If Angel Reese has shown us anything this season, it’s that she has grit and a razor sharp focus when her abilities are challenged. At the same time, she doesn’t let outside noise dictate how she plays her game. She’s the classic example of how maintaining a team-first mentality leads to individual success.
Just a week ago, the WNBA world was coming down hard on Reese for some rough offensive performances around the rim. The fan fascination surrounding her layups seemed to be getting to her head and hit a peak when she shot 5-for-16 in an OT loss to the Indiana Fever and missed a breakaway layup, then a potential game winning layup.
Angel Reese Wins WNBA Player of the Week Award
The anti-Reese overload was out of control, and at that point there were only two ways the three-time All-star was going to handle it. She could tank and accept the criticism of her offense. Or she could ignore everybody and just prove them wrong, which is exactly what she did the past week, posting career-highs in points with 31 and then grabbing a WNBA-record 26 rebounds on Monday night to lock down her first WNBA Player of the Week honors of 2026.
Regardless of what you feel about Reese or her game, you have to respect her gangster. People were flat-out saying she wasn’t good at basketball, and that had to hurt her in the gut, considering the success she had in high school, college and the pros to date. You shouldn’t be a finished product when you first step on a pro court and Resse still isn’t. What she’s always been is a rebounding machine who can facilitate an offense, hit her free throws, play defense and get buckets when needed.
It’s getting harder and harder for Reese haters to try and discredit her game when she’s producing on both ends of the court in dominant fashion. The fact that her guards are both elite scorers and still trust her to take her fair share of shots is also very telling.
Fans Clash Over Angel Reese Player of the Week Honors
The comparisons to Clark were immediate and triggered her fans across social media.
“Is it too much to say her upside is higher than Clark’s if she keep improving on offense,” one user commented.
“They were saying Caitlin Clark was the face of the league??” said one Reese fan, celebrating her incredible week.
No credit can be given to Reese without someone mentioning Clark, which makes her fans interject negative remarks.
“Nobody’s paying to go watch someone get rebounds and miss half her shots in the paint. If Angel Reese wasn’t hot nobody would even know who she is,” one fan commented as a backhanded compliment to Reese.
“MeBricks missed 13 layups and made 13 more rebounds from her missed attempts, c’mon we’ve seen her play… not even in the same Universe as Caitlin Clark and I’m critical of her too,” one netizen tweeted.
“I never heard of Angel Reese until she tangled with Caitlin Clark,” another quipped.
“Angel Reese is not talented enough to make a middle school boys team,” a Clark fan commented.
Is Angel Reese’s Ceiling Higher Than Caitlin Clark’s?
This is the argument that will never end. And it’s really not because of anything Clark does. She ended another highly productive week with a 37-point, 10-assist game — the fifth of her career and more than any other players in history combined. She also added a career-high eight three balls in that contest against the Chicago Sky on Aug. 23.
CC added 21/7/4 in a loss to the Liberty on Aug. 22. She had a rough game against Dallas on Aug. 20, scoring just 10 points with 9 assists. That was after starting the week off with 24 points and 7 assists against the Toronto Tempo.
Reese keeps raising the level of her game though. With hard work anything is possible, and if she’s able to average 16.1 points and 12.4 rebounds with two guards that average nearly 40 points per game between them, we know that at just 24 years of age, her best seasons are ahead of her.
Say what you want about her all-time great ability to grab rebounds rather than shoot threes, but the amount of rebounds she’s able to grab even amazes her teammates.
“I’m just in awe watching her rebound. That’s a talent,” said Gray, who averages 19.4 points per game.
We pretty much know what Clark is capable of and what she’s going to give you. She will improve as well, but Reese’s ceiling has to be through the roof. Her offensive game is getting better. She is one of the most unique players we have ever seen and “a mystery to most people who expect greatness to have a certain look,” as one fan said on Threads.
The debates will continue as the Dream and Fever are neck and neck for the fourth playoff slot and are on a collision course to meet in the playoffs.
