Whatever the outcome, it's gonna be fun to watch. If Draymond is in LA, hopefully he'll be courtside to cheer on the Valks. Hali's always cheering for the Fever, and Caitlin Clark / Lexie Hull often cheer for the Pacers at the Fieldhouse. Hopefully we get that kind of cross-team vibe between the Dubs and Valks.
I have no deep insight except NWT sounds more serious to me than OUT… the player is receiving treatment and won’t be on the bench (and probably is not traveling with the team)
I think it's convenient for the young, gym-rat Dubs (like Podz) to attend the Valks home games and hype the crowd. I assume players like Podz (maybe Moses / JK) have housing in SF and can access the Chase Center weight room to lift and work out. Easy for them to pop into the Valkyrie home games after they do their routines. Hope to see more of them hyping up Valkyrie nation!
Last night is a blueprint of how the Valks can win games this season. They don't have an elite star player who can create offense at a high level and draw help (like Kelsey Plum, Slim Sykes, Stewie, Arike, Satou, A'ja, Phee, etc). But players 1 to 12 are all fundamentally sound, unselfish, play tenacious D, have good bball IQ, and play with a lot of energy.
If Coach Nat plays them in waves and they all come in with frenetic energy, they can eke out wins from their sheer scrappiness. Make games into what Kelenna calls "rock-fights". It won't be pretty basketball, but it will be exciting and a lot of fun to cheer for.
Agreed (and maybe get the 3 pt shooting over 20% :D)
I haven't watched the WNBA before this season and I only watch Vs games so one thing is I think it's hard to tell how good the opposing teams are because we do make the games rock fights. Credit to Nakase and the players for playing to our strengths.
- if the Burton we normally get is the average of the first 2 games, the Vs will be pretty good
- If Zandalasini is as close to her highlights as Salaün was, we are going to look a lot better when she gets on the court.
- Vanloo the passer is waaaay better than Vanloo the early shot clock heat check chucker. I hope she notices that.
- I feel like that, along with all the awesome D effort, a little bit better D rebounding would go a long way (curiously their O rebounding seems pretty strong so far).
I think the Van Loo heat-check 3pt chucker from game 1 was out of desperation. They were on the verge of getting blown out and struggled to get good quality shots against the Sparks, so Julie just started volume-shooting 3s. I didn't see her do that last season when she played for the Mystics. Mystic JVL from last season was a good game-manager and passer who could hit 3s when left open, but she was a reluctant scorer.
Yeah, most of the ones she took in the first game didn't bother me, but 3 of her 4 attempts this game I thought were ... ill-advised. It's early and I am not that familiar with her game (still love it, though) so I trust you more knowledgable WNBA people. Just sharing my thoughts.
My feeling is she was trying to show out, revenge-game style on the team that left her unprotected for the expansion draft, but it didn’t work out. She was a bit more disciplined in game 3 I thought
Up until the 3 pt explosion last game, Vanloo had mostly played as a heat check passer so I hope the chucking thing will go down to an emergency measure
Me too. There was one where she took a shot from way out early in the clock and I was like, yo, you're a point guard who is not Steph. Get a team mate an easy shot. TBF, later she did with an insane pass to get, I think Billings? an easy layup (and followed that up with anothe good pass for an assist). Thaaats what I want to see more of from our master of chaos.
Late to the comments but that was a fun game to watch, even with all the bricks. Thinking they could be even more fun once they learn each other's names, Temi, this is Janelle, she'll be playing on your team.
Also, kind of miss Ando's post after a crazy game like this, might have to try to recruit them :)
I went into the game today (in person) not knowing many of the players and wanting to pick an irrational favorite. VB stood out and now she’s going to be my favorite Valkyrie. Also the game was an incredible experience - reminded me of OG warriors games. Can’t wait to go to more games
You know, almost every contest this year is a revenge, or at least, show-them game for any of the Valkyries “cast off” by their previous team in the expansion draft. This was Vanloo’s - I’ll bet she was fired up.
Golden State Valkyries guard Tiffany Hayes sustained a nose injury and exited tonight’s game with 3:43 remaining in the second quarter. Hayes is undergoing further evaluation and will not return.
E1P coming Friday 6am.
Official Update:
[[
GAME STATUS REPORT: Golden State Valkyries vs. Los Angeles Sparks - May 23, 2025
Monique Billings – Questionable – Right Ankle
Cecilia Zandalasini - OUT - Right Foot
Tiffany Hayes - NWT - Nose
]]
NWT = Not With Team
I suspect Tip suffered a broken nose.
Whatever the outcome, it's gonna be fun to watch. If Draymond is in LA, hopefully he'll be courtside to cheer on the Valks. Hali's always cheering for the Fever, and Caitlin Clark / Lexie Hull often cheer for the Pacers at the Fieldhouse. Hopefully we get that kind of cross-team vibe between the Dubs and Valks.
Any idea why they used NWT for Hayes instead of OUT?
I have no deep insight except NWT sounds more serious to me than OUT… the player is receiving treatment and won’t be on the bench (and probably is not traveling with the team)
I think it's convenient for the young, gym-rat Dubs (like Podz) to attend the Valks home games and hype the crowd. I assume players like Podz (maybe Moses / JK) have housing in SF and can access the Chase Center weight room to lift and work out. Easy for them to pop into the Valkyrie home games after they do their routines. Hope to see more of them hyping up Valkyrie nation!
Last night is a blueprint of how the Valks can win games this season. They don't have an elite star player who can create offense at a high level and draw help (like Kelsey Plum, Slim Sykes, Stewie, Arike, Satou, A'ja, Phee, etc). But players 1 to 12 are all fundamentally sound, unselfish, play tenacious D, have good bball IQ, and play with a lot of energy.
If Coach Nat plays them in waves and they all come in with frenetic energy, they can eke out wins from their sheer scrappiness. Make games into what Kelenna calls "rock-fights". It won't be pretty basketball, but it will be exciting and a lot of fun to cheer for.
Agreed (and maybe get the 3 pt shooting over 20% :D)
I haven't watched the WNBA before this season and I only watch Vs games so one thing is I think it's hard to tell how good the opposing teams are because we do make the games rock fights. Credit to Nakase and the players for playing to our strengths.
Random thoughts from the game
- Fágbénlé is underutilized in the offense
- I think we need better 3 point shooting 🙈
- if the Burton we normally get is the average of the first 2 games, the Vs will be pretty good
- If Zandalasini is as close to her highlights as Salaün was, we are going to look a lot better when she gets on the court.
- Vanloo the passer is waaaay better than Vanloo the early shot clock heat check chucker. I hope she notices that.
- I feel like that, along with all the awesome D effort, a little bit better D rebounding would go a long way (curiously their O rebounding seems pretty strong so far).
I think Talbot will help a lot with rebounding.
I think the Van Loo heat-check 3pt chucker from game 1 was out of desperation. They were on the verge of getting blown out and struggled to get good quality shots against the Sparks, so Julie just started volume-shooting 3s. I didn't see her do that last season when she played for the Mystics. Mystic JVL from last season was a good game-manager and passer who could hit 3s when left open, but she was a reluctant scorer.
Yeah, most of the ones she took in the first game didn't bother me, but 3 of her 4 attempts this game I thought were ... ill-advised. It's early and I am not that familiar with her game (still love it, though) so I trust you more knowledgable WNBA people. Just sharing my thoughts.
My feeling is she was trying to show out, revenge-game style on the team that left her unprotected for the expansion draft, but it didn’t work out. She was a bit more disciplined in game 3 I thought
Up until the 3 pt explosion last game, Vanloo had mostly played as a heat check passer so I hope the chucking thing will go down to an emergency measure
Me too. There was one where she took a shot from way out early in the clock and I was like, yo, you're a point guard who is not Steph. Get a team mate an easy shot. TBF, later she did with an insane pass to get, I think Billings? an easy layup (and followed that up with anothe good pass for an assist). Thaaats what I want to see more of from our master of chaos.
Yeah, I didn't like that long shot either, but it was an anomaly in this game at least.
Late to the comments but that was a fun game to watch, even with all the bricks. Thinking they could be even more fun once they learn each other's names, Temi, this is Janelle, she'll be playing on your team.
Also, kind of miss Ando's post after a crazy game like this, might have to try to recruit them :)
I wish the WNBA used a more NBA style stats page... the WNBA/GLeague webpage style isn't doing it for me.
The entire game felt like a party. Love the energy of the crowd! Props to Podz for being the Valks hype man! Was Jordan Poole also there?
The atmosphere in the arena was electric.
Of course, a Golden State player gets whacked on the nose with Podz in the house
Agreed! JP was courtside in the red hoodie.
Down the stretch, Burton was going by whoever was guarding her.
And she was brought in for defense!
I went into the game today (in person) not knowing many of the players and wanting to pick an irrational favorite. VB stood out and now she’s going to be my favorite Valkyrie. Also the game was an incredible experience - reminded me of OG warriors games. Can’t wait to go to more games
The crowd’s energy was amazing! In particular that boo, which seemed to involve everyone in the stadium.
You know, almost every contest this year is a revenge, or at least, show-them game for any of the Valkyries “cast off” by their previous team in the expansion draft. This was Vanloo’s - I’ll bet she was fired up.
Nice to see Leite shine tonight and have a game Burton!
What a game!
Podziemski is on the court hyping up the crowd during FTs.
Also Burton with ANOTHER 3. If GSV had made a merely bad 3P% this game, it would have been a blowout. But better late than never.
Great defensive intensity throughout.
Any update on Tip Hayes?
Nope, the official update is:
[[
Golden State Valkyries guard Tiffany Hayes sustained a nose injury and exited tonight’s game with 3:43 remaining in the second quarter. Hayes is undergoing further evaluation and will not return.
]]
The V’s defense is LEGIT
Night night!
4-point play!
Thornton now with the 4 point play off the world’s luckiest deflection (but Fate owed GSV for some very unlucky bounces).
Yeah terrible missed call a few minutes earlier where refs missed Mystics deflection out of bounds
Oops, I should have read your live commentary below - sorry for obviousness haha
Don’t worry, if we both complain, it is more festive