The 2026 WNBA playoffs continued Wednesday with another historic performance, this time from Arike Ogunbowale. With the Dallas Wings facing elimination, Ogunbowale poured in 45 points — the most in a playoff game in WNBA history — to power a season-saving 108-100 overtime victory over the Golden State Valkyries in Game 2 of their first-round series. A winner-take-all Game 3 is set for Friday in San Francisco. 

Earlier in the night, the Atlanta Dream pulled away from the Washington Mystics in the fourth quarter for a 93-75 win in Game 2 of their first-round matchup. With the win, the Dream completed a two-game sweep and advanced to the semifinals, where they’ll face the New York Liberty. 

Here are some winners and losers from yet another thrilling night of WNBA playoff basketball:

Winner: Ogunbowale makes history

The last few seasons have not been easy for Arike Ogunbowale. Once the face of the Wings franchise, she ceded that status, and plenty of shots, to Paige Bueckers. A four-time All-Star and three-time All-WNBA honoree, Ogunbowale struggled to adjust to a lesser role.

Last season was the worst of her career. She played just 29 games and averaged 15.5 points on 36.4% shooting. There were real questions about her future in Dallas last winter, but the organization believed in her and signed her to a two-year max worth $2.4 million. When she shot 33.8% over the first two months of the season, that seemed like a major mistake. 

Slowly but surely, however, Ogunbowale got on track. After the All-Star break, she averaged 16.4 points and 3.8 assists on 46.6% from the field in one of the most efficient stretches of play of her career. That play carried over into Wednesday night, when she delivered when the Wings needed her the most. 

Bueckers, who finished with 10 points on 3 of 13 from the field, could get nothing going against the Valkyries’ tough perimeter defense, so Ogunbowale took the game over. Time and again she came up with clutch buckets, none bigger than her game-tying triple from deep in the corner to force overtime — a shot that was reminiscent of her NCAA title-winning 3 at Notre Dame. 

“I don’t know, I guess I like when the time is going down,” Ogunbowale said. 

Ogunbowale finished with 45 points, seven rebounds and four assists on 12 of 23 from the field, including 5 of 8 from 3-point range, and 16 of 18 from the free throw line. 

This was just the seventh time in WNBA history that a player has scored 40 points in a playoff game. The previous record was 42 points, done three times, most recently by Napheesa Collier. Ogunbowale is also the first player to score 40 points in a winning effort while facing elimination. 

For all of her individual accomplishments early in her career, including two All-Star Game MVPs and a scoring title, Ogunbowale has had limited playoff success. She’d only played in seven playoff games since she arrived in 2019, and the Wings have won just one series in that time. 

This was by far the best and most meaningful performance of Ogunbowale’s career. Now, she has a chance to complete the upset on Friday and lead the Wings to the semifinals for the first time since 2023. 

Loser: Valkyries’ vaunted defense

The Valkyries were not only the best defensive team in the league this season, they were one of the best defenses in league history. Their 99.1 defensive rating was more than four points per 100 possessions better than any other team and they finished second in both opponent true shooting (53.5%) and opponent turnover rate (19.2%). There were 11 instances this season in which a team scored 60 or fewer points; four of them were against the Valkyries, who held the Mystics to just 49 points in a July win. 

The Valkyries’ defense was the driving force behind their regular season success — a 32-10 record and the No. 2 seed — and their best hope for a title. They still could win a title behind their defense, but not if they give up as many points as they did to the Wings in Game 2. 

Dallas shot 50% from the field, including 12 of 23 from 3-point range, got to the free-throw line for a whopping 37 attempts and turned the ball over just 13 times in 45 minutes. The 108 points the Wings scored were the most allowed by the Valkyries in franchise history and the first time all season a team has scored more than 92 points. 

Some of the Wings’ shotmaking was incredible, to be fair, and the players the Valkyries dared to beat them did. Alysha Clark had 21 points off the bench for her first 20-point game since 2022. Still, the Valkyries need to be better defensively in Game 3 to avoid a major upset. In particular, they need to foul less. 

Winner: Dream end a 13-year drought

Last season, the Dream won a franchise-record 30 games, but blew a 1-0 lead in the first round of the playoffs against the Indiana Fever and were bounced in the first round for the third consecutive season. In the offseason, the Dream made a major trade to acquire Angel Reese, which they hoped would turn them into an actual contender. 

Time will tell if the Dream can win it all, but they’ve made the all-important first step. By sweeping the Mystics, the Dream have won a multi-game playoff series for the first time since 2013, which was the last time they went to the Finals. (They won a single-elimination “series” in 2016 under a previous version of the playoff format. They also played in the semifinals in 2018 when they received a bye to that round.) 

Allisha Gray and Rhyne Howard, two of the longest-tenured members of the Dream, who had been around for all of the recent first-round exits, both delivered on Wednesday. Gray finished with a team-high 22 points and four steals, while Howard put up 15 points, three rebounds, four assists and two steals despite battling foul trouble. Reese, for her part, had 15 points, seven rebounds and three blocks after a tough 4 of 15 shooting performance in her first-ever playoff outing in Game 1. 

The Dream will now face a Liberty team that they beat twice in a row to end the regular season, and will have home-court advantage thanks to the Liberty’s upset over the Minnesota Lynx. Whatever happens from here, Wednesday’s victory was an important moment for the franchise and this core, which is all signed through at least 2027. 

Loser: The officials

The Dream and Mystics are two of the biggest, most physical teams in the league. During the regular season, the Mystics led the league in free throw rate (0.379) and the Dream were third (0.341), while the Dream were also 11th in opponent free throw rate (0.317) and the Mystics were 14th in pace (94.66). 

As expected, this matchup turned into a slog, in part due to how the officials were calling the action — particularly in Game 2. 

The Mystics were called for 27 fouls on Wednesday, while the Dream were whistled for 26. This was the first time since Game 2 of the 2016 semifinal series between the Lynx and Phoenix Mercury that both teams were called for at least 25 fouls in a playoff game. Rhyne Howard fouled out and 14 players had at least three fouls, including every starter on both teams. The only player on either team who played at least 10 minutes and didn’t have at least three fouls was Lauren Betts. 

The Mystics went 24 of 28 from the free throw line, while the Dream were 20 of 22 for a combined 50 free throw attempts. The 28 free throw attempts were nowhere near a record, however. (The Sacramento Monarchs shot a playoff-record 47 free throws in a first-round win in 2001.) 

Perhaps the most remarkable note of the night on the officiating front was that there were just four stretches in the entire game where play continued for at least two minutes without a foul, and three of them were in the second quarter. 

These two teams put the refs in a tough spot, but they were too whistle-happy in Game 2. 

The crew in Dallas for Game 2 between the Valkyries and Wings also made sure everyone knew they were involved. There were 50 fouls — 28 on Golden State and 22 on Dallas — in that contest and 60 free throws — 37 for the Wings and 23 for the Valkyries — but at least that game went to overtime. 

Speaking of that extra frame, the game could have ended in regulation after Gabby Williams was called for a loose-ball foul in a chaotic sequence with just seconds remaining. The initial call would have sent Aziaha James to the line with a chance to win the game, but after a challenge by Valkyries coach Natalie Nakase, it was overturned. 

The Wings wound up winning in overtime, so the moment will be forgotten to time, but if the Valkyries had won there would have been a lot of questions about the decision to reverse the call.