Valkyries roar back to finish Atlanta, claim first WNBA title

Reporting from CHASE CENTER

In just their second season, the Golden State Valkyries have reached the top of the WNBA.

A 68-63 Game 7 victory over the Atlanta Dream inside Chase Center on Saturday night clinched the franchise’s first WNBA championship.

Photos by Haley Abarca/SFBay

After scoring two points in the first half, Gabby Williams finished with 30. Her 28 points in the second half — a WNBA Finals record for a half — cemented her Finals MVP award along with her first WNBA title.

In her eighth WNBA season, Williams had heard the doubts about whether she could carry a team this far. With a championship on her resume, she chose to dwell instead on the people who believed in her:

“There was always a lot of negativity, but tonight I just want to focus on the positive because there were a lot of people that believed in us and believed in me as well. It started with us. It started with us believing in each other, and that’s so special.”

Jordin Canada finished with 18 points in the losing effort and kept her Atlanta squad in it throughout the night. The Dream remain without a WNBA championship after their fourth Finals appearance.

Canada said the loss doesn’t change her belief in where this Atlanta team is headed:

“We got here on our own as a team, as a unit, and everybody that’s in that locker room, we’ve been saying that’s all we need, and yeah, we didn’t get the end result that we wanted. But at the end of the day, what’s delayed is not denied, and I do believe this team will be back for years to come.”

Afterward, Valkyries coach Natalie Nakase credited owner Joe Lacob for the belief he showed in her when he made her the first head coach in franchise history — and for the mandate that came with the job:

“I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for Joe. Joe interviewed me. He hired me. He believed in me and he set the standard. ‘Whoever takes this job has to win in five years.’ And so I was like, ‘Yes, that’s gonna happen.'”

The first-ever Game 7 in WNBA history opened with more of the tight defense that will define how this series is remembered. The Valkyries jumped out to an 8-0 lead over the first four-plus minutes, with Atlanta missing its first nine shots from the field.

But the Dream found their footing. A 12-4 run tied it at 12 before Veronica Burton’s 10-foot turnaround jumper with 3.8 seconds left put the Valkyries ahead 14-12 after one.

That lead didn’t last long. The Dream scored the first nine points of the second quarter, and Golden State’s first points of the period didn’t come until 4:55 remained, on two Burton free throws. The Valkyries didn’t make a field goal until Kayla Thornton’s 3-pointer with 3:00 left and shot 3-of-14 in the quarter.

Canada did it all for Atlanta to close the half. After scoring two in the first 10 minutes, she exploded for 11 in the second quarter on 4-of-6 shooting. Down by as many as eight early, the Dream went into halftime leading 30-24.

The Dream had just one more offensive rebound than the Valkyries in the first half, five to four, but turned them into a 12-3 edge in second-chance points — a big swing in a tightly contested half.

Atlanta’s lead stretched to nine in the third quarter, at 37-28, before the Valkyries answered with three straight baskets to cut it to three. With the sold-out “Boohalla” crowd rocking, Dream coach Karl Smesko called timeout with 4:17 left in the quarter.

Golden State still needed a spark, a savior to bring a championship home.

Williams turned it on from there. She scored Golden State’s final 13 points of the third quarter — three straight 3-pointers in under a minute, then a 10-foot turnaround — and the Valkyries took a 45-44 lead into the final 10 minutes, their first lead since the opening quarter.

Tied at 53 with just over four minutes left, it came down to who could stay composed.

That continued to be Williams. She scored Golden State’s next nine points — two free throws, a layup, a 31-foot 3-pointer with 2:18 to play and two more free throws — to turn a tie into a 62-57 lead with 1:40 left. M-V-P chants rained down as she went 8-for-8 from the line in the fourth quarter. A Kiah Stokes tip-in and free throws from Tiffany Hayes and Burton closed it out.

An all-time classic for the first Game 7 in WNBA history.

Up Next

The season is over, but the Valkyries aren’t done hosting the league’s biggest events: Chase Center will host the 2027 WNBA All-Star Game. Plans for a championship celebration had not been announced as of Saturday night.

Bonner makes postseason history

With her second rebound Saturday, DeWanna Bonner reached 600 career postseason defensive rebounds, the first player in WNBA history to hit the mark.

Star watch

Olympic gold medalist and Hayward native Kristi Yamaguchi fired up the Halloween crowd moments before tipoff. Major League Baseball’s career home run leader, Barry Bonds, took in the night from inside Chase Center, and Golden State Warriors Draymond Green and Yaxel Lendeborg sat courtside.