There can be moments in a playoff series when it feels like a team loses more than just the game.
When a team loses its rhythm, its confidence, its sense of who it is.
Game 3 felt like one of those moments for the Valkyries.
The Atlanta Dream captured back-to-back wins to take a 2-1 lead in the WNBA Finals. The second defeat was even more demoralizing than the first. A 27-point blowout prompted Gabby Williams to immediately deliver an impassioned message to her teammates in a huddle on the floor.
Williams told NBC broadcasters that she didn’t recognize the team. The Valkyries disconnected from the defensive identity that had carried them to this moment.
On Saturday, the Valkyries got back to who they are. They defended with purpose, trusted their teammates and dug deep to outlast the Dream 67-62, which evened the series at two wins apiece.
“The beauty of our sport is as bad as we felt on Wednesday,” Williams said, “we get to turn around and make it right up today.”
Golden State flipped the script on the Dream. The Valkyries converted 18 Atlanta turnovers into 16 points and committed only nine giveaways of their own. They also attempted 18 more field goals than the Dream.
Four Valkyries players finished in double-digit scoring. Williams led the way with 17 points.
Tiffany Hayes scored seven of her 13 points in the fourth quarter to help seal Golden State’s win.
Kiah Stokes had 16 rebounds, including eight offensive boards, and blocked three shots.
Golden State made the Dream work for everything.
For the first time in the series, Angel Reese, a front-runner for Finals MVP through the first three games, didn’t notch a double-double, finishing with only eight points and nine rebounds.
The Dream’s 62 points were their lowest scoring output of the year.
The Valkyries changed their starting lineup, replacing Kayla Thornton and Cecilia Zandalasini with Tiffany Hayes and Kaila Charles.
But that wasn’t Golden State’s biggest adjustment, according to Williams.
“Again, defense,” she said. “I’m sorry if I sound redundant but we just picked up our ball pressure. We’re a bit more connected today and that gives us our energy.”
The Valkyries struggled to impose their will in Games 2 and 3. In those losses, they allowed Atlanta to dictate the pace.
The Valkyries knew they didn’t have to fully reinvent themselves to fight back. They just needed to recover the habits that made them so successful in the first place.
After drifting away from their principles in the past two defeats, Game 4 was a course correction.
“We stopped letting the kind of officiating dictate the game,” Williams said. “Last game, we were very soft. We were expecting a foul call, we were expecting this, but this is the Finals. It’s going to be physical. It’s going to be tough, so we have to woman up.”
Stokes offered some valuable advice earlier in the week after the Valkyries fell into a 2-1 hole.
“The goal when we play on the road… [is] just steal one on the road,” the three-time champion said. “So yeah, we lost on… Wednesday, but to me, that doesn’t mean we’re out of anything, right? Because our goal could still be accomplished if we won today and then we go back home and now it’s the best-of-three series. So for me, it was just shake it off and learn from it and then just get ready because nothing was won or lost in Game 3.”
In what felt like a make-or-break moment, the Valkyries found their way back to who they are. The question now is whether they can stay there.
