ATLANTA — The shooting gods may be weeping, but these WNBA Finals are a steal lover's delight. Jordin Canada, at 5-foot-6, shoots the gap and sneaks behind the unsuspecting. Angel Reese, who can time up a dribble better than anyone, favors the on-ball poke-away to punish players foolish enough to try to cross her over. Against would-be kickouts and outlets, Rhyne Howard makes plays you might see from a defensive back in zone coverage. She’s locked in on the quarterback’s eyes before she jumps the route and picks off the pass. 

Steals have swung the possession game for the Atlanta Dream in these playoffs, and so far have swung series for them, too. They came away with 16 steals to open the first round against the Washington Mystics and followed those up with another 10 in Game 2. Across three games against the veteran New York Liberty in the semifinals, the Dream logged another 26. And after only having five steals to show for their efforts in Game 1 of the Finals, Atlanta’s first loss of the postseason, the Dream seem to have regained their penchant for pilfering on the way to taking a 2-1 series lead. The Golden State Valkyries were on the wrong end of 14 steals in Game 2 and nine in Game 3. “We always say, ‘thieves in the night,’” a smiling Reese told me the day before Game 1. She said her teammate Allisha Gray has another saying: “We’ll steal the drawers off you.”

For both teams in these low-scoring, grind-it-out Finals, steals might be the most reliable fount of points. They might also be the best way to understand the central battles and characters of the series. This season, the Dream ranked first in the league in steal percentage while the Valkyries ranked third. Together, the teams can claim five of the top 10 players on this year’s WNBA steals leaderboard and four different season steals titles: Canada won them in 2019 and 2023; Golden State’s Gabby Williams led the league in steals last year; and Howard led the league this year. Howard’s closest challengers for the 2026 steals title, the players in second and third place, happen to be her Dream teammates, Canada and Reese.

The value of steals is no secret. Sports Illustrated’s Dan Falkenheim recently analyzed every play of the 2026 WNBA regular season to find out which situations tended to yield the most points on the following play. The findings are fairly intuitive, but still useful to see: On average, WNBA teams scored the fewest points on plays after dead-ball situations, such as timeouts (0.86 points) and made free throws (0.88 points), and they scored the most points after steals (1.09). The fundamental push and pull of this Finals series makes steals an especially important tool. The Dream defense needs to poke holes in a Valkyries offense that resisted disruption for most of the year. Golden State plays at the league’s slowest pace and favors the sorts of iso spells that limit turnovers; in the regular season, the Valkyries had the lowest turnover rate of any team. But the Dream know that steals and transition offense are their best counter to what the Valkyries do best: defend in the halfcourt. 

If this series has seemed sloppy or chaotic, ask the players how they approach steals. Much of that chaos is premeditated. “When my other four teammates are playing great defense, I don’t want to be that slacker to ruin the defensive possession,” Gray said before Game 1. To play winning basketball, a stealer can't go rogue.

Long arms help, Howard told me—this series also features some of the most athletic players in the league—but the actual steal is only half the work. “We watch a ton of film. We know the plays, we know the calls, we know the language,” she said before the series. Though her playoff shooting struggles have continued against the Valkyries, she set a single-game Finals record with six steals in Game 2, before managing another five in Game 3. “When you know that, it’s easier for you to get those steals, especially when you’re off the ball and you can read the passing lanes.” Keep an eye on No. 10's eyes before every play:

“You can say you want to play defense, but to actually put the work in and do it—for three of us to be at the top of the stealing sheet goes to show our IQ,” Reese said. The prep ensures that any steal attempts are high-percentage ones, never at the expense of anything else. Williams, eighth on the league steals leaderboard this year, was quick to point out that a stolen ball in the box score might just be stolen valor. “Sometimes getting steals isn’t good defense,” she said. “I wouldn’t say I had a better defensive year last year than I did this year just because I got more steals last year. I was very undisciplined. I was just gambling all the time. For every steal I got, I probably let a backdoor cut happen.” 

That’s the usual knock on steals, though Dream head coach Karl Smesko did say a coach might also be contending with the opposite problem. “I think sometimes with players, they had no idea there were plays out there to be made until you bring it to their attention,” he said. Though he believes some players have “an innate ability” to steal, he said the requisite vision and anticipation could be drilled over time, and that he’s made missed steal opportunities a focus of some film sessions. “Are we in the right position? Are you looking at the right thing? Are we moving on the flight of the ball? Those types of things.”

In the end, a steal is only one of a few successful defensive outcomes, and there are other ways to make an opposing offense unravel. “You just want to make the offense hard,” Howard said. “Even if I don’t get a steal, now they’re having a tough catch, they’re out of position, they’re going to end up taking a tough shot.”

But are there more fun ways to make an opposing offense unravel? That moment of surprise, the emotional shift, the sudden swell of crowd noise—nothing feels so satisfying ... or maybe that’s just me. As defensive splash plays go, Golden State’s Veronica Burton (sixth in steals this year) and Williams both admitted they were partial to blocks, which they come by a little less often at the guard and wing spots. “You can’t just block anyone,” Burton explained.

Reese, asked to pick a favorite, waffled a little longer. “I love a good steal,” she said, hesitant. “I don’t know. I think … maybe a block.”

She paused, did the math correctly, and changed her answer. 

“No, a steal. Because that leads to another possession. Sometimes a block goes out of bounds and they get the ball back, so I’d say a steal. And then going the other way.”

To tie up the series on Saturday, the Valkyries know they'll have to bring the game's pace back to the slow crawl they prefer. "They scored ... 97," Williams said, glancing at the stat sheet in the postgame presser after Game 3. "We have no chance. We have to just go back to our defense, and that will get our offense going." Don't expect the series to get much prettier, but know at least that there's still some beauty in the ugliness.