While the break from games to be able to fully digest what has happened so far in the WNBA Playoffs, and what is to come next in the WNBA Finals, has been relatively nice, I am officially getting restless.

I am fully ready to get into the atmosphere and intensity of the WNBA Finals. A WNBA Finals that will be featuring the Atlanta Dream for the first time since the 2013 season. What is going to take for the Dream to win their first championship in franchise history? I got three questions that will need to be answered.

Tyler is joined by Andrew to preview the WNBA Finals for Atlanta…

Tyler was joined by Marisa Ingemi to preview the WNBA Finals for Golden State…

In so many ways the drafting of Rhyne Howard was the beginning of this era of Dream basketball. It has taken turns and rosters have been revamped but ultimately this team is built around Rhyne Howard.

With that said, that also means it is a team that is going to need her at her best to get across the line and beat the Valkyries. Allisha Gray has participated in practice but as of now is still unconfirmed in her status to play in this Finals series.

In my eyes, whether Gray plays or not, Howard finding consistency on the offensive end is going to be one of defining factors on the result of this series. The most prominent question for the Dream has been their half-court offense, and Rhyne Howard has a direct impact on that. There is a stark distance that exists in how the Dream operate with the ball when Howard is settling purely for threes versus finding a healthier balance of threes and attacking the rim.

In the three matchups against the Valkyries this season the shot volume skewed too heavily towards threes for my liking. In all three games combined, 24/41 total shots came from three. With the way the Valkyries defense has been playing in these WNBA Playoffs that balance and aggressiveness feels more important than ever for the Dream. It will take a conscious decision from Howard to play in this way, but it is one that might simply be necessary for Atlanta’s offense.

I am not sure that one can be hyperbolic about how great Jordin Canada’s series against the Liberty was. It was genuinely some of the best WNBA Playoff point guard games I have seen. Pure production and domination on both sides of the ball.

So now the question becomes can you get that against the Golden State defense? And maybe even more importantly can you get Canada’s defense against Golden State?

Much of what made Canada so oppressive against the Liberty was their carelessness with the ball. The Liberty turnovers turned into points that the Dream did not have to earn in the half-court. There were also many occasions where Canada turned simple rebounds or outlets into easy buckets just due to her speed and hustle.

The Valkyries couldn’t be more opposite from the Liberty with those subjects in mind. The Valkyries don’t turn the ball over often. The Valkyries will have no problem matching the hustle of the Dream, and Canada specifically.

Canada was awesome against the Liberty, but it was a matchup that favored her in a whole lot of ways. If she is able to impose her will and find similar impacts when the matchup is a bit more even in the areas she dominated in against New York then the Dream will be feeling great.

If you have been watching our Playoffathon postgame lives on the NCS YouTube (we will be live after every Finals game!), then you likely have heard my thoughts on Angel Reese (including the NSFW clip below, thanks Ball-Knower Cherie!). She is one of the best players in the world right now, and for my money’s worth, the best player remaining in this series. And she might be exactly what the Valkyries fear in terms of a star big.

Part of what made it so tough for the Aces is that they were asking their star players to be both the statistical production and to do the “little things” that add up, which is where the Valkyries really can dominate games.

The thing with that is there is no separation between star production and role player effort for Angel Reese. Those two things completely co-exist. There is no addition ask. She also has the backup from a team that is also very willing to do that.

Kiah Stokes did a great job slowing down A’ja Wilson over the course of Golden State’s sweep but it is simply a different task at hand with Reese who is dominant in different ways. How that dominance showcases for Reese will be a deciding factor in this series.

More fouls, more frustration: What’s really going on with WNBA officiating? by Cydney Henderson, USA Today

And be sure to subscribe to the newsletter (or have the Ball-Knower in your life subscribe) if you haven’t already!