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There’s been just one starter who has remained in Natalie Nakase’s rotation all season long. Just one constant through a summer of injuries, lineup shuffles, and absences — Veronica Burton.
On Sunday afternoon, Burton led her team to a 90-81 win over Dallas with a first-of-its-kind statline in the WNBA: 25 points, 13 assists, five rebounds, and four blocks in 39 minutes of play.
Two games prior, she finished with 24 points and 14 assists and didn’t turn the ball over in the Valkyries’ loss to Phoenix at home. In the month of August alone, she’s averaging 15.3 points per game. The 5-foot-9 point guard hit her career-high 30 points in a win at Washington, but even in one of her lowest-scoring performances of the year, when she had just three points in the Valkyries’ 102-91 win over the Connecticut Sun, Burton sparked the offense by tallying 10 assists.
Burton is sixth in the league in assists per game, averaging 5.6 dimes. Golden State’s primary ball handler’s assist-to-turnover ratio is seventh-best in the WNBA, and her efficient play is a significant reason her team is still in the playoff race.
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“V is always on, we couldn’t ask for a better point guard right now,” Nakase said after Golden State’s win over the Wings. The first-year head coach has been nonstop in pushing Burton’s case for the WNBA’s Most Improved Player award throughout the second half of the season.
“She’s truly a big part of why we are winning and I’ve said she’s our heartbeat, but she’s also our leader, she is our solid leader right now.”
For Burton, who started only 20 games and averaged just 2.7 points per game across her first three WNBA seasons, the opportunity to play a central role isn’t something she takes lightly.
“I’ve been out of this league, so this is the stuff that I’ve prayed for — just to be on a team and be playing. So to have a coach that trusts me and instills confidence in me is something that I don’t take for granted,” Burton said.
Still, even as she’s emerged as a standout night after night, particularly in this past month, Burton’s focus remains team-first. Her success, she insists, is a reflection of the culture the Valkyries have built.
“We trust in each other, and whoever’s night it is, we are going to find that person,” she said. “We’re a really selfless team, and there’s a level of joy when someone else is doing well — that’s what team basketball is, and that’s what has really propelled us this season.”
That selflessness and “next player up” mentality has been a focus all season long, but it’s been particularly critical since the All-Star break. While Kayla Thornton established herself as the Valkyries’ go-to scorer with an All-Star campaign in the first half of the season, her season-ending injury didn’t derail the team’s momentum — it fueled a collective response. In her absence, Burton and the rest of the crew have stepped up.
Kaila Charles is the latest example. After signing her rest-of-season contract last week, she played a season-high 35 minutes with a career-high 16 points against the Wings, the team that waived her earlier this year. She earned the start, and was tasked with locking down Paige Bueckers, the rookie superstar who was held to a single-digit scoring total for the first time as a pro.
But the injury hits keep coming. The Valkyries have played their last three games (two losses and a win) with just an eight-player rotation. Cecilia Zandalasini, who was unexpectedly absent in the Valkyries’ 98-91 home loss to Phoenix last week, is nursing a left calf injury and did not travel with the team on its latest two-game road stint. Prior to her injury, though, Zandalasini was on a tear — averaging 16.4 points over her previous five games while scorching opponents from three-point range with a 53.8% mark from beyond the arc in that stint, all to keep the Valkyries’ offense afloat.
Now, the backcourt has taken another blow. Carla Leite (right ankle) and Tiffany Hayes (left knee) both missed Golden State’s win over Dallas on Sunday after going down during the second of back-to-back losses to the Mercury. The Valkyries were lucky to quickly return Iliana Rupert from concussion protocol — she missed just one game — but could be dangerously short-handed in a tight closing stretch.
Playoff picture
Despite the mounting list of injuries, the Valkyries remain firmly in the playoff mix, currently sitting in seventh place with seven games remaining in the regular season.
“It’s coming down to playoff basketball and so every win really matters and every game is super important and we understand that,” Burton said. “We just rely on each other and are really just feeding into each other, encouraging each other and that really goes a long way. Just getting over the hump and the mental toughness we have as a group is awesome.”
Golden State is tied in the standings with an Indiana Fever squad that has been trending downward, having lost six of their last eight, but the Valkyries hold the edge with a 2-0 head-to-head tiebreaker. The two teams meet for a third and final time this Sunday in Chase Center in what could be a decisive matchup for playoff positioning.
Just ahead of Golden State is Seattle, which holds a slim half-game lead in sixth. After a six-game skid, the Storm have steadied themselves with a three-game win streak against lower-tier teams — and they’ll take on Indiana just before playing the Valkyries. Nakase’s team has won two of its three matchups against the Storm so far, but a win on September 9 in Seattle would clinch a tiebreaker outright in the event of even records.
The Sparks are a lurking threat, just one game behind the Valkyries in the standings. But Los Angeles faces a tough closing stretch, with five of its nine final games against Phoenix, Atlanta, and Las Vegas. Plus, the Valkyries hold a 3-1 advantage in a tiebreaker scenario.
This weekend’s back-to-back at Chase Center against the Mystics and Fever marks a critical opportunity for the Valkyries to solidify themselves as a top-eight team. Then, two more wins — most likely against Dallas and Seattle — would go a long way toward solidifying an unlikely playoff spot in their inaugural season. Ultimately, the team’s ability to weather injuries and beat a group of opponents it has already proven it can handle, particularly inside Chase Center, will define whether the Valkyries stay in control of their own destiny.