The Atlanta Dream beat the Golden State Valkyries 80-69 at State Farm Arena on Thursday, and the WNBA Finals will go to a seventh game for the first time in league history. Facing elimination, Atlanta scored the first 13 points, led by as many as 25 and held on through a late Valkyries run to level the series 3-3.
Allisha Gray led the Dream with 23 points on 8-of-12 shooting, including five of seven three-pointers, and added three blocks. Rhyne Howard scored 21 with four threes. Angel Reese had 15 points, a double-double on the boards and six assists. Gabby Williams scored 26 for Golden State, 21 of them after half-time, but the Valkyries never recovered from the opening quarter.
A first quarter that decided the game
The game was moved from Atlanta’s usual Gateway Center Arena to the larger State Farm Arena and tipped off at 12:30pm ET. The Dream made the most of it. Their 13-0 start forced an early timeout from Valkyries head coach Natalie Nakase, and Atlanta led 32-15 after one quarter. That was the biggest opening-period margin of the series.
The lead was 46-26 at half-time and 63-47 going into the fourth. Atlanta finished with 13 three-pointers, tying the WNBA Finals record for a team facing elimination, set by the Detroit Shock in 2006 and matched by the New York Liberty in 2023.
Golden State’s comeback came late and fell short. Williams kept scoring and the visitors cut the gap to 77-69 in the closing minutes. Gray’s corner three with about 56 seconds left ended it. The Valkyries were also hurt by foul trouble: Tiffany Hayes, who scored 15, picked up her fifth foul with 5:01 to play. Veronica Burton went 2-of-13 from the field for eight points, and Golden State were called for a flagrant foul on Howard.
- Atlanta: Gray 23 pts (5-7 3PT, 3 blk), Howard 21 pts (4-6 3PT), Reese 15 pts, 6 ast
- Golden State: Williams 26 pts, Hayes 15 pts, Burton 8 pts (2-13 FG)
- By quarter: 32-15, 46-26 (HT), 63-47, 80-69
How the series got here
The series has swung back and forth. Golden State won Game 1 on 17 October. Atlanta then won Games 2 and 3 to lead 2-1. The Valkyries won Game 4 67-62 and Game 5 to move one win from the title, before the Dream forced a decider on Thursday.
Both franchises are chasing a first championship. Atlanta have never won the title. They reached the Finals three times between 2010 and 2013 and lost all three. Under Karl Smesko they are now one win from ending that wait.
Golden State’s run is remarkable. The Valkyries joined the league as an expansion team in 2025, and reaching the Finals this early is almost unheard of among recent WNBA expansion sides. They have already won three Finals games this series. A seventh-game win would give them a championship in only their second season.
This is the second year the Finals have been played as a best-of-seven. In the old best-of-five format a series could go to a decider, but there could never be a Game 7. Whatever happens next, this one goes into the record books.
What Game 7 will be decided by
Game 7 is set for Saturday 31 October at 8pm ET at Chase Center in San Francisco, so the Valkyries have home court. Their crowd has been one of their biggest strengths since the franchise started, and they won Games 4 and 5 by holding Atlanta’s scoring down.
The tactical battle is simple to describe. When Atlanta make threes, as they did with 13 on Thursday, Golden State’s defence gets pulled apart and the Dream have been very hard to beat. When the Valkyries slow the game down and keep it close, they have usually controlled it. Nakase also needs more from Burton after a 2-of-13 night. And Hayes cannot pick up the early fouls that limited her late in Game 6.
For Smesko, the job is to repeat a fast start on the road. Gray and Howard have each had big shooting nights in this series. Reese’s rebounding and passing gave Atlanta an edge inside on Thursday, and they will need that again in front of a hostile crowd.
Six games have not separated these teams. One more will decide which franchise wins its first WNBA title.
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I checked this brief against the facts I verified and stored on 31 October (sources: ESPN, AP, Valkyries.com and CBS), and two things in it were wrong:
– **Game 7 is on Saturday 31 October at 8pm ET at Chase Center, not Sunday.** Today is 1 November, so that game has already been played. I haven’t checked the result, and the article is written as if Game 7 is still to come. If it’s going up now, it should either run as an archive piece or be rewritten to include the Game 7 result. I can look that up.
– **The Valkyries had already won three Finals games**, so “deny them their first Finals victory” is wrong. What’s at stake is their first title. I changed the summary’s framing to match.
I avoided two disputed figures: Reese’s rebound count (sources say 13 to 15, so the article just calls it a double-double) and the Game 5 score (64-55 or 65-55, so it’s left out). Gateway Center Arena, the Dream’s 2010–2013 Finals record and the Valkyries’ 2025 expansion start come from general knowledge, not the sources I checked. Confirm them before publishing.
Sports journalist and editor at SportsPortal.net. Covers cricket, football, Formula 1, tennis, and basketball with a focus on how global sports connect with Pakistani audiences. Follows the PSL, Pakistan national cricket team, Premier League, and major international tournaments. Has reported on sports for digital audiences since 2021.
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