Warriors' Draymond Green reminds Valkyries on cusp of title: ‘Three is a long way from four'

Stephen Curry and Draymond Green, like many Bay Area basketball fans, are eager for the Golden State Valkyries to win one more game and complete their improbable journey to a WNBA championship.

Green, no doubt flashing back to 2016, also offered a word of caution: That last win is the most daunting. 

“It’s super cool, but I don’t want to get beside myself, beside ourselves,” he said of the Valkyries on Monday night in Denver, after the Warriors beat the Nuggets. “We’ve been in a bunch of playoff runs and title runs, and winning three games in the NBA Finals is a long way away from four. When you’ve done it, you understand.

“So they’re having a special year, but they’ve got to get one more win. Three is a long way from four. It’s a lot further away than people realize. That next game, to close out, is going to be the hardest game they’ve ever played in their lives. I think they’re cut out for it. We’re rooting them on, it’s been fun to watch.” 

The Valkyries took a 3-2 lead in the WNBA Finals earlier Monday night, with a 64-55 victory over Atlanta. Golden State, in only its second year of existence, will secure the title if it defeats the Dream in Game 6 on Thursday in Atlanta (9:30 a.m. PT start). 

If Atlanta wins, then Game 7 would take place Saturday at 5 p.m. at Chase Center.

Green didn’t explicitly mention the 2016 NBA Finals, but it requires no sixth sense to understand the scar tissue from that series still lingers. The Warriors, after setting an NBA record by going 73-9 in the regular season, bounced back from a 3-1 deficit to eliminate Kevin Durant and Oklahoma City in the Western Conference finals.

Then, in the Finals, the equation flipped: The Warriors took a 3-1 lead on LeBron James and Cleveland, only to lose the next three games. Green infamously earned a Game 5 suspension, after he accumulated his fourth flagrant foul point of the postseason because of a retaliatory swipe at James’ groin late in Game 4.

At any rate, Warriors players – several of whom attended the first two games of this Valkyries-Dream series – appreciate the distinctive journey of their Golden State counterparts.

“It’s an incredible story,” Curry said. “I mean, I don’t even know how to put it. It’s a franchise on the brink of a championship, and the collection of athletes, the different stories they have, and the fact there’s such an identity that’s been formed in two years and the fanbase, and representing the Bay, it’s incredible. … 

“So, we’ll definitely be rooting ’em on. And it’s great for the W just in general to have the Valkyries show out the way they have.”

Staff writer Luca Evans contributed to this story. 

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This article originally published at Warriors’ Draymond Green reminds Valkyries on cusp of title: ‘Three is a long way from four’.