Welcome to the trap: The swaggering Atlanta Dream turns the WNBA Finals into a hometown spectacle | WNBA

TThe Atlanta Dream were exactly where they wanted to be Wednesday night, sitting comfortably in their downtown arena for Game 3 of the WNBA Finals against the Golden State Valkyries. Kerry Washington, Ludacris and Cam Newton led the celebrity delegation in court. Quavo and TI headlined the halftime show, while two other hugely popular Atlanta rappers performed during other extended stops in play – a mini-show that speaks to the city’s vast pool of hip-hop talent.

But it was the crowd that truly made State Farm Arena a house of horrors for Golden State. They didn’t just fill the 17,608-seat venue. They wore matching sky blue T-shirts and waved rally towels. They sang with their favorite entertainers and lived and died with every stitch. They were so loud in the first quarter that I couldn’t hear the referee’s whistle from my press seat on level 100. They stayed until the end – well, two minutes from the buzzer anyway (you have to avoid the traffic) – and, with the 97-71 victory sealed and DJ Khaled’s All I Do Is Win blaring through the arena speakers, they serenaded the departing Valkyries with Atlanta’s unofficial battle cry: “ATL hoe!”

Angel Reese never imagined basketball could be like this. “When you can have a performance at the end of the quarter,” she exclaimed after a 21-point, 12-rebound effort. “And at the timeout, another performance. You smell like chicken, you smell like fish. It’s blue skies out here. I didn’t even get to see Kerry. You don’t know who you’re going to see in the A.”

Atlanta has always been a strange sports town — one where fans learn not to fall too hard, lest they get burned by teams that get ahead, self-destruct, or exhaust your patience with their underperformance. Fans therefore proceed with apprehension. They find out-of-town teams to protect themselves from disappointment, leave games early when defeat seems imminent, and convince themselves they’re just beating traffic. They enjoy the music, the invitations to sing and ride the swag.

The last time a playoff basketball game was played at State Farm Arena, the Knicks beat the Hawks to seal their Eastern Conference first-round series — and by the end, the New York fans had eliminated most of the Atlanta fans and glitterati. With the Hawks down by some 40 points, rappers Young Joc and Lil Boosie performed their hits to a half-dancing crowd. It was hard to imagine the Atlanta sports scene becoming less serious.

Then the Dreams reached the WNBA Finals, only to learn they wouldn’t be able to play at State Farm Arena, their occasional home court. The Hawks, State Farm’s main tenant, were opening their season, while emo-pop artist Sombr had a concert planned. The Dream was faced with the possibility of hosting its first WNBA Finals game in 13 years in the 3,500-seat airport arena where they played most of their home games, without local college arenas or the 13,000-seat suburban concert hall available. Gateway would have created a stark contrast to the Chase Center – the NBA arena where the Valkyries’ passionate, purple-clad fans created Ballhalla, one of the toughest places to play in the WNBA. The racial and economic makeup of the Atlanta and Golden State crowds would surely have added another dimension. But a combined effort by the teams, the league and the arena to bring the games to State Farm spared us that speech.

This allowed Dream fans to show that they can match that home-court advantage while Atlanta has a team worth believing in and the right venue. On three occasions the Dream reached the finals, but all three appearances ended in sweeps. But no one thought much about it Wednesday night. Not with the Dream who held the Valkyries scoreless for the first five minutes before picking up where they left off in Game 2 and stifling them with their defense. Not with Reese chomping on the Valkyries bench after tough layups and, for good measure, setting off the crowd with a pair of open threes as his college coach, LSU’s Kim Mulkey, looks on in his blued pantsuit. Not with the Dream’s length and speed throwing a spanner in the works of the Valkyries’ carefully choreographed offense, forcing Golden State to go for the basket late in the shot clock.

Only thanks to three-pointers from Cecilia Zandalasini and Gabby Williams did Golden State cut the deficit to six at halftime, then tied it at 48 in the third quarter, with Zandalasini being perfect from beyond the arc at that point. Otherwise, a Valkyries team that prides itself on its depth and balance was caught off guard by a Dream team that was beating them at their own game while doing what they did best: short-circuiting the pick-and-roll, winning extra possessions on steals and rebounds and scoring in transition.

Former No. 1 overall draft pick Rhyne Howard, one of three Dream players named to the WNBA all-defensive team last week, became the first player to record five or more steals in consecutive Finals games. Reese, the newly minted Defensive Player of the Year, became the youngest player in WNBA history to record a double-double in three consecutive Finals games and joined A’ja Wilson as the only players to record at least 20 points and 10 rebounds in consecutive Finals games. The Valkyries bench was a major factor once again, outscoring the Dream reserves 38-27. But that advantage didn’t count as Atlanta neutralized Golden State starters Kiah Stokes, Veronica Burton and Kayla Thornton, who combined for five points on 2-of-11 shooting.

When the final buzzer sounded, the Dreams gathered in the middle of the field to drink in the atmosphere and toss mini-balls into the stands, hard-earned souvenirs for the sixth man who came up and introduced himself. Barely a crowd of Darks. And to think: If it hadn’t been for a sloppy final two minutes in Game 1, Atlanta would still have a perfect playoff record and be looking for a chance to clinch a title in Game 4 on Saturday in front of its fans. Instead, they will look to exploit their formidable new home-field advantage to try to close out the game on Monday in California. If Golden State has Ballhalla, watch out for Atlanta: home of the trap.