Game 35: Golden State Valkyries vs Phoenix Mercury, 7:00 PM PDT

Another top team comes to Ballhalla

Last game’s Valkyrie Valor goes to…

Table of Contents

• What to expect today

  • How to watch

  • Injury / absence report

  • How the Valkyries will play

  • Comparative team power rankings / preview

    • 7. Golden State Valkyries (16-15)

    • 4. Phoenix Mercury (19-12)

  • Previous matchup

• The story so far

  • Playoff watch

  • Apricot’s game wrap-ups, a season overview

  • Apricot’s Valkyries & Basketball Basics videos

  • Oversimplified guide to the Valkyries roster

What to expect today

How to watch

• Usually: KPIX+ (Bay Area), KMAX (Sacramento)

  • In the Bay Area, KPIX is channel 5, and KPIX+, the home of Valkyries basketball, is channel 44 (cable 12). In Sacramento, KMAX is channel 31, and KOVR is channel 13.

• WNBA League Pass if you are out of the blackout region. Even if blacked out, in theory the game is available right after the conclusion.

• Friday games are streamed on ION, available on Fubo and YouTube TV and elsewhere. Be careful, last time ION mis-titled the games on their multiple channels, so try all of them to find the Valkyries.

Injury / absence report

• Iliana Rupert – OUT - Head

• Monique Billings - OUT for 1 week at least - Right Ankle

• Kayla Thornton - OUT for season - Right Knee

How the Valkyries will play

• High energy

• Fast pace, fast breaks

  • Josiah notes that the GSV pace has been slowing down over the season.

• Aggressive defense trying for on-ball steals and deflected passes

• League-leading three-point shot taking (#1) not shot making (#11 but improving)

  • We Lose Money On Every Sale, But We Make It Up In Volume™

• Five-out formations, pick and roll, and HORNS formations

• Shifting defensive schemes, occasional 2-3 zone

• Always Close Enough To Hurt™

• Lots of runs

  • Because the GSV half court offense is bad and their defense and transition offense is good, that means when the opponent scores, GSV gets worse at scoring and when the opponent doesn’t score, GSV gets better. That means lots of runs in the game, good and bad.

• Expect ferocious fight and heart against the odds, and if we ever get a Full Squad, then they should be able to beat all but the top WNBA teams.

  • Update: sorry, Full Squad will not happen in 2025 with the loss of Thornton and weeks of Billings, but they are still fighting fiercely

Comparative team power rankings / preview

Power rankings are all made up, but they are useful to see the conventional wisdom about teams. Here’s one from Fansided from August 13.

7. Golden State Valkyries (16-15)

Extra points for a cool new mascot, but the Valkyries are holding onto their playoff spot as of right now. They do have an extremely difficult schedule to end their season, so that will be a factor in if they are able to grab that last spot in the postseason. They are 6-4 in their last 10 games, and continue to shock people with their resilience and chemistry in their first WNBA season.

4. Phoenix Mercury (19-12)

Phoenix rounds out a top-4 that is starting to separate itself from the rest (for now). Although they are 4-6 in their last 10 games, Alyssa Thomas is playing at an MVP-level. Satou Sabally is also leading the team in points at 17.0 per game, and the team-building of the team is continuing to prove brilliant. They will need a strong performance against the Aces this week to maintain their place.

Previous matchup

• Game 21 wrap: Valks miracle comeback to tie, then lose on foul call; Always Close Enough To Hurt™ but this is getting ridiculous (VV: Janelle Salaun)

The story so far

Playoff watch

• Watch the Loss column. GSV can make up a gap in wins with their own great play, but can never make up a gap in losses unless the other team helps out.

• GSV (and everyone) should be trying to avoid the #7 and #8 spots if possible. It’s much better to make the playoffs than not, but a first round series against MIN or whatever team survives the bloodbath to reach #2 (probably NYL, maybe ATL) is a very rough task compared to taking a shot at the other teams.

• People have different religions about a game between a team right behind and a team right ahead. For instance, PHX plays SEA. Some want PHX to lose to bring them down within striking range of GSV. Some want SEA to lose to make GSV’s position more secure. The way I figure it, at least something good will happen either way.

W-L PCT GB STRK L10 HOME AWAY

1:MIN 28-5 .848 - W6 9-1 17-1 11-4

2:ATL 22-12 .647 6.5 W1 8-2 10-5 12-7

3:NY 21-13 .618 7.5 L2 4-6 13-4 8-9

4:PHX 20-13 .606 8 W1 5-5 11-6 9-7

5:LV 21-14 .600 8 W7 9-1 12-5 9-9

6:IND 19-16 .543 10 W1 6-4 10-8 9-8

7:GSV 18-16 .529 10.5 L1 7-3 10-6 8-10

8:SEA 17-18 .486 12 L1 2-8 8-10 9-8

=============================================

9:LA 16-18 .471 12.5 L1 6-4 6-10 10-8

10:WAS 16-18 .471 12.5 W2 4-6 10-7 6-11

11:DAL 9-26 .257 20 L2 2-8 5-13 4-13

12:CHI 8-25 .242 20 L4 1-9 5-12 3-13

13:CONN 6-27 .182 22 L1 3-7 5-12 1-15

Go to PlainTextSports.com for the latest.

Apricot’s game wrap-ups, a season overview

(VV = Valkyrie Valor vote winner)

• Game 34 wrap: Atlanta turn close game into blowout after Rupert and Burton get injured (VV: Veronica Burton)

• Game 33 wrap: Valkyries blow open tight game, beat Sky by 30, set new expansion win record (VV: Cecilia Zandalasini)

• Game 32 wrap: Valkyries crush Mystics early, then uncrush Mystics and barely hang on (VV: Veronica Burton)

• Game 31 wrap: Valkyries blow out Suns, hatch new mascot Violet the Raven (VV: Cecilia Zandalasini)

• Game 30 wrap: Valkyries win, go up 1 game on Sparks plus tiebreaker (VV: Veronica Burton)

• Game 29 wrap: Always Close Enough To Hurt™ but too much A'ja Wilson gives Aces the edge (VV: Carla Leite)

• Game 28 wrap: GSV ends great road trip with Aces blowout (and not the fun kind) (VV: Kaila Charles & Iliana Rupert)

• Game 27 wrap: Injured Valkyries outlast injured Sky; Kaila Charles debuts and closes game (VV: Veronica Burton)

• Game 26 wrap: Valks go up big, barely hold on for playoff-big win over WAS (VV: Kate Martin)

• Game 25 wrap: Valkyries pull out the very random ending in Atlanta (VV: Cecilia Zandalasini)

• Game 24 wrap: Letting go of impermanence leads to the cessation of suffering (VV: poll replaced by Buddhism)

• Game 23 wrap: Valkyries come back vs Wings, VIVA LA FRANCE; GSV begins adjusting to life without Kayla (VV: Janelle Salaun)

• Game 22 wrap: Valkyries fade in last 3 min, Nneke takes over; Always… wait for it… Close Enough To Hurt™ (VV: Carla Leite)

• Game 21 wrap: Valks miracle comeback to tie, then lose on foul call; Always Close Enough To Hurt™ but this is getting ridiculous (VV: Janelle Salaun)

• Game 20 wrap: Always Close Enough To Hurt™; Valkyries fall just short; Aces stars shine (VV: Cecilia Zandalasini)

• Game 19 wrap. Valkyries thump Fever, send campers home sad; Caitlin Clark outshot by Veronica Burton(!?) (VV: Veronica Burton)

• Game 18 wrap. GSV can't overcome turnovers, ATL bigs warping defense; Gray closes out the game (VV: forgot to run poll, sorry)

• Game 17 wrap: GSV leads in Q3, can't keep up with Lynx stars as MIN pulls away; Eurobasketeers have rusty return (VV: Tiffany Hayes)

• Game 16 wrap. GSV blows out Seattle; close for a half and then vooooom; Thornton leaves with injury (VV: Tiffany Hayes)

• Game 15 wrap: Valkyries pull away late to put away Chicago Sky; Thornton career-high 29; Chen and Martin in double digits and close game (VV: Kayla Thornton)

• Game 14 wrap: Always Close Enough to Hurt™; GSV takes champs NYL to last shot; Kate Martin goes wild, but so do Johannes and Stewart

• Game 13 wrap: GSV fast breaks + 2-3 zone = blowout of CONN

• Game 12 wrap: Shorthanded Valkyries storm back from down 13 to beat Caitlin Clark's Fever going away

• Game 11 wrap: Wings outrebound Valks, pull away late; Amihere and Hayes show promise and pain in return

• Game 10 wrap. Valks blowout Storm, then un-blowout Storm, still win. Always Close Enough To Hurt™

• Game 9 wrap. Leite out of the doghouse, closes out the game with Thornton in OT to beat LA; Salaun pours in 21

• Game 8 wrap. Valkyries blow out #3 Aces and contain MVP A’ja Wilson

• Game 7 wrap: Buddhism teaches us that suffering comes from attachment to material things

• Game 6 wrap: Valkyries even with WNBA Finalists Lynx at half, get blown out in Q4, storm back at end too late

• Game 5 wrap: So close to the upset of the year... Always Close Enough To Hurt™

• Game 4 wrap: Liberty blast Valks early by 25; GSV storms back to within 11, but fade in the fourth

• Game 1 wrap: GSV thrills and fights but can't overcome Plum's record-setting 37

Apricot’s Valkyries & Basketball Basics videos

These videos are meant to be friendly to beginners but have interesting observations for observers of all backgrounds. All the parts can be viewed independently, but the vocabulary does build up with each Part. The whole series can be found on YouTube here.

Part 4 terms defined include:

• 00:38 Switching defense

• 00:56 Mismatches

• 02:15 Bad switches

• 03:25 Show and recover defense (hedge and recover)

• 04:54 Drop defense

• 06:17 Valkyries 325 = Warriors 55

• 06:54 Blitz / Trap / Double team defense, surprise

• 07:41 Countering the blitz with isolation

• 08:45 Drop vs blitz defense

Part 3 terms defined include:

• 00:33 Go Over the screen, Go Under the screen, High side, Low side

• 02:19 HORNS formation

• 02:33 Dive or Roll

• 03:23 HORNS 5

• 04:14 Dribble handoff, DHO

• 05:07 Pindown screen, Down screen

• 05:15 Using the screen, Coming off the screen

• 06:37 Jamming the cut, Bumping the cut, Denying the cut

• 07:35 Slip a screen, Roll vs Pop

Part 2 terms defined include:

• 00:38 Recover

• 00:46 Bigs and Smalls

• 00:54 Mismatch

• 01:53 Rotating on defense

• 02:42 Slipping the screen, ghosting the screen

• 03:03 Double team, trap, blitz

• 04:02 Rejecting the screen

• 04:26 Helping at the nail

• 06:21 Slide cut, Passing angle

Part 1 terms include:

• 00:34 Dribbling and shooting, big vs small

• 02:00 Screens

• 02:10 Off ball

• 02:32 Cut, Flare Cut, Flare Screen

• 03:39 Ball Fake

• 03:53 Geography of the Court

• 03:57 Baseline, sideline, up, down, top

• 04:10 Corners, elbows, HORNS

• 05:29 Pick and roll, screen and roll

• 05:49 Dribble handoff

• 06:17 Rebounding, boxing out

• 06:18 Roll

• 07:18 Backdoor cut

• 07:46 ICE defense

• 07:51 take / accept / use the screen

Oversimplified guide to the Valkyries roster

• Usually starters

  • #22 Veronica Burton.

    • Solid point guard, organizes and calls all the plays; outstanding defender and ball-stealer; decent at running pick-and-roll, not a great scorer, but can muscle in layups and running hooks and hit some 3s.

  • #15 Tiffany Hayes.

    • Lightning bug driver, unstoppable in the open court. But this team leader (she spoke at opening day) had a bad nose RE-INJURY and is still wearing a big mask.

    • IND was the first game where she looked comfortable (all year!) and could display both her speedy footwork guarding Caitlin Clark 1-on-1 and also running effective pick and rolls emphasizing her speeding to the rim for layups.

  • #24 Cecilia Zandalasini. Another vet wing who can shoot the 3.

    • Nakase always calls her a sniper. Z has been on fire from three recently and is averaging 1.9 3PM/G, which is good for #2 on the team (behind Iliana Rupert).

    • Went to Eurobasket and led Italy to an upset run to 3rd place, leading the team in scoring and efficiency. She took a while to get back in the WNBA flow, but she looked creative and effective vs LVA.

  • #14 Temi Fagbenle.

    • Decent scoring, all-around, solid vet center. Can run pick and roll and punish mismatches by posting up.

  • #13 Janelle Salaün,

    • Fresh off an Italian League Finals MVP, she joined GSV in Game 2 and hasn’t stopped shooting since. She went to Eurobasket and led the powerhouse France team in scoring and efficiency. She’s taken a few games to adjust to the WNBA, but vs LVA she led the team in scoring.

• Entertaining Bench, slightly chaotic

  • #12 Iliana Rupert

    • A mystery from France. A tall, three-point shooting center who in theory could unlock the 5-out spaced lineups of Nakase’s dreams.

    • As of Aug 13, shooting an absurd .450 from 3P on 4.4 3PA/G. Still getting open looks when she screens and pops out to the arc.

    • More details here: Who is Iliana Rupert and who will be cut to make room for her?

  • #0 Carla Leite

    • Youngest at 21 y.o., was 2024-25 EuroCup Finals MVP.

    • Excellent bounce back games after being in Coach Nakase’s doghouse, barely playing in a 4 game stretch before Eurobasket.

    • Some dazzling speed on drives and horrible turnovers. Her jump shot wasn’t working before the break and her passes to the PNR roller were a rollercoaster. Rookie life.

    • Promised NOT to leave for Eurobasket, a commitment that has won my heart.

  • #20 Kate Martin. The most popular player, Iowa teammate of Caitlin Clark.

    • Has hit a couple of threes but her finishing at the rim has been difficult

    • Starting to settle in a bit as a shooter and even as a screener for pick-and-pop. Her four 3s put GSV in position for an upset over NYL.

    • Chaotic on defense: some very heads-up rotations, some bad switches.

    • Seeing very reduced minutes since Iliana Rupert’s arrival.

  • #3 Laeticia Amihere.

    • Indirectly won this spot over Linskens since GSV is going further into smallball, 5-out, run-and-gun style, which needs a more dynamic athlete to run the court. It didn’t hurt that Amihere hit a couple of threes in preseason.

    • She got some minutes vs SEA and GSV featured her in several keeper-actions where she fakes a dribble handoff to a guard and drives. They were a mixed bag of baskets and offensive fouls.

    • In the DAL and IND games, she has been a bright spot, pouring in points and being very assertive on offense. Amihere adds a different dimension to the team, i.e. get me the ball in the paint or downhill on fake handoff and no one can stop me 1-on-1.

    • On defense, she’s finding her place with some highlight blocks and steals. She’s been getting into the flow of rotating as weak side help from the elbow to cover when there is a small defender stuck in the low weak side.

    • On the other hand, in the NYL game she had a couple of very glaring mistakes: going under on a Marine Johannes screen (which led to an open 3 and then microwave hot Marine making two more 3s in a minute) and misplaying Stewart on an end of quarter drive.

    • Minutes have gone down a lot since the arrival of Iliana Rupert.

  • #2 Kaitlyn Chen. A decent, smart point guard. Chen was, by applause, *the* most popular player in the preseason games, even surpassing Kate Martin.

    • Chen played real minutes vs NYL. She fought on defense and didn’t turn the ball over on offense. She then not only played real minutes vs CHI, but also closed a tight game!

    • Played her self off the bubble to be cut for Iliana Rupert. On a fully healthy team, she’s not in the rotation, but she is a stable capable replacement.

    • Minutes have gone down a lot since the arrival of Iliana Rupert.

• Injured long-term

  • #25 Monique Billings. Sturdy scorer and rebounding vet, starting to really hit her stride as the screener in pick and roll. Can pop out for 3 or finish through contact.

• Out for the year

  • #5 Kayla Thornton. Vet all-around forward. Likes to spot up for corner 3s and get dirty fighting for rebounds everywhere. With Burton is a team leader and organizer. Was the first All-Star to be undrafted and the first from an expansion team.

• 7-Day Hardship Contract

  • The Golden State Valkyries have signed free agent guard-forward Kaila Charles to a seven-day roster hardship contract. Charles wears #6.

    • Charles appeared in 17 games for Dallas this season, posting averages of 5.3 points and 4.0 rebounds. The former University of Maryland standout entered the league as the 23rd pick in the 2020 WNBA Draft, selected by Connecticut. Charles played her first two professional seasons with the Sun before later joining Atlanta and Seattle in 2022 and 2023, respectively.

      In 73 career appearances, Charles maintains averages of 4.6 points and 2.9 rebounds. The guard-forward's 5.3 scoring average this season marks a new career best.

    • Charles debuted with a bang, having a great game vs CHI and even closed the game making huge plays. She’s been putting up numbers and getting minutes. I won’t be surprised if GSV tries to hold on to her.

    • Update: Charles was signed to a fresh new 7 day hardship contract. These 7-days should last until Billings returns which could be a while.