Valkyries dethrone Aces in overtime, will face Dream in the WNBA Finals
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LAS VEGAS — Kayla Thornton scored 18 points and the second-year Golden State Valkyries became the quickest expansion team to reach the WNBA Finals, sweeping the defending champion Las Vegas Aces with an 87-77 in overtime Friday night in Game 3.
The second-seeded Valkyries will have home-court advantage and will host No. 4 Atlanta beginning Oct. 17. The Dream swept New York earlier on Friday, and now teams are 22-0 in playoff history when leading a series 2-0.
Las Vegas, which was seeded third, had won three of the past four championships.
The Lakers will lean on Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves to lead the team this season, and they showed their on-court chemistry in a 114-110 win over Sacramento.
Gabby Williams added 16 points for the Valkyries, including eight in overtime. Former Aces Kiah Stokes and Tiffany Hayes each had 11 points, and Stokes also grabbed 10 rebounds.
A’ja Wilson, honored before Friday night’s game for winning an unprecedented fifth MVP, scored 21 points, but shot only six for 19 from the field for the Aces. She also had 10 rebounds, joining DeWanna Bonner as the only players with 1,300 points and 600 rebounds in the postseason.
Jackie Young added 18 points and Chelsea Gray had 17.
A 17-point run bolted Golden State past the Aces for a 53-47 lead. Las Vegas closed within a point by the end of the quarter, giving the Aces only seven points in the period.
The Aces led by six points late in the game before the Valkyries evened the score when Williams stole the ball from Wilson and Thornton finished with a transition layup to make it 69-69 with 1:50 left.
Golden State then took the lead Veronica Burton’s nine-foot floater with 1:12 remaining. The Aces tied the score on Gray’s inbound pass to Young with 27 seconds left and ultimately force overtime.
The extra period belonged completely to the Valkyries, who outscored the Aces 16-6.
The Dream, who hadn’t reached the semifinals since 2018, were led by Angel Reese, who had 22 points, Rhyne Howard, who finished with 21, in an 85-83 victory the Liberty and advanced to the finals for the first time since 2013.
The fourth-seeded Dream completed the three-game sweep of the Liberty and haven’t lost a game this postseason this season. Now, they’ll try to win the franchise’s first championship with four more victories.
Atlanta led 83-81 with 17.7 seconds left after turning the ball over, giving New York one last chance. But, Breanna Stewart missed a contested layup with nine seconds left. DeWanna Bonner hit two free throws with 6.2 seconds left to seal the win.
Reese, who was the league’s defensive player of the year, came to Atlanta this offseason in a trade and proved to be a key reason the Dream advanced to the championship round.
She picked up some of the scoring slack that was left as Atlanta was once again without leading scorer Allisha Gray, who has been sidelined because of h a finger injury sustained in Game 1. She missed Game 2 and warmed up before Friday night’s game, but was ruled out about an hour before the tip. She was on the bench cheering for her teammates in a Howard jersey.
