Sunday night was a historic night for the Golden State Valkyries. The WNBA’s newest team has been searching for a star to step in since Kayla Thornton suffered a season-ending injury in July, and on Sunday, a star most certainly stepped in, in the form of sharpshooting guard Veronica Burton.
Burton didn’t just have a good game. She didn’t just lead the Valkyries to a crucial 90-81 win over the Dallas Wings, which helped Golden State maintain their standing as the current No. 7 seed.
She also made history.
Burton poured in 25 points, dished 13 assists, snagged five rebounds, and recorded four blocked shots. That’s more than just a great line: it’s a line that no player in WNBA history had ever accomplished.
It’s not hard to see why. 13 assists is a huge number to dole out in a 40-minute game, and four blocks is a substantial number for a league that’s fairly perimeter-oriented. Still, when you think about the number of players who have passed through the league who blend playmaking ability with rim-protecting prowess — A’ja Wilson, Candace Parker, Liz Cambage, Lisa Leslie, Tina Thompson, and so many others — it’s a remarkable achievement, especially for someone listed at just 5’9.
It was also critical to the team’s win. The Valkyries assisted on 24 of their 28 made buckets, with many more passes leading to trips to the free throw line, where they converted all 18 of their attempts (including eight by Burton). Beyond the gaudy stat sheet numbers, Burton’s defense played a huge role in Golden State shutting down rookie phenom Paige Bueckers, who finished with just nine points on 3-for-12 shooting, and turned the ball over five times (two of Burton’s blocks were on Bueckers shots, and both were in the fourth quarter).
And you can bet it felt good to have her historic outing come in Dallas, where Burton played the first two years after her career, after being the No. 7 overall pick in 2022 out of Northwestern. She averaged just 2.5 points per game in those two years, and wasn’t re-signed by Dallas when her rookie contract expired. Now she’s averaging 12.0 points, 4.2 rebounds, and 5.6 assists for a Valkyries team that has a 19-18 record, and putting up historical lines against a Wings team that sits at just 9-29. That’s got to be satisfying.
It won’t be Burton every night. The Valkyries will have to fill the Thornton-sized hole in their roster with a committee. But as Burton and her teammates have proved, they have plenty of players who can do exactly that.
Golden State now has an identical record to the Indiana Fever, but the Valkyries hold the tiebreaker so they sit in the No. 7 seed, while the Fever are clinging to the eighth and final seed. There’s no time to relax, though: Golden State is just one game ahead of the Los Angeles Sparks, with the Washington Mystics 3.5 games back and capable of making a run. They’re also just a half-game behind the No. 6 seeded Seattle Storm, so there’s plenty of room to make an upwards move, too.
The Valkyries will get a little bit of time to rest and get ready for their next matchup, as they have the whole week off before hosting the Mystics on Saturday night.
