Since the start of this season, there has been a consistent flow of record-breaking coming from Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark. Tonight, Reese had herself another big night as she became the first rookie since Shaquille O'Neal to have back-to-back 20 rebound games. Shaq did it 31 years ago and it hasn't happened again until now. Not only did she have 20 rebounds, but she also had 13 points, which gave her once again another double-double.
Angel Reese's rebounding through the season
Angel Reese is currently averaging 12.6 rebounds per game. She's been a big help as a part of the clean-up crew, grabbing misses on the offensive and defensive end of things. In her final year with LSU, she was also strong on the boards, grabbing 13.4 rebounds per game. It's clear that Reese has a solid foundation down low and will hopefully grow that skill as time passes.
The Sky, as a whole, has strong rebounders. Rookie Kamilla Cardosa is currently averaging 7.7 per game, and Elizabeth Williams is averaging 7.0 per game. This leads to them being a very good paint team. However, there are some clear problems within this rebound-snatching team that revolve around Reese and the reason why she has so many rebounds on her stat sheet.
Miss catch, miss catch mentality
If you were to go on social media right now and look up Angel Reese, you'd be met with hundreds of posts discussing the real problem with the forward. A majority of them have no mention of her back-to-back 20 rebounds. One has to acknowledge that what she is doing is pretty great, and she deserves her flowers for being dominant on the boards. However, things get muddled when you watch the game and see what's really happening.
A majority of Reese's rebounds have come off of her own misses. In the first quarter alone, Reese missed a large amount of simple layups. It seems like she has become overly focused on taking the shot and wanting to get a rebound on her stat sheet. There was one sequence that said it all for this game against the Connecticut Sun. Reese went up for the layup, missed, grabbed her own rebound, went up again, and missed again.
That sequence would lead to a DeWanna Bonner rebound and a layup from Brionna Jones on the other end. This one would actually go in. After that moment, the rookie would be subbed out of the game. There would be multiple other instances through this game, and others, that showed off the exact same game of catch and try again.
Reese can fix her problem this season
Against Connecticut, Reese was 3-12 from the field and 7-8 from the free throw line. Eventually, the rebounding game she's playing isn't going to work. If a team puts a body on her down low, it's game over. You beat the rebounding game by boxing the player out, and it'll happen soon enough.
The simple fact is that the forward needs to get things under control. Watching her throw the ball up, you can tell she's already setting herself up to rebound her miss. She's not shooting to score. Reese could be a dominant player and actually be respected if she started playing basketball and not stat padding. We should be able to celebrate her accomplishments without going "yeah...but" every single time.
There are plenty of people who want to see Reese succeed, including us. She is, by definition, succeeding right now, but not in a way that is enjoyable to cheer for or watch. The rookie needs to focus less on hitting her double-double mark and more on just playing good basketball.
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