Valkyries deal out Aces, complete sweep in Las Vegas to advance to WNBA Finals

LAS VEGAS - They were ready. Golden State Valkyries owner Joe Lacob and team president Jess Smith sat in courtside seats. So did E-40, the Bay Area's biggest, swaggiest basketball fan.

They came to see the Valkyries try to secure a berth in the WNBA Finals, a mind-bending possibility for a second-year franchise. This team didn't even compete in the league two years ago, and now it stood one win from advancing to the Finals.

Golden State smothered the reigning champion Las Vegas Aces in overtime to earn an 87-77 victory in Game 3 of their best-of-five semifinal series.

That completed the sweep for the Valkyries, in front of a boisterous crowd at Michelob Ultra Arena - including a loud, large contingent of violet-clad Valkyries fans.

The Valkyries will open the WNBA Finals next Saturday (Oct. 17) at Chase Center against Atlanta. The Dream advanced earlier Friday by eliminating New York.

Kayla Thornton led Golden State with 18 points, and Gabby Williams asserted herself down the stretch after struggling early to score 16. Kiah Stokes and Tiffany Hayes each added 11.

Freshly minted MVP A'ja Wilson scored 21 for the Aces, who also got 18 points from Jackie Young and 17 from Chelsea Gray.

The game careened into overtime only after a dramatic finish in regulation. Williams missed a difficult, driving layup with five seconds left and the score tied at 71-71. That set the stage for the Aces to take the last shot - but Gray's potential game-winner at the buzzer rattled around the basket and bounced out.

The Valkyries had erased a six-point deficit late in the fourth quarter, surging into a 69-69 tie with less than two minutes left. After Wilson missed a short jumper, Veronica Burton scored on an acrobatic, driving layup with 1:12 left to push Golden State ahead by two.

Las Vegas tied the score at 71 when Young slithered free to score on a layup with 27 seconds left.

Long before this back-and-forth, the Aces threatened to run away. The Valkyries trailed 47-36 in the third quarter, on the verge of disappearing from sight. Then they hopped to life, ripping off 17 consecutive points - yes, 17 - to momentarily take a six-point lead.

As usual, Golden State's effort was supremely democratic. Thornton buried a 3-point shot. Hayes followed with her own 3, then zipped past Wilson to score on a driving layup. Kaitlyn Chen did the same, then fed Stokes for an unlikely 3-pointer.

All the while, the Aces relied heavily on their marquee trio of Wilson, Gray and Young. Did those three players get tired in the second half? It seemed like a fair question as the Valkyries stormed back - and then not so much when the Aces quickly responded, surging back ahead by five.

Las Vegas head coach Becky Hammon did not disguise her intentions from the outset of Friday night's game. She unabashedly leaned into her team's size advantage, starting 6-foot-7 Kalani Brown alongside the 6-4 Wilson.

Brown played less than two minutes, total, in three games against Indiana in the first round. She played less than three minutes in Game 1 against Golden State - and more than 23 minutes in Game 2, when Brown and Wilson helped spark Las Vegas' spirited, second-half comeback.

The Valkyries again struggled to counter this two-big lineup. On one play, Brown backed Thornton (six inches shorter at 6-1) into the low post, established position and scored on an easy layup. Thornton couldn't do much, aside from suddenly having a growth spurt.

Beyond their size edge, the Aces played with predictable urgency Friday night - knowing a loss ended their bid for a fourth WNBA championship in five years. No player embodied this more than Gray, the 34-year-old point guard and Hayward native who spent much of her youth in the East Bay (and attended St. Mary's High in Stockton).

Gray scored 15 points in the first half, pushing the Aces ahead 45-36 at the break. Williams, who entered the game averaging 24 points in the playoffs, scored only four in the half, unable to find much space to shoot (2-for-7 from the field, including missing all three attempts from beyond the arc).