Angel Reese Has Finally Cut The Drama And Is Just Playing Great Basketball | Glenn Guilbeau

Could somebody have told WNBA rookie Angel Reese to just shut up and focus on basketball? Newfound life coach Sheryl Swoopes, perhaps?

All sexism aside, because male athletes have clearly been talk-too-much divas for decades, but it sure looks like Reese has switched her focus from the press conference stage and the WWE wrestling approach to bread and butter basketball. She also did not appear as Caitlin-Clark obsessed. When players focus more on winning than getting after an individual opponent, they tend to do better.

OPINION: Angel Reese Hurt Her Team By Focusing Too Much On Caitlin Last Time

Never was that more apparent than Sunday afternoon as Reese almost single-handedly took over the Chicago Sky's game against Clark and the Indiana Fever in the fourth quarter in the Windy City to blow away a 12-point deficit and chill the Fever for an 88-87 win in front of a national TV audience on ESPN.

Angel Reese played one of the best games of her WNBA rookie season Sunday in leading the Chicago Sky to a 88-87 win over Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever in front of 9,872 at Wintrust Arena in Chicago. (Getty Images)

Reese, infamous for delusional press conference comments, taunting and cheap shots on Clark and other players while at LSU and in the WNBA, played a rare, controversy-free game. Instead, she just dominated by scoring a pro-career-high 25 points on 8-of-12 shooting, hit 9 of 11 free throws and led both teams in rebounding with 16.

"I was efficient tonight, finally," Reese said. "I didn't get in foul trouble (flagrant or otherwise), finally. I'm just getting better. I watched film."

It was Reese's eighth straight double-double, extending her WNBA rookie record, which she set at seven. Before that run, Reese was coming off a loss to Indiana on June 1 when she scored just eight points with 13 rebounds and seemed more hellbent on knocking over Clark than knocking down shots. And that was after a game in which she had only six points and six rebounds.

Reese was particularly great Sunday after Chicago (6-9) fell behind, 82-70, with 6:38 left to play on a floater by Indiana's NaLyssa Smith, who then taunted the Sky. And Reese, the head taunter, took over, scoring 10 points with five rebounds from that point to bring Chicago back and win the game.

"I didn't even see it," Reese said of Smith's taunt. "My teammates had to tell me about that."

Maybe, she was too focused on the actual game.

"No hard feelings," Reese said.

Angel Reese "Rubs" Her Energy Off On Teammates

"I'm just so proud of her and everything she's doing out there," Chicago rookie center Kamilla Cardoso of national champion South Carolina said of Reese, who wound up and threw an arm at Cardoso away from the ball in the SEC Tournament just last spring.

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"It was amazing - her energy," Cardoso continued. "She rubs it off on all of us. We play really hard for her because of the energy she brings to the team. I'm just so proud of her and everything she's doing out there."

Clark, meanwhile, had zero points, two rebounds and a turnover for Indiana (7-11) over that same 6:38 span to end the game. On her only shot, she missed a 24-foot 3-pointer with 2:19 to go. Clark had hit a 28-foot 3-pointer with 7:12 to play to put Indiana up 80-68. She finished with 17 points on 7-of-11, including 5-of-9 from 3-point range, and had a pro career-high 13 assists, six rebounds and four steals. But virtually all of that came in the first three quarters and change.

"We stopped one of the best players, which is Caitlin Clark," Cardoso said.

Caitlin Clark: "We Kind Of Fell Apart"

"Just seems like the ball got really stuck," Clark said. "I don't know. We didn't move it side to side like we had for three quarters, which we were really good at. When they went on a run, we could never find a way to respond. We could've huddled more, tried to stay together. I thought we kind of fell apart a little bit as a team. We really didn't execute the entire fourth quarter. We just stopped."

Chicago out-muscled Indiana down the stretch with Reese in the middle of that, and Clark noticed.

Angel Reese (No. 5) of the Chicago Sky dominated the Indiana Fever and Caitlin Clark (No. 22) in the fourth quarter for a win Sunday in Chicago. (Getty Images)

"I thought she played a really great game," Clark said of Reese. "I thought she ran really well in transition."

Reese had not been doing that earlier in the season.

"Obviously, she played a really great game," Clark continued. "They definitely knew to be physical with us."

And within the rules this time.

Even Caitlin Hater Chennedy Carter Seemed More Game Focused

Even Chicago guard Chennedy Carter, who drew a flagrant foul a day late by body blocking Clark to the floor while the ball wasn't even in play on June 1, seemed to focus more on basketball than extra-curricular pursuits. She scored 23 points on 8-of-12 shooting with five assists.

"Chicago turned up the heat on us," Indiana coach Christie Sides said. "They did a great job of really getting physical with us, and we just didn't answer that. We let their physical play disrupt us."

Sides, though, did not complain of any flagrant fouls, as she has before. Because they were not there this time.

Chicago simply played better basketball in the end than Indiana, mainly because of Reese. And Reese improved to 2-3 head-to-head against Clark, counting LSU's national championship win over Iowa in 2023, an Elite Eight loss to Iowa this past season and two straight losses to the Fever in the WNBA this season.

"Both teams did an amazing job tonight putting on a show," Reese said. "It was fun. I had a great time. It was electric. The energy in the arena was crazy. I couldn't hear sometimes."

And she seemed to talk and taunt less, too. And you saw the results.

Asked if she was more emotional for this game, Reese downplayed her rivalry with Clark.

"No, I'm just hoopin'," she said. "I'm from Baltimore. That's what I do."