Reese nets career-high 31, puts Dream in playoffs

PHOENIX -- Angel Reese scored a career-high 31 points and grabbed 14 rebounds for her 25th double-double of the season, and the Atlanta Dream clinched a playoff berth with a 99-89 win over the Phoenix Mercury on Saturday night. Rhyne Howard added 20 points, Allisha Gray had 17 and Jordin Canada 12 for the Dream (24-13), who have won five of their past six games. They moved a half-game ahead of Indiana, which lost earlier in night, for the fourth seed, with seven games to go for Atlanta. Reese, a 43% shooter for the season, was 14-of-21 from the field after going 9-of-9 the previous game. Her previous career high for points was 27 in 2024 when she was a rookie with Chicago. She has set the Atlanta single-season record for double-doubles and is three shy of the league record. "Just staying poised and not letting anybody speed me up," Reese said. "I think I'm at my best when I'm around the basket, so just staying confident in the shots I know I can make around the basket, the shots that I work on in practice. Just taking my time and finishing those. I knew they were going to step up and trap or hedge our guards, so I knew I was going to be open down low. I just had to finish." Dream coach Karl Smesko praised Reese for improving her offensive game. "I think she keeps getting better and keeps being able to expand her game," he said. "I think she really found her opportunities to be physical. They weren't really sending doubles, so she had her opportunities to catch the ball in the short and do some post moves to score. She was able to get behind on some ball screens for some layups where our guards were able to find her, got a couple of put-backs. She was scoring in a multitude of ways, had a really great fourth quarter for us and it's good to see her have one of her best games of her career, offensively." Kahleah Copper had 38 points for the Mercury (13-24), who are the first team to miss the playoffs after reaching the WNBA Finals the previous season since they did it in 2008. Alyssa Thomas had her 22nd regular-season triple-double with 11 points, 16 rebounds and 10 assists. Thomas also has six triple-doubles in the playoffs. DeWanna Bonner added 12 points. Howard hit four 3-pointers as the Dream led 14-3 less than four minutes into the game. Atlanta led 29-18 after one quarter and 50-35 at the half. With Copper scoring 17 points in the third quarter the Mercury got within one point before the Dream took a 73-68 lead into the fourth quarter. Phoenix made 13 of 22 shots in the third quarter after making just 10 of 29 in the first half. The Associated Press and ESPN Research contributed to this report.