, noted that Reese joins A'ja Wilson as the only two players with consecutive 20-point, 10-rebound games in a single WNBA Finals. Bleacher Report observed that the Dream "simply don't lose if she connects from deep"; Reese hit both of her three-point attempts in Game 3.
It is a notable turnaround from Game 1, when Reese had 14 points and 12 rebounds but fouled out with 24 seconds left in a 68-64 loss at Chase Center. In that game, Atlanta led 64-61 with 3:12 remaining before going scoreless the rest of the way and missing its last four three-point attempts, while Golden State closed on a 7-0 run.
The Valkyries' historic first run
None of this erases what Golden State has already accomplished. In their inaugural season, the Valkyries became the first expansion team to make the playoffs, and Game 1 was their first Finals game and first Finals win. Saturday's opener was also their 50th consecutive sellout; they have sold out every home game in franchise history, according to NBC Bay Area. The building's nickname, "Ballhalla," has become part of the franchise's identity, and fans described the crowd as "like a purple sea."
Now the Valkyries face a harder task. They must win at least once in Atlanta, where the Dream hold home court for Games 3 and 4, to stay alive for a return to California.
Television history on a Saturday afternoon
The on-court drama has been matched by the ratings. According to Sports Media Watch, Game 1 drew about 2.1 million combined viewers across Nielsen linear and Adobe-tracked streaming on NBC, the network's first WNBA Finals telecast in 24 years. That makes it the most-watched Game 1 of a Finals series. The audience peaked at 3.0 million in the 5:45 p.m. ET quarter-hour, 11% above the previous Game 1 high of 1.9 million (the 2025 Mercury-Aces opener on ESPN).
Only one Finals game in the past 25 years has drawn more than this opener: the 2024 Lynx-Liberty Game 5 on ESPN, with 2.15 million. Past openers look small by comparison: 729,000 for Liberty-Aces in 2023 on ABC, 469,000 for Sky-Mercury in 2021 and 238,000 for Sun-Mystics in 2019. Those games, however, aired on NFL Sundays, while this year's opener competed with college football, including Alabama-Tennessee on ABC (8.10 million).
Locally, the Bay Area led with a 4.5 rating, followed by New Orleans (3.0), with Atlanta at 2.0. Sports Media Watch also noted a caveat: Nielsen has expanded its out-of-home measurement and updated its methodology, so year-over-year comparisons come with some fine print. It was also the 13th game of 2 million or more viewers this season, and the first without Caitlin Clark.
What this means for you
If you have been waiting for a good moment to start following women's basketball, this is it. Game 4 airs Saturday at 1 p.m. ET on NBC, with the Dream one win from a commanding 3-1 lead and the Valkyries needing to prove their Game 1 composure travels. Fans in both markets have shown that the atmosphere is part of the product, so even a casual viewer will find the broadcast worth the time.
For the league, the numbers are a business argument as much as a sports one. A network returning to the Finals after 24 years, a record opener and sold-out arenas strengthen the case that the WNBA's growth is broad-based rather than tied to a single star.
The road ahead
Reese's numbers through three games, 21.6 points and 13.3 rebounds per game according to Yahoo Sports, would be remarkable for any Finals. Atlanta's bench depth and third-quarter dominance give the Dream the series edge, but one fan outside a Game 1 watch party offered a warning that Golden State will surely echo: "Don't get too comfortable, Valkyries."
Whether the Valkyries can answer in Game 4 will decide if this series returns to San Francisco for a fifth game or if Atlanta moves within a victory of a first championship.
