Who will prevail in the first Game 7 in WNBA history? Keep track of all the WNBA Finals action here.
Live Game Log
1st Quarter
Live updates will commence after tip-off
Pregame
Who: (4) Atlanta Dream @ (2) Golden State Valkyries
What: WNBA Finals, Game 7 (Series tied 3-3)
Where: Chase Center, San Francisco, CA
Watch: 8 p.m. ET, USA/CNBC/Peacock
Who’s Favored: GSV -1.5 (O/U: 142.5)
Starting Lineups
DREAM: TBD
VALKYRIES: TBD
Injuries
DREAM: Brionna Jones (OUT, leg), Te-Hina Paopao (QUESTIONABLE, leg)
VALKYRIES: None
Referees: TBA
The WNBA’s 30th comes down to its first seventh.
The newly-installed best-of-seven format in the WNBA Finals is living up to its intended purpose in year two of its execution, as the Atlanta Dream and Golden State Valkyries will do battle for the ultimate domestic women’s basketball honor on Saturday night down by the Bay. It marks the first time that any WNBA postseason series has reached this point and both sides are going for their first postseason championship.
Each side has set the stage for a grand finale: Golden State’s trademark grit, for example. has guided them to their three wins, as have clutch scoring breakouts from Gabby Williams and Tiffany Hayes.
Should the hosting Valkyries prevail, they would become the fastest expansion team to touch the WNBA Finals trophy since the Seattle Storm prevailed in their fifth go-around back in 2004. They’ve conducted themselves as anything but a typical expansion club, succeeding both on and off the floor as a two-time playoff club and the first billion-dollar franchise in women’s professional sports.
“We feel good. We feel great,” Valkyries star Veronica Burton said after Golden State missed out on a championship clinch on Thursday, which saw Atlanta take an 80-69 decision in Game 6. “We knew Game 6 would be tough but at the same time, it’s not just going to be handed to us just because we are at Ballhalla. We love Ballhalla. We have the best fans but at the end of the day, it’s going to be a dogfight. We understand that. Both teams want it, and so the mindset is a sense of urgency. It is do or die, officially.
“We put ourselves in a position where, we gave us this game to fall back on but that shouldn’t have been the mentality and it wasn’t. But now, at the end of the day, this is what we worked for and prepared for. So we feel good going into it and we’ll watch some film and clean some things up.”
Atlanta is likewise seeking its first championship, having fallen in the Finals on three separate occasions. They earned their first three Finals victories in style, being the team that has come closer to finding a form of offensive cohesion. That was prominently on display in Game 6, where the Dream overcame questions about their local floor and start time en route to an 80-69 victory.
During the game, Angel Reese set the WNBA Finals record for most total rebounds in a series (78 and presumably counting) while Allisha Gray and Rhyne Howard handled business from deep to the tune of 11 combined triples. Their early work rendered a late Golden State comeback futile from nearly the start and pleased a crowd that managed to break out of morning/afternoon commitments to take in the tying tally.
“It’s such a great opportunity,” Atlanta head coach Karl Smesko said in the victorious aftermath. “I think our team is ready for it. We’re excited for it … the mindset was so good about what we are able of doing.
“The way we came out [in Game 6], I think there’s a mentality right now that, yeah, we’re happy we won but we know the job is not done. We’ve got one more game. We’ve got a great opportunity and we expect to go out there and play great.”
Geoff Magliocchetti is on x @GeoffJMags
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