26 Points on a Hurt Knee: Gabby Williams Stole WNBA Finals Game 1 for the Valkyries
The Golden State Valkyries won Game 1 of the WNBA Finals 68-64 on Saturday afternoon at Chase Center, and Gabby Williams scored 26 of those points while finishing the game on a knee that had just been crashed into.
She was scoreless in the first quarter. She then put up 16 in the second, hit six free throws in the final 2:15, and got a hand in Allisha Gray’s face on the go-ahead three-point attempt with 8.7 seconds left. If you want a single possession that explains the series so far, that is it.
Sixty-Eight Points Is Exactly How Golden State Wants to Win
Atlanta shot its way to a 17-9 third quarter and had control of the game. Golden State answered with a 17-8 fourth. Holding a Finals opponent to eight points in a closing quarter is absurd, and the Valkyries are perfectly happy to drag a game into that kind of mud.
Kiah Stokes had four blocks to go with nine points and seven rebounds. Her rebound in the closing seconds is what put the ball back in Williams hands, which is how Rhyne Howard ended up fouling her and sealing the result at the line. That is the Valkyries formula in one sequence: protect the rim, then make the other team beat you at the free throw line.
Williams shot 8-for-22 overall and 3-for-11 from three. On paper that is a bad night. In a 68-point game it was the difference, because she was the only player on the floor willing to generate a shot when the offense broke down, and she went 7-for-8 from the line when it counted.
Atlanta Lost a Game It Should Have Won
Angel Reese was the best rebounder on the floor with 12, added 14 points on 5-of-11 shooting, and logged 35 minutes. Gray led Atlanta with 19 while playing through a hand injury the Dream only cleared after warmups. Howard added 12. That is a competitive Finals box score.
The problem is what happened after the third quarter. Atlanta scored eight points in the fourth. Eight. In a best-of-seven you can survive a cold stretch, but you cannot hand a home team a nine-point swing in the final period and then ask your No. 1 option to win it with a contested three over an elite defender.
Gray’s free throw line work and Reese’s rebounding give Atlanta a path. Reese grabbing 12 boards against a front line where Stokes alone blocked four shots is a real edge. The Dream need their halfcourt offense to produce something other than isolation jumpers in the last six minutes, and they need it by Monday.
Game 2 Is the Whole Series
Game 2 is Monday at 8 p.m. ET, also at Chase Center. Golden State needs three more wins. Atlanta needs to steal one in San Francisco before this turns into a formality, because going back east down 2-0 against a team built to win ugly games is close to a death sentence.
The knee is the thing to watch. Williams took the collision after a free throw attempt in the fourth quarter and played through it to the final buzzer, and nobody should pretend a 48-hour turnaround is generous. If she is limited, Golden State’s offense gets very thin very quickly.
Still, the Valkyries are up 1-0 in the Finals in a 68-point rock fight, which is the exact game they have been building toward. Atlanta had its chance to steal the opener and could not get the shot it wanted when the game was there to take. In a series this tight, that is usually the whole story.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
