Angel Reese, Dream Sweep Liberty to Reach WNBA Finals

The Atlanta Dream are going to the WNBA Finals. Angel Reese scored 22 points with nine rebounds, and the Dream held off the New York Liberty 85-83 on Friday night at Barclays Center to finish a 3-0 sweep of the semifinals, per the official box score.

It is the franchise's first trip to the Finals since 2013, and it ends the season for a Liberty team that had already made history as the first No. 8 seed to knock off a No. 1 seed. New York needed to become the first team ever to come back from 0-2 in a best-of-five. Atlanta never let that story get started.

How the Dream closed it

This one was tight all night, with seven lead changes. Sabrina Ionescu hit a 25-foot three to put New York up 71-66 with 9:26 left. Atlanta answered with a 19-12 finish.

Rhyne Howard (21 points) attacked the rim, Jordin Canada (19 points, 11 assists) hit a go-ahead three from 24 feet for a 73-71 lead with 5:23 left, and DeWanna Bonner went 3-for-3 at the line after a foul on a three at 3:15. Canada's short bucket with 1:15 left made it 83-79.

The last minute was chaos. Jonquel Jones scored to cut it to two, then Ionescu and Howard traded turnovers. Breanna Stewart missed a pull-up with under 10 seconds left, Bonner grabbed the rebound and hit both free throws for an 85-81 lead, and Stewart's putback in the final second only made the final margin two.

Stewart and Jones did everything they could

New York's stars showed up. Stewart scored 26 and went 13-for-13 from the line, and Jones matched her with 26 points and 14 rebounds on 11-of-17 shooting. Ionescu added 12 on four threes and Marine Fauthoux had nine off the bench.

The Liberty actually shot better from the field, 44 percent to Atlanta's 41. The difference was the little stuff. The Dream turned New York's mistakes into 12 points and gave up just seven off their own, and they went 22-of-24 at the line.

A deep Dream team

What makes this run scary is that Atlanta did it again without Allisha Gray, who missed Game 2 with a left hand injury and did not play Friday either. Bonner finished with 13 points and 13 rebounds, Isobel Borlase gave them 10 off the bench on 5-of-6 shooting, and Reese hit 6-of-6 from the line.

Atlanta came into Friday on a nine-game winning streak, per ESPN. Make it 10 straight, and five in a row against New York.

What comes next

The WNBA Finals open Saturday, Oct. 17. Atlanta will face the winner of the other semifinal, where Golden State took a 2-0 lead over Las Vegas into Friday's Game 3.

Karl Smesko's group gets a week to rest, maybe get Gray healthy, and wait. The Dream have been to three Finals before (2010, 2011 and 2013) and got swept every time. This roster looks like the one built to change that.