Angel Reese
Photo: ESPN · headshotPictured: Angel Reese
News Briefs

Angel Reese named WNBA Defensive Player of the Year

The honor lands in the middle of the semifinals: the Dream lead the best-of-five series 1–0.

The honor

Angel Reese has been named WNBA Defensive Player of the Year after averaging 16 points, 12 rebounds and 2.8 assists in 44 regular-season games for the Atlanta Dream.

ESPN reported the WNBA Defensive Player of the Year honor on Saturday, October 3.

The season behind it

Angel Reese has averaged 16 points, 12 rebounds and 2.8 assists in 30.6 minutes across 44 games for the Atlanta Dream this season.

Over her last five games, Angel Reese is averaging 18.4 points in 27.4 minutes — 2.4 above her season scoring average.

Angel Reese's season line

2026 Regular Season · last five games

Per-game averages from her regular-season PropSports game log.

PropSports game log (2026 Regular Season) values as of Oct 4, 2026 payload 4324206297d32cdf

Show the numbers in this figure
Frozen values shown in this figure
Season · 44 GLast 5 · 5 G
Points1618.4
Assists2.82.8
Minutes30.627.4

Her role with the Dream

Over the Dream’s last five completed games, Angel Reese averaged 28.6 minutes — No. 4 on the team in that window — and started five of her five appearances.

The Atlanta Dream are 30–14, No. 1 in the Eastern Conference, with a 9-1 record over their last 10 games.

Her playoffs so far

Angel Reese’s postseason so far — Game 2 at the Mystics (September 30): 15 points, 7 rebounds on 4-of-8 shooting in 28 minutes, a 93–75 win; Game 1 against the Mystics (September 27): 13 points, 12 rebounds on 4-of-15 shooting in 30 minutes, a 92–77 win. That playoff line is its own record and is not part of the regular-season averages above.

Why it matters now

The honor covers the regular season, and the postseason keeps its own ledger. The Dream lead the best-of-five series 1–0.

Next game

The Atlanta Dream next play the New York Liberty at home on Wednesday, October 7 at 7:30 PM ET; the New York Liberty enter at 26–18.

Evidence & methodology7 cited records · how this story was built

Records cited

  1. ESPN (publisher report) — “Dream's Angel Reese named WNBA Defensive Player of the Year” · published Oct 3, 12:45 PM ET · source ↗
  2. PropSports game log (2026 Regular Season) · observed Oct 4, 4:20 PM ET · source ↗
  3. PropSports game log (2026 Postseason) · observed Oct 4, 4:20 PM ET · source ↗
  4. PropSports injury feed · observed Oct 4, 4:20 PM ET · source ↗
  5. PropSports standings · observed Oct 4, 4:20 PM ET · source ↗
  6. PropSports box scores, last 5 Dream games (observed rotation) · observed Oct 4, 4:20 PM ET · source ↗
  7. PropSports schedule · observed Oct 4, 4:20 PM ET · source ↗

How this story was built

Why this is a standalone story: the report describes an awards development (materiality 4, threshold 3.5; 1 publisher), not a feature or commentary piece, and it is not already covered by a structured injury or transaction story. PropBetEdge’s own records add: season production, recent form, rotation role, team standing, schedule.

Source rights: PropBetEdge stores the publisher’s headline, link and supplied metadata only. It does not reproduce the article body, and details that exist only in that report — quotes, context, characterisation — remain the publisher’s reporting.

Story identity: this story is tied to one event in PropBetEdge’s persisted event registry, identified by its facts (event type, player, team), never by a publisher’s article id. When another publisher covers the same event, or PropBetEdge’s records change, the story is revised at the same URL with an Updated time; a different event becomes a new story.

Photo: ESPNPictured: Angel Reese.

Generated by PropBetEdge’s deterministic newsroom (wnba-articles/1.7.0 · Brief story, wnba-depth/1.1.0) and checked by the publication gate before release; betting relevance: contextual.

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