Angel Reese tainted a historic WNBA night with a shameless late-game stat-padding layup

Her 20th rebound of the night also put her past A'ja Wilson for the most rebounds in a WNBA season.Hitting the glass for 26 boards is an impressive record, no question (even if three of them were her patented "Mebounds").But Reese and her Dream teammates tainted the historic night during the final 20 seconds.ESPN TURNS ANGEL REESE’S 49 ‘MEBOUNDS’ INTO PROOF THAT SHE’S A LEGENDARY WNBA REBOUNDERAtlanta led 76-69 with 20 seconds left and Reese had nine points.

Following a Sparks possession that resulted in two missed shots, Dream guard Jordin Canada collected the rebound.It turns out that Reese never even attempted to play defense on the possession.

Instead, she waited in the frontcourt for Atlanta to regain possession.Angel Reese's 26 rebounds broke the WNBA single-game record, but a controversial uncontested layup in the final seconds raised stat-padding questions.(Getty Images)Canada did just that and then heaved the ball the length of the court to a wide-open Angel Reese with 15 seconds left.Reese had the ball with a seven-point lead, and no defender near her.

All she had to do was dribble out the clock and secure the victory.But if you've been paying attention to Reese's career, you can probably guess what happened next.

Reese scored on an uncontested layup, giving her 11 points on the night and her 27th double-double of the season.Atlanta didn't need the points.Reese needed them.If an NBA player did that, there's a chance a physical altercation might follow.

Instead, everyone simply accepted that Reese is going to do whatever she has to do to make sure the box score looks the way she wants it to look.To be clear, Reese didn't find herself one unlucky bounce short of 10 points.She went 4-for-14 from the field and was 3-for-13 before the layup.

The WNBA.com play-by-play lists seven missed layup attempts and all 10 of her missed shots came within 5 feet of the basket.She also had five shots blocked and Sparks forward Cameron Brink blocked four of them...