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From six games in 10 days to back-to-backs in different cities, the Valkyries — like the rest of the WNBA — have navigated bizarre scheduling. Now, with the regular season winding down and the playoff picture taking shape, Golden State faced yet another scheduling curveball: a rare five-day break followed by a stretch of five home games in seven days.
The Valkyries made the most of the pause — and then some. Still shorthanded, they returned to the court looking refreshed and delivered their most complete performance of the summer, cruising to a 99-62 win over the 10th-place Mystics.
The win, their most lopsided yet, lifted the Valkyries to 20-18 on the season. With six games remaining, the playoff hopefuls now sit eighth in the standings, 2.5 games ahead of the Los Angeles Sparks and just a half-game back from the Seattle Storm in seventh.
What became a 37-point margin of victory started as a suffocating defensive effort that limited the Mystics to just eight points on 3-of-16 shooting in the first quarter. By halftime, the Valkyries grew a 51-22 lead behind Veronica Burton’s 15 points and five assists. Nine steals and 19 points off turnovers helped Golden State ease into cruise control for the second half of play, building to a blowout win.
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“Defensively we were on a string tonight. We were communicating, we had each other's backs, we were switching sometimes where we normally don’t switch, so it was really cool to just be super connected,” coach Natalie Nakase said postgame. “Tonight was probably one of our best defensive games, which is really great to say at this point in the season.
And at the forefront of that defensive clinic: Kaila Charles. The recently signed guard was tasked with shutting down Mystics’ All-Star rookie Sonia Citron, and she did so effectively. Washington’s Citron and Kiki Iriafen were held to a combined 20 points. Charles also enjoyed a career night on the offensive end, putting up 16 points for the second consecutive game in a starting role.
Golden State had beaten this Washington team three times earlier this season — each win by fewer than five points — but this time, nearly everything clicked for Nakase’s team. It held the league’s fourth-best rebounder Iriafen to just three total boards, and outrebounded the Mystic 31-20 as a team. Offensively, the spacing and ball movement around the perimeter worked like a well-oiled machine for the Valkyries, as they racked up 25 assists on 33 made field goals. Plus, they hit their shots early — Burton’s perimeter three-pointers included.
After guiding the runaway first half, Burton, the only Valkyrie to have started every game this season and the starter with the most significant two-way load, watched all but two minutes of the second half from the bench. Nakase opted to rest her starting point guard, given the grueling, condensed schedule upcoming this week.
“Credit to her for coming out so hard, we wouldn’t have even had that lead if she didn’t play the way that she did, she came out swinging I thought, attacked the gaps as much as she could, attacked some matchups that she liked, and then just orchestrating again whatever she wanted offensively,” Nakase said. “I wouldn’t have been able to do that if she didn’t play that well so all credit to how she played and how her teammates orchestrated around her.”
While Burton anchored the team’s energy from the bench in the second half, four more Valkyries joined her in double-digit scoring figures. French rookies Janelle Salaün and Carla Leite added to the mix — Salaün made four three-pointers en route to a 20-point night that crowned her the game’s leading scorer and Leite added 19 points off the bench after being listed as questionable due to an ankle injury ahead of tipoff.
Laeticia Amihere also made her presence felt in Nakase’s secondary rotation with 11 points and four steals as she disrupted passing lanes on defense. Kate Martin saw meaningful minutes starting late in the first quarter and finished with six points in the win.
Despite still missing key scorers Cecilia Zandalasini, who will be listed as day-to-day as of Sunday, and Tiffany Hayes (illness) in the starting lineup, Golden State’s bench combined for 36 points.
“It was good to win in this way so that we could rest some players and let some players that have less minutes usually get on the court and join the party,” Salaün said.
The balanced effort and relative ease of Saturday’s win was not just a hot start for the final homestand, but a welcome advantage with the Valkyries returning to the court on a less-than-24-hour turnaround to host a playoff-contending Indiana Fever team. The Fever, still without a rehabbing Caitlin Clark, currently sit just half a game ahead of Golden State (with a tiebreaker over Seattle) in sixth place. At this point, the playoff race hinges on the Valkyries beating out the ninth-place Sparks, and a win over Indiana would cement a meaningful advantage.