Angel Reese Childishly Begs For One Last Chance To Save Her Double-Double Streak In Final Seconds Of Loss
Well folks, there goes any hope Angel Reese had of winning the Rookie of the Year Award.
The Chicago Sky forward saw her record-breaking double-double streak end at 15 games after scoring a measly eight points in an 81-67 loss to the New York Liberty. She did pop off in the rebounds category (with 16), but couldn’t quite get to that elusive 10-point mark.
And it wasn’t for a lack of Grade-A opportunities, either.
Chicago - Chicago Sky forward Angel Reese shoots against the New York Liberty during the second half of a WNBA game at Wintrust Arena on July 13. Photo: Kamil Krzaczynski-USA TODAY Sports
It’s not like her teammates weren’t sharing the ball with her. Reese shot the ball 13 times from the floor, but missed an uncanny 10 of those shots. To make things worse for her, eight of them - count ‘em, eight - were from seven or less feet from the rim, and seven from three feet or less. If you’re going to shoot like that when you’re parked right under the rim, you don’t deserve to extend your streak.
Here’s the highlight - excuse me, blooper - reel of some of her missed layups.
Reese seriously has no one to blame but herself for not extending the streak to 16. I mean come on, some of those misses were painful. On a few of them, no one was even guarding her! And she still found a way to shank them all.
But you know what the most comical part of all this is? Reese was still trying her absolute hardest to score at the end of the game, because she knew her streak was on the line. OutKick’s Dan Zaksheske noted that Reese was demanding the ball at the end of a game (also against New York) on Thursday night, because she was in danger of losing her streak then too.
Unfortunately for her, the Liberty were also keenly aware of this fact. This time around, they made darn sure she wouldn’t get to a double-double.
On Reese’s last touch of the game, four defenders swarmed to the Sky forward. Name me one other time when any basketball player on any level got quadruple-teamed, and I’ll give you a virtual high five. (I would say I’d give you $10, but in this economy, I can’t afford to dish out that kind of cash).
If you keep watching, you’ll see that even after she gave the ball up, Reese called for it back until about two seconds remained, and then she walked off the court like a kid who had just been told she couldn’t have ice cream after dinner.
For a while, people like Dawn Staley have said Reese deserves the ROTY award because of this streak. But if she’s shooting less than 40 percent from the field (with most of those shots coming from point-blank range), should she really be in the running?
She’s got upside, to be sure. But so far, she hasn’t done much to prove she deserves it, streak or no streak.