Angel Reese took 26 rebounds as the Atlanta Dream beat the Los Angeles Sparks 78-71, breaking the WNBA single-game record of 24 set by Chamique Holdsclaw for the Washington Mystics on May 23, 2003, Al Jazeera reports.
She added 11 points, for her 27th double-double of the season.
Two records, and the second is the harder one
Reese also passed the season rebounding record, reaching 458, seven more than A'ja Wilson's mark from 2024.
A single-game record can be helped by circumstance: a night when shots are missing, a matchup that leaves the boards open, the minutes to stay on the floor. A season record is not that. It is the same thing done every night for months, and it is a better description of what a player is than any one game.
Both fell on the same evening, which is unusual and probably not coincidental: a player having the season that breaks one is the sort of player who has the night that breaks the other.
What she said
"I just want to be there for my team. Offensively, defensively, whatever it takes to win," Reese said.
That is the standard thing to say, and on this occasion it is also a fair description of a 26-rebound, 11-point line. Rebounding is the least glamorous statistic in basketball. It is mostly position, effort and willingness to be hit.
The rest of the game
Allisha Gray scored 20 for Atlanta. Nneka Ogwumike led the Sparks with 27 points and 16 rebounds, which on almost any other night would have been the story of the game.
What we could not establish
We could not establish where the game was played, the attendance, the split between offensive and defensive rebounds, or Atlanta's record and standing. We verified this account from a single publication.
