Valkyries ready for prime time but WNBA stuck in amateur hour with Game 6 debacle

Throughout this crazy run, the Golden State Valkyries‘ fans have been the team’s secret weapon; their love affair creating a frenzied and overwhelming home-court advantage. That asset was on full display in Monday night’s Game 5, in a physical 64-55 win over the Atlanta Dream before a deafening full house at Chase Center.

Now, just one victory away from their first WNBA championship, what is the team’s message to its devoted fans?

“As much as we love Ballhalla, we don’t want to come back here,” center Kiah Stokes said. “We need to go in (to Thursday’s game) with the mentality that we have to win.”

So get your coffee ready, pick up some bagels, (maybe some bubbly unless you’re really superstitious) and embrace the absurdity of the situation the WNBA has created. The Valkyries will play their next game on Thursday in Atlanta beginning at 9:30 a.m. PDT and will be trying to wrap up a championship before lunch time. 

“Call in sick,” guard Veronica Burton said. “I recommend it.”

Stokes coughed into the microphone. 

“Y’all know how to fake a cough, we can all do that,” she said. “I’m sure they’ll be supporting us at whatever time.”

Monday began with the WNBA making headlines for the wrong reasons. Still unsure of where and when Game 6 would be played in Atlanta, just three days before it was to be held, the league finally announced its solution late Monday morning. The teams would play a weekday matinee at State Farm Arena, allowing the NBA’s Hawks, who control the arena, to play their scheduled evening game against Cleveland. 

It was a clumsy solution. But the alternatives would have been almost as bad, either disrupting the entire series schedule by adding several extra days, or playing in the evening in the tiny, 3,500-seat arena the Dream have called home most of the season. Or as Warriors coach Steve Kerr put it Monday, when asked about the situation before the his team’s game, “It’s better than having it at the YMCA in front of 75 people.”

Still, it creates horrible small-time optics in what should be the league’s shining moment. It probably means sacrificing millions of television viewers and the revenue that comes with them, in order to sell 14,000 extra seats. And it adds a layer of perception that women playing in a championship have to take a back seat to men’s teams playing an October regular-season game – one fan at Chase waved a sign that read “Move the Hawks Game, Women = Prime Time.”

Reports have indicated the NBA could have made accommodations with the Hawks’ and their opponent’s schedules if given enough time. The real fault was the complete lack of foresight by the Dream, and the WNBA, to make sure there were contingency plans in place for a team that was in the playoff hunt the entire season and steamrolling by late August. It’s yet another case of the league shooting itself in the foot and being unprepared in what should be its finest hour.

“It’s the best we could do,” Joe Lacob said Monday, before correcting himself. “The best they could do.”

Thanks to Lacob, the Valkyries are among the lucky WNBA teams. The team owner also owns the NBA team and the arena where both play and can adjust for conflicts. All WNBA teams should be so fortunate and maybe one day soon they will be. 

But by the end of the day, the WNBA headlines were back to being about basketball. This back-and-forth battle between the Valkyries and the Dream will be the longest Finals in WNBA history – the league just went to best-of-seven last year and Thursday’s Game 6 will be its first ever. (No, that’s not an excuse for them being unprepared to host one). 

This has been a bruising, defensive battle, with big momentum swings. After losing two straight games, the Valkyries have righted themselves with consecutive wins, achieved through suffocating defense and by containing Angel Reese. After posting double-doubles in the first three games, Reese has been contained to 4-of-20 shooting in the past two. 

Stokes gets most of the credit for that defensive effort and, in Game 5, she added offense to her arsenal, scoring 13 points and hitting three 3-pointers. The fans at Chase chanted “MVP, MVP” to her, and if the Valkyries win the title – as of this moment – Stokes should indeed be the series MVP. 

The Valkyries put together the same kind of game plan they did in Game 4, limiting their turnovers, forcing the Dream into mistakes, and sharing the scoring burden. No Valkyrie made either the first or second all-WNBA teams, released over the weekend. Yet they are one win from a championship.

“Our team is our strength,” said Natalie Nakase, who finished second in Coach of the Year voting. “Anyone can start, anyone can come off the bench, anyone can finish the team. That’s what’s so dangerous about our team. It’s hard to scout when you have so many options.” 

Nakase made starting lineup changes in Game 4 and she stuck with them in Game 5. She again shortened her rotation to seven players. The team held the Dream, again, to a season-low in scoring.

“Defense wins championships,” Nakase said. “These are two defensive-minded teams. They like physicality.”

Actually, on Monday it didn’t sound like the Dream liked the physicality. Reese complained after the game, saying that it was “frustrating” that the Dream were getting fouled constantly without calls. 

Coach Karl Smesko quickly chimed in, saying “the contact they allow on Angel compared to everybody else is just ridiculous.”

Smesko said a lot more that will likely earn him a fine. The facts are the Dream have gone to the free-throw line much more than the Valkyries, 130 times compared to 78 (though it was 14-13 in Game 5). But, as a coach with his back against the wall is likely to do, he was laying the groundwork for Game 6, hoping the officials will pay attention to his words and do his bidding.

There has already been concern about how the officiating could go in Game 6. Both teams will be hustled out of the building quickly on Thursday to allow the changeover for the Hawks. In a similar situation last Saturday, everyone had to be out of State Farm about an hour after the game’s end.

Could the Valkyries win a championship on Thursday and yet not be allowed to properly celebrate? Not be allowed to revel in the moment? That would be more embarrassing than playing the game at such a ridiculous time, and the game officials are surely aware of the situation. And they could definitely play a part in preventing more bad optics from taking place.

The Valkyries love their fans but don’t want to come back to Chase Center. The Dream are desperate to make them return. The league is trying to avoid more embarrassing visuals and story lines.

That’s a whole lot of drama for a Thursday morning. Get that coffee brewing.

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This article originally published at Valkyries ready for prime time but WNBA stuck in amateur hour with Game 6 debacle.