ATLANTA — The Golden State Valkyries are not overreacting. At least that’s what they said. They have to, or else the WNBA Finals series they trail 2-1 is as good as already lost.
The buzzwords in the organizational word cloud that once underscored their success are now in disarray. Gabby Williams described their defense as undisciplined after allowing 97 points — nearly 20 more than their postseason average — to the Atlanta Dream in Game 3. Tiffany Hayes wants more fight in their tank to best a team that she said “wanted it more.” Veronica Burton voiced a bit of surprise that their composure has fallen short, allowing the Dream late surges to pull away.
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Head coach Natalie Nakase, for a second straight game, questioned the delivery and understanding of a game plan built on all three. Ahead of Game 2, she said she “anticipated” a full four quarters. Then before Game 3, she promised their “best fight.”
“Yeah, sometimes promises aren’t kept,” Nakase said on the heels of back-to-back double-digit losses.
Trailing 2-1 in an expanded best-of-seven series is not inherently a major problem. A comeback is doable. Of the 64 times a team went up 2-1 in the NBA Finals, 14 teams came back from the early deficit. Nakase experienced it first hand when, as an assistant with the Los Angeles Clippers in 2020, they collapsed despite a 3-1 series lead.
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“It is a long series,” center and three-time Las Vegas Aces champion Kiah Stokes told reporters on a Zoom call on Thursday. “I think we’re still very positive. We know we can fix [it]. A lot of it is dealing with ourselves, so we just got to kind of look in the mirror first and then move forward.”
The concern is more that the Valkyries have not looked anywhere close to themselves, can’t currently use their record billion-dollar valuation to buy any desperately needed buckets and might be slogging through the rest of the series with an injury to their main scorer.
Williams came up limping holding her left knee after a Game 1 fourth-quarter collision with Dream point guard Jordin Canada. She said afterward it was a “long physical game, but I’m OK.” Asked directly after Game 3 if her knee, which had a bag of ice on it, was OK, she said “yes.”
The underappreciated forward proved early in the Valkyries’ postseason run she can be and is an elite bucket-getter worth having the ball in the final minutes. She opened the series with an electric 26 points, despite shooting 36.4%. In the losses, she’s been quiet, inefficient overall (8 of 33) and nearly nonexistent from the 3-point line (4 of 14).
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The Valkyries have insisted the shots will start falling, that the looks are the ones they want. But when a team made it here on offense-optional mode anyway, facing a similarly elite defense winning the battle of styles by speeding one up and snatching possessions, can that be counted upon?
The Valkyries were 34.8% from the floor in Game 3, a number boosted merely by finding their stroke from range (12 of 30). Their scoring drought to start the game stood as the margin for much of the contest, until the Dream doubled their 7-point lead in the final three minutes of the third quarter with a 12-2 run.
It’s a team of the collective built on the strength of, as Nakase said again on Thursday, it being “anyone’s night.” Yet it’s been no one’s lately. They took as many field goal attempts as Atlanta, but made 10 fewer baskets. They gave up 22 points off 17 turnovers, feeding directly into the Dream’s grasp. They were slow defensively, while Atlanta finally cracked the series’ offensive code after frustratingly low 30% shooting nights from all.
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“You shoot, what, 49%? I mean, you win games,” Dream leader Angel Reese said.
Certainly, these are things that could be fixed by the Valkyries returning to their principles and locking in with a sense of urgency they said they had, but hasn’t always come across.
The series set up to be one decided at the margins, and some are less controllable. After the Dream took five more free throws in Game 1, a 68-64 Valkyries victory, they are winning the free throw battle by a significant mark of +16 in Game 2 and +12 in Game 3. Stokes’ answer was clear: “Don’t foul.”
“We can’t control what the refs call, but we can try to make it clear to not foul,” Stokes said after Game 2. “But that’s on us. We just can’t be reaching and getting really dumb fouls.”
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The turnaround to Game 3 was tighter than originally scheduled. While typically teams would have a travel day and practice day before Game 3, the game was played two days after Game 2 to allow for it to be moved to State Farm Arena. Nakase said players’ rest and recovery will be at the forefront of Thursday’s schedule. Teams are scheduled to practice on Friday with an early 1 p.m. ET tip on Saturday. Game 5 is on Monday at Chase Center (8 p.m. ET, USA Network).
It gifts Nakase time to figure out what’s truly behind the uncharacteristic play and what button she needs to press to fix it. She’s a big believer in listening. In huddles, in the locker room, in crunch moments like these that can bring them closer. She’s noticed them falling off a “fine line” of doing too much themselves versus trusting the balanced team approach that brought them to their first Finals in the franchise’s second season.
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After Game 3, her plan was to listen to them individually rather than in groups and go through various film sessions in line of individual, group, team. She mentioned directly that players might be confused by the game plan and that it was up to her to be more clear.
“[It’s about] control what we can control and just make sure for us, me as a coach, is that I’m delivering a more efficient game plan,” Nakase said on Thursday. “That’s on me. I’ve got to come with a really aggressive game plan that the players all feel comfortable with.”
Burton indicated on Thursday that players were aware and comfortable with what the coaching staff expected.
“At the end of the day, if we’re not disciplined to it and to what we talk about doing, then we can’t put so much on the coaches,” Burton said.
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To deliver on it correctly and consistently every possession is what creates champions. To this point, the Valkyries haven’t leveled up. Their best option is to look ahead at the next opportunity to back up expectation.
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