The Golden State Valkyries are one win from a championship in their second season of existence, and they got there the way they have gotten everything this October: by making the other team miss. Golden State beat the Atlanta Dream 64-55 in Game 5 of the WNBA Finals on Monday night at Chase Center to take a 3-2 series lead, and Atlanta shot 29 percent from the field to get there.
Game 6 is Thursday night in Atlanta (8 p.m. ET). If the Dream win it, Game 7 is back at Chase on Halloween. If they don't, the Valkyries will have gone from expansion draft to champions in 17 months.
How Game 5 went
Atlanta led 14-13 after a quarter and then scored eight points in the second. Golden State took a 25-22 lead into the half and never trailed again, outscoring the Dream 21-18 in the third and 18-15 in the fourth and pushing the lead to 16 at its widest. The Dream never got it back inside one possession.
The box score is the story. Atlanta went 6-for-26 from three and 29 percent overall, committed 15 turnovers, and grabbed 12 offensive rebounds that turned into almost nothing. Golden State blocked nine shots, stole it nine times, and turned the ball over seven. The Valkyries shot 39 percent themselves and went 6-for-24 from deep, which in this series counts as a hot night.
Kiah Stokes was the most efficient player on the floor: 13 points on 5-of-6 shooting, 3-of-4 from three, eight rebounds and three blocks. Veronica Burton had 13 points, eight boards and four blocks. Tiffany Hayes and Cecilia Zandalasini added 12 apiece. Gabby Williams, who had led Golden State in scoring in every game of the series, went 3-for-14 for nine points, and it did not matter.
Rhyne Howard finally had the three-point night Atlanta has been waiting on, 3-of-8 on the way to 20 points, and it did not matter either. Angel Reese pulled down 15 rebounds but scored seven on 2-of-8 shooting, her second straight single-digit game after averaging 21.7 points over the first three. Jordin Canada had 12 points but needed 16 shots. Allisha Gray was 4-for-12. Naz Hillmon grabbed 11 rebounds and scored two.
Where the series stands
Four of five games have now finished under 135 combined points, and the one that didn't, Atlanta's 97-71 Game 3, looks more like an aberration every night. Golden State has won all three games at Chase Center by holding the Dream to 64, 62 and 55. The Valkyries swept the regular-season series and led the league in three-point defense, and they have made Atlanta look like the team that struggled against them all year rather than the team that went 5-0 through the first two rounds.
The pattern on Reese is the clearest tell. The Dream are 2-0 in this series when she reaches 20 points and 0-3 when she doesn't. In the three losses she has shot 9-of-31. Stokes, Kaila Charles and Burton have made the paint a fight every night, and with Brionna Jones out, Atlanta has had no one else to take the pressure off.
Williams' slump is the one thread Atlanta can pull on. She is 26-of-90 for the series, under 30 percent, and Golden State just won a Finals game with her scoring nine. If the Dream can get the stops they got in Game 2, when they forced 18 turnovers, and if Reese gets back to the rim, this goes seven. That is two ifs.
What's next
Thursday in Atlanta, where the Dream are 1-1 in this series and were 1-2 against Golden State this year including the regular season. The books moved hard overnight; the Valkyries went from +225 to win the title after Game 3 to -260 now. Atlanta needs its first 80-point game since Game 3 to make Saturday a thing. Golden State needs one more night like the last two.
Published on womenssec.com. Statistics referenced are as of the publication date.