Photo credit: Golden State Valkyries/Instagram
By: Jennifer Portee
The Golden State Valkyries did not need a hot shooting night to beat the defending champions. They made the Aces live in the paint, chased down every miss, and turned Game 1 into a possession-by-possession fight Las Vegas never really solved.
Gabby Williams led the way with 25 points, 11 rebounds and five assists as Golden State beat the Aces 71-60 Sunday at Chase Center, taking a 1-0 lead in the WNBA semifinal series. Kiah Stokes added 14 rebounds and three blocks, while the Valkyries won the rebounding battle by an eye-popping 52-25 margin.
This was not pretty basketball for either side. Golden State shot 37.7% from the field. Las Vegas was even worse at 33.9%. But in a low-scoring playoff game, the team that gets extra possessions usually gets the last word. The Valkyries got them all night.
Stokes and Kayla Thornton controlled the glass. Stokes boxed out, altered shots and kept A’ja Wilson from getting easy second looks. Thornton finished with 11 rebounds, repeatedly coming down with loose balls in traffic. Those plays don’t always make the highlight reel, but they drain a team over four quarters. Las Vegas could get a stop, then watch Golden State grab the miss and reset the possession.
That is how the Valkyries wore the Aces down.
Williams set the tone early. With Chase Center yelling “Gabby! Gabby!” every time she touched the ball, she scored 18 points in the first half and knocked down a 3-pointer that put Golden State ahead 32-23 late in the second quarter. She finished 9-for-18 from the floor and made enough plays off the dribble to keep the Aces from loading up on anyone else.
Las Vegas made a run in the fourth. Jackie Young hit a 3 to cut the deficit to 58-53 with 8:25 left, and for a moment, the game had that familiar Aces feeling one big shot away from flipping the entire night.
Golden State did not panic.
Natalie Nakase went to a fresh Kaitlyn Chen after Veronica Burton struggled to find her offense. Chen stayed on the floor and gave the Valkyries 11 points off the bench, including a running layup that pushed the lead to 64-53. Later, she hit another basket with two minutes left to make it 71-58 and take the air out of Las Vegas’ last push.
That rotation call mattered. Burton remains a major part of what Golden State does, especially defensively, but this was one of those nights when the offense needed a different look. Chen was ready, and Nakase let her play through the moment instead of overthinking it.
Wilson finished with 24 points, but she had to work for them. Chelsea Gray scored 16, and the Aces did not get enough from anywhere else. Jewell Loyd left early in the third quarter with a left-leg injury and did not return; the team said she was being evaluated. Las Vegas also lost Stephanie Talbot before tipoff to a left-leg injury.
Becky Hammon did not sugarcoat it afterward. She called it one of the Aces’ worst games of the season and pointed right at the rebounding. That is the part Las Vegas will have to fix Wednesday. You can survive a cold shooting night. You cannot survive losing the boards by 27 against a team already feeding off its home crowd.
Golden State protected home court, but nobody in that locker room should be treating this series like it is close to finished. The Aces have been through too many postseason battles to stay down after one loss.
Still, the Valkyries sent a clear message in Game 1: if Las Vegas wants this series, it will have to match Golden State’s physicality first.