With their backs against the wall, the Golden State Valkyries stole a Game 4 win over the Atlanta Dream on the road to send the WNBA Finals back to Ballhalla, all tied up.
The Valkyries’ 67-62 victory stopped their skid and ensured their title hopes are still fully in their grasp.
Gabby Williams wasn’t happy with how her team carried themselves in Game 3. Immediately following the 26-point loss, she screamed animatedly at her teammates in the postgame huddle, a desperate attempt to light a fire under them while elimination inched closer than ever. Golden State hadn’t lost three straight games all season, and they weren’t about to let it happen in the WNBA Finals.
So Williams made sure she could control the narrative on Saturday. After shooting a combined 8-for-33 in Games 2 and 3, Williams, clad in a compression sleeve on her right leg, led all scorers with 17 points in Game 4.
Angel Reese, who entered Game 4 leading the Dream in points, rebounds and blocks during the playoffs, struggled to find the rhythm she adapted to in Games 2 and 3.
The Valkyries held Reese to just eight points on 2-for-12 shooting from the floor, along with six turnovers. If containing Reese was Golden State’s game plan, it worked.
“I think I rushed a lot of my shots,” Reese said in Atlanta’s postgame press conference. “I didn’t take my time to finish around the basket like I’ve been doing in the last three games. It happens — just looking forward to the next game, and I’ll just be better.”
It worked against Allisha Gray too, who was just 1-of-7 from the floor in her 22 foul-trouble-affected minutes. Her injured left hand seemed to be bothering her as well, as she made her way to the locker room during the fourth quarter. Rhyne Howard had her best game of the Finals thus far, leading Atlanta with 19 points and eight rebounds.
Valkyries center Kiah Stokes was the defensive general who stopped the bleeding against a previously surging Dream offense, grabbing 16 rebounds and recording three blocks. Stokes now has 14 blocks in the series, the most ever in a WNBA Finals.
“I just reiterated to the team, ‘Nothing was won or lost in Game 3,’” Stokes told Maria Taylor, Cheryl Miller, Tina Charles and Sue Bird following the game. “Our goal hasn’t shifted. We just wanted to steal one game to tie the series back up. We understood what we needed to do offensively and defensively, and I was just really happy with our fight.”
Golden State’s suffocating defense made its return when they needed it most. Fourteen turnovers for Atlanta — their most in franchise playoff history — dictated the first half. They finished the game with 18 total.
A steal and score for Williams with 22 seconds left in the half made it 16 points off of turnovers for the Valkyries. The Dream’s 26 points made for their lowest-scoring half of the series.
“They decided to fight, so it’s really good that they showed up,” Valkyries head coach Natalie Nakase told WNBA on NBC’s Ashley ShahAhmadi as her team headed into the tunnel with a 14-point lead at the half.
But the best third-quarter scoring team in the WNBA wasn’t ready to wave the white flag.
The Dream went on a 14-4 run in the third, capped off by Isobel Borlase’s three-pointer to cut the Valkyries’ lead to six.
Still, that was as close as the Dream could get. They trailed the entire second half despite out-scoring the Valkyries in both of those quarters.
A lot of it was Golden State knowing exactly how to respond.
Nakase wasn’t afraid to make the necessary adjustments after that Game 3 drubbing, opting to bring Kayla Thornton and Cecilia Zandalasini off the bench for Game 4. That gave the Valkyries an immediate spark — Zandalasini came in to score 10 points and with a team-high +21 rating in 16 first-half minutes. She finished +20, still leading the team.
Tiffany Hayes entered the starting lineup and finished the game with 13 points on 50% shooting from the floor. Hayes had a team-high seven points in the fourth quarter.
“We just had to have more fight, more grit, get back to us,” Hayes told ShahAhmadi after the game. “At the end of the day, we’re here for each other and we do it for each other. I think we showed that today.”
The series continues at Ballhalla — San Francisco’s Chase Center — on Monday. Game 6 is guaranteed to come back to Atlanta on Thursday. Both games will be broadcast on USA Network and Peacock at 8 PM ET.
