Dream staying focused and confident ahead of WNBA Finals Game 6 despite scheduling madness

Down 3-2 in the series, Atlanta faces elimination at home on Thursday in a midday showdown against the Valkyries ATLANTA — While the Atlanta Dream and WNBA play the blame game and the outside world expresses outrage and condemnation over the midday Game 6 of the WNBA Finals, Dream players and head coach Karl Smesko are staying laser-focused on the task at hand: evening the series against the Golden State Valkyries and keeping their hopes of a WNBA championship alive. "Funny thing about Atlanta, I knew they were going to show up and show out," Angel Reese told reporters on Wednesday afternoon after practice at Gateway Center, referring to the fact that the game sold out just hours after tickets became available on Monday.

"It being sold out is not a surprise to me because I know how much they support us and they've supported us all season. So it is really cool, and I'm really grateful to be able to play in front of the fans one more time." Despite the scheduling debacle turning into a bigger conversation than the basketball itself, Smesko said the team hadn't really even talked about it that much among themselves. "I haven't really heard them mention much about it, so I think we're handling it great," the second-year coach said. "I think we're