For the first time since July 29, Sky fans finally saw Angel Reese back on the court. After Tyler Marsh’s constant, yet unclear updates, the Chi-Town Barbie finally announced, “I’m just happy to be back out here to play the game I love.” And it showed up in the team-high 19 points she put up, while the team failed to feed off her spirit. But what didn’t reflect on the stat sheet, the fans were quick to pounce on. What seemed like a fairly successful return was marred by the ghosts of the past.

As the Sky struggled to maintain a firm grip on the gap, and Reese tried to anchor, a few mistakes stared at the critics. The first one, which quickly went viral on social media, came in the first quarter with about six minutes left on the clock. Reese missed an easy layup, grabbed her own rebound, and then failed to convert it against Gabby Williams before passing it.

The second blunder was even tougher for Sky fans to watch. With about 30 seconds left in the second quarter, Angel Reese was wide open on a fast break after Rachel Banham’s pass found her perfectly. But the Bayou Barbie failed to finish, leaving fans stunned. Could this be the return of a trend that had plagued her earlier in the season? Critics are already on the troll wagon.

This wasn’t anything new for Angel Reese. Early in the season, she struggled mightily around the rim. In her first six games, 44 of her 61 shot attempts came from the restricted area, but she converted just 31.8% of them, per CBS Sports. Among the top 10 players who took at least five shots there, that was the lowest percentage. And while she led the league with 7.3 attempts inside per game, she just couldn’t finish consistently. Naturally, fans had a field day trolling her for it.

Fans react to Angel Reese missing easy layups

Fans wasted no time taking a dig at Angel Reese. Memes of her in a construction outfit laying bricks quickly went viral with people mocking her missed layups. And the comments were filling up the social media just as fast. “Back with more layup bricks 💀💀💀💀,” one fan wrote.

Watching that first clip obviously gave fans more ammunition to troll her. They saw her grab a rebound off her own missed shot, and you already know what happened next. Twitter was immediately flooded with “Mebound!” tweets. One fan even took it a step further, editing her face onto the MonaLisa with the same caption.

But here’s the thing — the whole narrative about Reese padding her rebound stats with her own misses just doesn’t hold water when you actually look at the numbers. According to a July 13th post by Polymarket Hoops, Reese had racked up 255 total rebounds at that point in the season. Now here’s where it gets interesting: if you strip away all her so-called “mebounds,” that number only drops to 228. And even if you remove every single offensive rebound she grabbed, the number would have still been 176.

But when plays like these are on replay, it’s hard to grab a look at the positives. Another fan wrote, “And she wants her shoe to be a household name 😭 can’t even make a fu-king layup,” taking direct aim at Reese’s recent comments to Kayla Webley Adler of ELLE about her soon-to-launch signature shoes, the Angel Reese 1 with Reebok.

“Reebok is back! We’re bringing back that old-school look, the old-school vibes. People are going to be wearing Reebok everywhere, just like how they wear Jordans everywhere.” Naturally, that statement didn’t sit well with many. After all, the Jordan brand was built on the legacy of arguably the greatest player ever to grace basketball. Could Reese realistically reach that level? Fans know the answer.

But for all the trolling over those two misses, Reese actually had herself a solid game. “Her stats are so fu-king wild,” one fan admitted. She dropped 19 points on an efficient 9-of-13 shooting, while adding 7 boards and 4 assists. Another fan kept it short and sweet: “Hooper.”

Reese has quietly been putting together a great season, averaging 14.2 points, 12.6 rebounds, and 3.7 assists on an improved 44.4% shooting from the field. Sure, she’ll have her misses, but that’s part of the growth curve. What really matters is how much sharper and more refined her overall game has become. And it has been rather evident in the stats.