WNBA Finals Game 3 preview: Golden State hasn't taken a third-quarter free throw this series
Follow the play-by-play: Valkyries vs. Dream, Game 3 →
The Golden State Valkyries have scored 9 points in the third quarter of both WNBA Finals games, and they haven't attempted a single free throw in either one. The Atlanta Dream have outscored them 38-18 in third quarters, and that 20-point gap is the whole series so far.
Game 3 is tonight at State Farm Arena with the series tied 1-1, and the third quarter is where the Valkyries have to find points.
Finals Game 3 at a glance
- When: Wednesday, Oct. 21, at 5 p.m. PT
- Where: State Farm Arena, Atlanta
- TV and streaming: USA Network and Peacock (WNBA schedule)
- Series: Tied 1-1. Golden State won Game 1 68-64, and Atlanta won Game 2 79-65.
- Game line: Dream -3.5, total 153.5 (DraftKings, as of Oct. 21 at 11:00 a.m. PT)
- Next: Game 4 is Saturday, Oct. 24, at 10 a.m. PT in Atlanta
Game 3 was moved up from Thursday, Oct. 22, and out of the Dream's usual home arena to State Farm Arena. It is the first WNBA Finals game in the Atlanta market since 2013, the league said when it announced the move.
Injury report
As of the league's official injury report from Oct. 21 at 3:00 p.m. ET (12:00 p.m. PT) (WNBA injury report).
Atlanta: Brionna Jones (left leg) is out. She is the only player listed for either team.
Golden State: No players are listed. Iliana Rupert has not played this season for a non-injury reason.
What happened in Game 2
Atlanta won 79-65 at Chase Center on Monday. Angel Reese had 30 points and 16 rebounds, and a 19-2 run that started at 3:52 of the third quarter turned a 45-44 game into a 64-46 lead by 9:00 of the fourth. Rhyne Howard had 6 steals, a Finals record (AP). Both teams made 21 field goals and 7 threes. Atlanta made 30 of 35 free throws and Golden State 16 of 19. Our Game 2 recap has the full sequence.
Golden State turned it over 19 times (every turnover count in this preview includes team turnovers), and Atlanta scored 24 points off those turnovers. "We have to play harder, number one, but we've got to play smarter as well," Valkyries coach Natalie Nakase said after the game (NBC Bay Area).
The third quarter is the series
Across the two third quarters, Golden State has made 8 of 40 shots: 4 of 25 in Game 1 and 4 of 15 in Game 2. It has gone to the free-throw line zero times. Atlanta has made all 16 of its third-quarter free throws, 4 in Game 1 and 12 in Game 2.
The Dream were called for 5 fouls in those two quarters, 3 in Game 1 and 2 in Game 2, and none of them was a shooting foul. Golden State was called for 9, including 5 shooting fouls.
The two quarters didn't go the same way. In Game 1, the Valkyries kept the ball (1 turnover) but missed 21 of 25 shots. In Game 2 they turned it over 8 times in the quarter. The result was 9 points both times.
Outside the third quarter, Golden State won the other three quarters of Game 1 by 12, 59-47, and Atlanta won them by 2 in Game 2, 58-56. In the other three quarters combined, Golden State leads 115-105. Two quarters is a very small sample, so this shows where the series has been decided, not what will happen tonight.
The Dream lost all three home Finals games in 2010, 2011 and 2013, each one with Atlanta down 0-2. Tonight is the first time they have played a home Finals game with the series tied.
The odds and my pick
DraftKings has Atlanta -3.5 and a total of 153.5, as of 11:00 a.m. PT Oct. 21 (The Odds API snapshot via AgentBets). The series price is Dream -135, Valkyries +115 (ESPN betting report, Oct. 20, 10:41 a.m. PT). Prices may change before tip-off.
My lean is the under 153.5: Games 1 and 2 finished with 132 and 144 points, and neither team has shot better than 34.4 percent in a Finals game. My pick is Atlanta to win Game 3.
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Full Court Buckets gathers and verifies its own game data.
How this story was made: drafted with AI tools from the sources linked above, then reviewed and edited by Ryan Moalemi. How we make Full Court Buckets
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