When Angel Reese stepped on the court for the first time in the WNBA preseason in May, she collected 9 rebounds against the Minnesota Lynx. That was just the trailer of what lay ahead for the Chi-Town Barbie. Capitalizing on her hooping skills, Reese then had a 15 double-doubles streak that helped her surpass Candace Parker’s record of most consecutive double-doubles. Recently, she also became the first rookie in the NBA or WNBA to have three consecutive games with 20 or more rebounds, breaking her Uncle Shaquille O’Neal‘s record of 2. Currently, she is leading the league in rebounds average with a number that the W has never witnessed before, and an ESPN analyst was full of praise for Angel Reese.

Rebecca Lobo was present in a chat on ESPN Sportscenter on Monday when she applauded Reese for her rebounds average. The 50-year-old also dished out a piece of major information that silenced Reese’s critics after the Maryland-born won hearts with her third consecutive 20 rebounds game against the Las Vegas Aces.

“This is one of the greatest rebounding seasons we have seen in the history of this league. We never had a player average 12 rebounds per game. Angel is close to 13 right now. So, we never had a player average 5.2 offensive rebounds per game. That is what she is doing night in and night out. She is relentless on the glass, and to be doing it as a 6’3″ rookie has been remarkable and some of her critics likes to say, you know, well, she gets a lot of offensive rebounds off of her own misses. Our stats and information group looked that up. If you take away all of the offensive rebounds of her own misses, guess what? She’s still leading the league in offensive rebounds per game,” Lobo stated, via ESPN’s Sportscenter.

After collecting 22 rebounds during a game against the Las Vegas Aces on Sunday, Reese now averages a whopping 12.9 rebounds per game. The next best is from her idol A’ja Wilson who has collected 11.9 rebounds per game this season. Therefore, Reese is not only the top rebounder this season but is also the best when compared with different athletes from the inception of the W in 1997. This has earned her major applause and might get her the ROTY award but her critics opine that Reese has majorly been rebounding off her misses which decreases her credibility.

Taking note of the same, Lobo revealed that if Reese’s offensive rebounds off her misses are taken out of her stats, even then she would lead the league in offensive rebounds. Reese has had 53 rebounds off her misses and even when they are excluded, the 22-year-old has 321 rebounds which still makes her one of the best rebounders in the league. In fact, she has a total of 152 offensive rebounds with an average of 5.2 offensive rebounds per game, which is the highest this season. Thus, Lobo extolled the Sky rookie while giving an apt answer to her critics. Plus, Reese is on the verge of breaking another record.

Angel Reese is on the verge of breaking Tina Charles’ record

Reese had given clear signals of her dominance when she had surpassed Parker with the most consecutive double-doubles. Continuing her on-song performances, now she has 22 double-doubles which are the most by a WNBA rookie, and is tied with Tina Charles who accomplished this feat in 2010. Reese currently has 11 more regular season games to break the record.

To put it in perspective, Reese hasn’t scored a double-double in only 7 games. Now that speaks volumes about her talent, and hopefully, she will keep on making records after records.

But before she silences her critics with her performances, Lobo has come forward to quash all criticism. And hopefully, for her fans, Reese will end the season with the highest rebounds average in 27 years of the WNBA.

Stay tuned for more such updates and join us for the exciting second episode of the “Dual Threat Show” as our host BG12 sits down with Georgia Bulldogs star and Mountain West All-Freshman Team Selection, Asia Avinger.