Angel Reese and Paige Bueckers Get Heated in Dream-Wings Battle After WNBA Bet Video
Angel Reese and Paige Bueckers actually meant business on Wednesday night, and their $400 side bet only added fuel to what was already a great matchup.
The Atlanta Dream star and the Dallas Wings phenom went at each other from the opening tip. Less than four minutes into the first quarter, Reese tried to bully her way to the basket, but Bueckers held her ground and forced Reese to give up the ball. Bueckers clapped in her face. Both players started chirping. The tone for the entire game was set right there.
Neither player picked up a technical, which is remarkable given how animated the exchange was. Referees clearly wanted to let them play, and the game was better for it.
Reese and Bueckers are close off the court. They spent All-Star Weekend together and even made that friendly bet about the outcome of Wednesday’s game. That is exactly why the on-court chippiness works so well. There is real trust behind the trash talk, which means neither player is going to cross the line into anything ugly. They can compete hard because the underlying relationship is solid.
This is what the WNBA needs more of. Physical, competitive matchups between the biggest stars in the league, with a bit of personality mixed in. The recent scandal over the WNBA posting and then deleting a video of their pregame bet is a story of its own, but on the court, the actual competition delivered.
The game itself was a good one. Atlanta beat Dallas 82-81 on a game-winning bucket from Allisha Gray. Reese finished with a monster stat line of 22 points, 12 rebounds, four assists, four steals, and one block. She was the best player on the floor, and she wanted everyone to know it.
Reese celebrated the win by posting “cuatrocientos” on social media. That is Spanish for “four hundred,” a direct reference to the bet with Bueckers. Reese is not letting this die. She is going to make sure Paige and everyone else knows she won.
Bueckers had her moments too. She finished with a strong scoring performance and clearly did not back down at any point. Her body language was aggressive from the start, and she was ready to physically match up with Reese, which is not always the case for guards facing off against post players in the paint.
The two are becoming exactly the kind of rivalry the WNBA needs to build around. They come from different college programs, they play different styles, and they represent different franchises with real fan bases. When they play each other, ratings spike and people who do not normally watch the league tune in.
The commissioner’s office should be thrilled with what happened Wednesday, even if the pregame bet video mess is a headache. Games like this are how the WNBA grows. The intensity, the individual matchups, the trash talk, all of it drives interest.
Dallas and Atlanta will play again this season, and you can bet that game will get more attention than most. Reese and Bueckers have created a personal rivalry within the team competition, and that is a valuable thing for the league.
Meanwhile, Reese needs to spend her $400 wisely. That was earned money.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
