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Across a league teeming with young superstars and loaded with established veteran talent, very little is expected of the Golden State Valkyries in their debut season.
But don’t tell that to coach Natalie Nakase and an eclectic mix of players who are mostly unknown to casual WNBA fans.
The Valkyries believe in what they’re building, and Wednesday’s 76-74 win over the Washington Mystics at Chase Center provided a proof of concept as the team secured its first-ever victory.
Locker room was HYPE after the W in Ballhalla! pic.twitter.com/cTRnYVo8Hv
— Golden State Valkyries (@valkyries) May 22, 2025
In front of the second sellout crowd in as many games, Nakase’s team overcame a poor shooting start and benefitted from a breakthrough performance from guard Veronica Burton — 22 points, nine rebounds, five assists — to hand the Mystics their first loss of the year.
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Here’s what we learned from the Valkyries’ historic night.
Burton sets the tone
After spending the first two seasons of her career with the Wings, the 5-foot-9 Burton was waived before Dallas’ first game last season.
She was out of the league for a few weeks before the Connecticut Sun added her to their roster in June. As a reserve guard, Burton averaged 12.7 minutes per game and scored in double figures just twice last season.
The Valkyries selected Burton in the expansion draft this offseason, but she scored just two points and didn’t make a field goal in the season-opener against the Sparks.
On Wednesday, everything changed.
Burton made six of 11 shots, including three of four attempts from beyond the arc, in the best game of her young WNBA career.
A buzzer-beater before halftime propelled Burton to an outstanding second half. Fourteen of her 22 points came in the final seven minutes of the fourth quarter, including a go-ahead 3-pointer to give the Valkyries a 66-65 lead, with 1:38 remaining, that they wouldn’t relinquish.
The Valkyries won despite 3-point woes
A Valkyries team that struggled from 3-point range in the preseason and in their season-opener began Wednesday’s game 0-for-17 from the perimeter.
According to ESPN, that tied a WNBA record for the most missed 3s to open a game.
How did they manage to stay in the game?
The Valkyries committed just 13 turnovers, and more importantly, gave up just seven points to the Mystics on those giveaways.
Nakase’s team finished 7-for-37 from beyond the arc, but Washington also struggled as the Mystics hit just seven of 20 attempts from 3-point range and didn’t have a player hit more than two triples.
To help their cause, the Valkyries also outscored the Mystics by six points from the free throw line.
Top-tier talent is lacking, but balance matters
The Valkyries can’t put the ball in the hands of an A’ja Wilson or a Caitlin Clark and let a superstar take over a game. Expansion teams don’t have the luxury of letting one player dominate the flow of a game, especially a squad that didn’t carry any of its three draft picks on the opening-night roster.
But the lack of a top-tier talent could force the Valkyries to take a more balanced approach on offense.
Tiffany Hayes was the team’s leading scorer against the Sparks, but she exited Wednesday’s game with a nose injury late in the second quarter. She finished with just two points on four field goal attempts, and her absence forced the Valkyries to search elsewhere for scoring.
Veteran Kayla Thornton scored 18 points, French forward Janelle Salaun made an instant impact in her team debut with 10 points, and rookie Carla Leite added 10 more off the bench.
Hayes, Thornton, and Monique Billings possess valuable experience, but if the Valkyries are going to surprise teams this season, it’ll likely be younger players such as Burton (24 years old), Salaun (23), and Leite (21) leading the way as they take significant strides in their development.
The atmosphere is legit
A WNBA expansion franchise in the Bay Area felt long overdue, and Friday’s season-opener at Chase Center clearly reflected how much anticipation had been building among local fans.
The Valkyries again had more than 18,000 fans in the house Wednesday, and an intense, back-and-forth fourth quarter showed how valuable a home-court advantage could become over the years.
As the Valkyries put the finishing touches on their first win, Warriors guard Brandin Podziemski was leading a chorus of cheers from his courtside seat.
In 2024, the WNBA averaged 9,807 fans per game, up 48% from 2023. The total spiked in large part thanks to the Indiana Fever, who had more than 17,000 fans at each home game after taking Clark with the No. 1 overall pick in last year’s draft.
The Valkyries have reportedly sold more than 10,000 season tickets for this season, which gives the franchise a floor for home attendance that has immediately made Chase Center one of the best environments across the league.
It’s good they won now
It wouldn’t have come as a major surprise if a first win proved elusive for a Valkyries roster that started practicing together only last month.
But the fact that the Valkyries are on the board should be a sigh of relief for a team that opens a difficult stretch of games on the road Friday.
Nakase and company start a three-game road trip against the Sparks, who beat the Valkyries by 17 last week. Up next? Back-to-back games in Brooklyn against the defending champion New York Liberty.
When the Valkyries return home June 1, they’ll face a Minnesota Lynx team that’s off to a 3-0 start.
After proving they can win, the next step is proving they can do so consistently.