LOS ANGELES — Angel Reese didn't just have a big night on Monday. She rewrote the WNBA record book twice before the final buzzer even sounded.
The Atlanta Dream forward hauled in 26 rebounds in a 78-71 victory over the Los Angeles Sparks, a total that stands as the most any player has ever grabbed in a single WNBA game. Somewhere in the middle of that outburst, she also became the league's all-time single-season rebounding leader — a feat that would have been the headline on its own any other night.
Reese's shooting touch abandoned her early, but she found another way to take over. "Whatever it takes to win," she said afterward, summing up a night where the box score barely showed 11 points but told an entirely different story on the glass.
A Record Two Decades in the Making
The mark Reese broke had stood since 2003, when Chamique Holdsclaw pulled down 24 boards for Washington. Reese cleared that number with room to spare, finishing her night with 458 rebounds on the season — seven more than the previous single-season record, set by A'ja Wilson back in 2024.
It capped a stretch of basketball few players in league history have matched. Two days earlier, Reese had put up a career-high 31 points in a win at Phoenix. Monday's rebounding clinic gave Atlanta a clean sweep of a four-game West Coast swing, pushing the Dream to 25-13 and within a half-game of third place in the standings with six games left on the schedule.
Reese's previous career high in rebounds was 22, set during her rookie season with the Chicago Sky in 2024. Monday's total blew past that by four boards in a single outing.
A Double-Double Streak With Few Rivals
Reese's basket with 13.9 seconds left didn't just close out the scoring — it locked in her 27th double-double of the season, still tops in the league. That leaves her one shy of tying the single-season record Alyssa Thomas set in 2023.
Teammate Allisha Gray, who led all scorers with 20 points, has watched the rebounding numbers pile up all year and still finds herself impressed. "That's a talent," Gray said, describing what it's like to share a frontcourt with Reese on a given night.
Dream coach Karl Smesko pointed to a bigger-picture trend rather than a single highlight-reel game, noting that Reese has been steadily rounding out her game as the season has worn on.
A Rebounding Pedigree That Started Long Before the WNBA
None of this should come as a total shock to anyone who followed Reese's college career. A three-time WNBA All-Star already, she set a league rookie record with 13.1 rebounds per game in 2024 and strung together 15 consecutive double-doubles that same year, both all-time WNBA marks. She's led the league in rebounding in each of her three professional seasons, currently averaging 12.4 per game in 2026.
Long before turning pro, Reese built a reputation as a relentless rebounder at Maryland and then LSU, finishing her college career averaging 12.3 boards a game. Her single-game college high of 28 rebounds came as a junior in 2023, part of a run that included nine 20-rebound performances during her time at LSU.
Sparks Couldn't Match Atlanta's Physicality
Los Angeles gave the Dream more resistance than their previous meeting, when Atlanta hung a franchise-record 124 points on the Sparks. This time the Dream shot just 40% from the field but still controlled the game's rhythm, building a 62-55 edge after three quarters before pulling away for good with 9:05 left in the fourth.
Nneka Ogwumike had a strong night of her own for Los Angeles, finishing with a season-high 27 points and 16 rebounds, while Cameron Brink added 15 points and five blocks off the bench. It wasn't enough to slow down Atlanta, who improved to a perfect mark against the Sparks this season and extended a long-running dominance in the series. Rhyne Howard chipped in 18 points for the Dream, moving past the 3,000-point mark for her career.
For Atlanta, the win closes out a road trip that couldn't have gone much better. For Reese, it adds two more entries to a record sheet that already reads like a highlight reel — and with six games left, there's still time to add more.
