Golden State defense stifles Atlanta as Valkyries move within 1 win of WNBA title

Kiah Stokes added three 3-pointers to a dominant defensive effort, Gabby Williams triggered a fourth-quarter run with a three-point play and the Golden State Valkyries grabbed a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven WNBA Finals with a 64-55 victory over the Atlanta Dream on Monday in San Francisco. The 2025 expansion team will have an opportunity to secure its first championship banner when Game 6 is played Thursday afternoon in Atlanta. In a contest that featured the lowest-scoring first half in WNBA postseason history and threatened all-time record lows for total points by one and both teams in Finals history, the Valkyries led just 46-42 in the first minute of the final period before gradually pulling away. Williams ignited a 16-4 spree when she turned a drive to the hoop into a three-point play and a seven-point lead with 9:08 remaining. Stokes, a three-time champion who had made a total of just four 3-pointers in her previous 54 playoff games, then delivered the dagger with her third perimeter hoop of the game, creating a 10-point difference at the 7:21 mark. The Dream, who shot 29.2% overall and just 23.1% (6 of 26) on 3-point attempts for the game, got no closer than nine after that. Stokes finished with a personal 2026 postseason-best 13 points to go with eight rebounds, three blocks and suffocating defense on Dream star Angel Reese, who was held to seven points on 2-for-8 shooting. By running her streak to six consecutive games with at least three blocks, Stokes matched the WNBA postseason record set by Lisa Leslie in 2003. Veronica Burton matched Stokes' team-high scoring total with 13 points, while Tiffany Hayes and Cecilia Zandalasini chipped in with 12 apiece and Williams had nine. Burton also found time for eight rebounds and four blocks for Golden State, which won despite shooting 39.3% overall and 25% (6 of 24) from deep. Her block total matched Diana Taurasi (2009) for the WNBA Finals single-game record by a guard. Rhyne Howard was the game's leading scorer with 20 points for Atlanta, which, like Golden State, has never won a WNBA title. Jordin Canada had 12 points and Allisha Gray had 10 for the Dream, while Reese snatched 15 rebounds and Naz Hillmon pulled down 11. Atlanta's scoring total was just eight points higher than the all-time WNBA Finals low, set by the New York Liberty in a 59-47 loss to the Houston Comets in Game 3 of the 1999 Finals. The defensive tone was present from the opening tip. The teams shot a cumulative 18-for-67 (26.9%) and totaled just five successful 3-pointers in 29 tries (17.2%) as Golden State took a 25-22 lead through 20 minutes. Getting one trey apiece from Burton as well as reserves Kayla Thornton and Zandalasini, the Valkyries used a 3-2 edge in 3-pointers to create the margin of their halftime lead.