The Golden State Valkyries played the penultimate game of their inaugural WNBA season on Tuesday night, and it was one of the best games of the season in the league. Unfortunately, it was perhaps the most painful heartbreaker in the short history of the franchise.
Golden State was on the road, taking on the Seattle Storm, a team they’re jockeying for playoff position with. They controlled the game early, with a brilliant defensive display that led to an 18-12 lead after the first quarter. After giving
some of it back in the second, Golden State had a dynamic third quarter, outscoring Seattle 25-20 to take a 61-53 lead into the final frame.
But the gritty and seasoned Storm, who had even more to play for than the Valkyries did — and a loud and enthusiastic crowd behind them — exploded out of the fourth-quarter gates, scoring the first 10 points of the frame to take the lead. The Valks took the punch and dug deep as they teams exchanged blows. The game was tied at 63, then tied at 65, then tied at 70.
Golden State got the ball with about 40 seconds remaining, trailing 72-70, and went for a two-for-one. Iliana Rupert nailed what was, to that point, the biggest shot of the game, a go-ahead three-pointer with 37.4 seconds remaining to give the Valkyries a 73-72 lead. But it didn’t remain the biggest shot of the game for long.
Former MVP Nneka Ogwumike got a good look on the other end as Seattle attempted their own two-for-one. And while the Stanford alum missed the shot, she got her own rebound and kicked the ball out to Erica Wheeler, who sank a mid-range jumper with 19.2 seconds remaining, giving Seattle a one-point lead.
The Valkyries had a shot to win it, but Janelle Salaün missed a contested shot in the paint. Kate Martin kept the possession alive, but Salaün missed a second shot, this time from distance. Seattle was able to corral the rebound and run out the clock, besting Golden State 73-72 in a tremendous thriller.
With the loss — and a win by the Indiana Fever over the Minnesota Lynx — the Valkyries moved down one spot, to the seventh seed in the playoffs. They’re a half-game behind the sixth-seeded Fever and a half-game ahead of the eighth-seeded Storm, and fully control their fate.
Indiana and Seattle saw their regular seasons come to a close tonight, but the Valkyries still have one game remaining. They hold the tiebreaker over the Fever, but not over the Storm. That means that with a win in their season finale on Thursday, Golden State will move up to the sixth seed. But with a loss, they’ll fall to the final spot in the postseason standings.
The bad news is that game won’t be easy: it’s on the road against the Lynx, who hold the best record in the WNBA and who beat the Valkyries over the weekend at Ballhalla. The good news is that Minnesota already has the top seed locked up, and will likely be resting some key players — as they did tonight, when five-time All-Star and MVP candidate Napheesa Collier took the night off.
Should the Valkyries win and move up to the sixth spot, they’ll face either the Las Vegas Aces or Atlanta Dream in the first round of the playoffs, as those teams are still jockeying for position. If they lose and fall to the eighth spot, they’ll have the daunting task of opening the postseason against the dominant Lynx, who have won all three of the contests between the teams this year.
