Two of the WNBA's most dominant regimes fell in the same three-hour window Friday night, as the Golden State Valkyries and the Atlanta Dream each closed out 3-0 semifinal sweeps to set up a WNBA Finals nobody had on a bracket in May. Golden State, playing just its second season as an expansion franchise, eliminated two-time defending champion Las Vegas 87-77 in overtime. A little more than an hour later and 2,500 miles east, Atlanta held off New York 85-83 at Barclays Center to reach its first Finals since 2013.
The two results, verified against the official box score from Las Vegas and the box score from Brooklyn, mean the fourth-seeded Dream — unbeaten in the postseason — will open the championship round on the road against a Valkyries team that didn't exist until last year.
Golden State Survives, Then Pulls Away
In Las Vegas, the Aces trailed by six in the fourth quarter before Veronica Burton's floater put Golden State ahead with 1:12 left. Chelsea Gray found Jackie Young for a game-tying bucket with 27 seconds on the clock, sending the game to overtime, where the Valkyries outscored the Aces 16-6 to close it out. Kayla Thornton led Golden State with 18 points, Gabby Williams added 16 (eight of them in the extra period), and Kiah Stokes contributed 11 points and 10 rebounds. A'ja Wilson, held to 6-for-19 shooting, finished with 21 points and 10 rebounds for Las Vegas; Young and Gray each scored 17 or more in the losing effort.
Golden State became the first expansion team in league history to reach the playoffs in its debut season a year ago. One year later, it has eliminated the two-time reigning champions to reach the Finals in just its second year of existence — a trajectory without much precedent in the WNBA's three-decade history.
"It feels special because this is a special group. Nobody believed in us, but it made us smile because we were like, 'All we need is each other.'"
— Gabby Williams, via CBS Sports
Valkyries coach Natalie Nakase, a former Aces assistant, was emotional afterward, saying she kept her head down walking through the tunnel because so many people in the building were family to her.
Dream Hold Off a Furious Liberty Rally
In New York, Atlanta built an early cushion behind Rhyne Howard's 11 first-quarter points before tempers flared in the second: Angel Reese and Liberty center Jonquel Jones each drew technical fouls after a shoving match. The Dream led 44-39 at the half, extended the margin to 51-39 early in the third, then watched New York rip off a 16-4 run to take a 68-66 lead into the fourth.
Atlanta answered with an 8-0 run to retake the lead and went up 83-79 with a minute remaining. Jones answered with a layup to cut it to two, and Breanna Stewart — who finished with 26 points — missed a contested shot with nine seconds left. DeWanna Bonner made both ends of a one-and-one with 6.2 seconds on the clock to seal it. Reese scored 22 points and Jones had 26 to lead New York, but it wasn't enough; Atlanta did it without leading scorer Allisha Gray, sidelined since Game 1 with a finger injury, as detailed in the full Brooklyn box score.
The Dream had not been back to the semifinals since 2018, let alone the Finals, which they last reached — and lost — in 2013. They have not dropped a single postseason game this October.
"Sat at home the last two years and watched it. The job isn't done."
— Angel Reese, on reaching the Finals
"It's really hard to get to the Finals and it's really hard to win a WNBA championship."
— Breanna Stewart, after New York's elimination
What's Next
Golden State's superior regular-season record gives the Valkyries home-court advantage for the first time in franchise history. Game 1 of the WNBA Finals is scheduled for Oct. 17 at Chase Center in San Francisco, with the series shifting to Atlanta for Games 3 and 4. It is a matchup the league could not have scripted: a team that didn't play its first game until last May against a franchise that hadn't sniffed a title round in over a decade, both arriving after sweeps of the teams many expected to meet in the championship instead.
