Valkyries beat Aces 87-77 in overtime to sweep their way into the WNBA Finals
The Golden State Valkyries are going to the WNBA Finals. They beat the Las Vegas Aces 87-77 in overtime in Las Vegas on Friday, and the play that broke it open was Gabby Williams hitting an 18-foot step-back with 54.7 seconds left in OT to make it 81-73. Golden State won overtime 16-6 and finished off a 3-0 sweep of a team that had beaten them all three times in the regular season.
How the Valkyries got back in it
Vegas controlled the first half. The Aces won the second quarter 26-20 and went to the locker room up 45-36.
The third quarter flipped it. Golden State outscored Vegas 17-7, and the Aces scored just seven points in 10 minutes in an elimination game at home. After three it was 53-52 Golden State.
The fourth went back and forth, and Vegas looked like it had it. The Aces led 69-63 when Veronica Burton went to the line at 2:51 and made both, making it 69-65. Then the Valkyries defense took over.
- 2:17: Kiah Stokes layup off a Williams feed, 69-67.
- 1:54: Williams stripped A'ja Wilson, and Kayla Thornton finished a running layup off Williams' pass at 1:50 to tie it at 69.
- 1:12: Burton hit a 9-footer for a 71-69 lead.
- 56.8: Stokes picked off a Jackie Young pass.
- 28.6: Stokes blocked Wilson's driving layup.
Vegas still found an answer. Young scored off a Chelsea Gray assist at 26.6 to tie it at 71. Williams missed a driving layup with 5 seconds left, Gray missed a 14-foot pull-up at the horn, and we went to overtime.
Overtime
Tiffany Hayes opened the scoring with a driving layup at 4:26. Williams made a driving layup at 2:44 for 75-71. Gray's layup at 2:24 made it 75-73, and that was the last time Vegas was within one score. Hayes scored again at 2:03 for 77-73. Williams hit two free throws at 1:28, Young was called for an offensive foul at 1:13, and then Williams hit the step-back off a Stokes assist.
The next 10 seconds ended it. Stokes blocked Young at the rim at 50.8, Williams stole Gray's pass on the next trip, and Williams made two more free throws at 46.9 for 83-73. Thornton made four free throws in the final 35 seconds to close it out.
The numbers that decided it
Turnovers. Vegas turned it over 15 times to Golden State's 10. Gray had 6 and Young had 5, and three of those came in the final two minutes of regulation or overtime.
Stokes. She went 5-for-5 from the field for 11 points with 10 rebounds, 3 blocks and 2 steals, and she was +18 in 38 minutes. Her two blocks on Wilson and Young came in the last 30 seconds of regulation and the final minute of overtime.
Wilson had to work for everything. She scored 21 with 10 rebounds and played 43 minutes, but she shot 6-for-19 and missed a 27-foot three with 28 seconds left. A make would have cut it to 85-80, still a two-possession game.
The bench. Hayes had 11 points and was +20 in 22 minutes. Thornton led Golden State with 18 points and 9 rebounds and went 6-for-7 at the line.
Williams added 16 points, 3 assists and 3 steals. She shot 6-for-16, so this wasn't a clean night for her, but she made the two biggest defensive plays of the last two minutes of regulation and the shot that broke overtime open.
Plus-minus is noisy over one game, so take Hayes' +20 as a sign the bench lineups worked on Friday, not a ranking of who matters most.
What it means
Golden State swept a team that beat them three times in the regular season. Game 1 was a double-digit win, but Game 2 came down to a block with 3 seconds left and Game 3 needed overtime. Three games is a small sample, and this series was closer than 3-0 looks.
Next up is the Atlanta Dream, who swept the New York Liberty earlier Friday with an 85-83 win in Brooklyn. The best-of-seven Finals begin Oct. 17 (WNBA.com).
My pick is the Dream in the Finals. Both teams swept, but Atlanta has protected the ball better, and Golden State turned it over more than Vegas in Games 1 and 2.
Full Court Buckets gathers and verifies its own game data.
Box score: ESPN.
How this story was made: Ryan Moalemi picked the story and the angle. Full Court Buckets gathers its own game data and verifies it against official box scores. AI tools drafted it from that data and the sources linked above so it could post the same night, then Ryan reviewed and edited it before publishing. How we make Full Court Buckets
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