It’s not often Angel Reese ends up on the wrong end of a rebound positioning battle.
Reese hit the deck during a tussle with the Sun’s Brittney Grinder on Tuesday night in the Dream’s 91-75 victory, with Griner receiving a flagrant foul early in the fourth quarter.
Griner held out her hands seemingly in surprise that Reese fell to the floor during the tussle.
With Atlanta leading 68-65 with a little less than eight minutes remaining in the game, Griner and Reese battled near the basket to set themsleves up for a rebound.
Griner stood to Reese’s left, and when both turned to the basket their arms became intertwined.
The duo rotated with their arms locked to the point that Reese faced the basket while Griner had her back to the hoop, which led to an awkward scenario when one moment later Reese attempted to run toward the loose ball in the paint while Griner’s arm held her back.
Reese then suddennly lost her balance, throwing her hands up in the air while sliding the floor in a mannerism that perhaps leads to questions of whether she flopped.
Griner stood over Reese moments later while expressing surprise, although she extended a hand to her foe to help her up.
The referees reviewed the play and ultimately awarded a flagrant foul, with Reese hitting one of two free throws to grow the lead to four points.
Reese ultimately tallied another double-double with 12 rebounds and 13 points to help the Dream improve to 6-2, while Griner had seven points and four rebounds in a loss that dropped the Sun to 2-9.
Dream coach Karl Smesko credited Reese for having a “big” fourth quarter, and credited her for making a crucial 3-pointer in the third to cut Connecticut’s lead to 65-64.
“I did think it was a momentum changer,” Smesko said of the 3. “Crowd loved it, team loved it, I loved it.
“She’s been really open to kind of changing her shot and it’s shown up in practice … but in the game we haven’t had the same release we’ve had in practice, but today, that looked like a good one.”
