As Allisha Gray‘s corner 3 glided through the hoop Thursday, the finishing touch on the Atlanta Dream‘s emphatic 80-69 victory, a chant broke out at State Farm Arena.
“Dream in seven!”
It’s the first time the words could be uttered in the WNBA.
Last season was the first year the league implemented a best-of-seven format for the WNBA Finals, which had been a best-of-five since 2005. But the Las Vegas Aces beat the Phoenix Mercury in a four-game sweep.
The Dream’s win Thursday kept their season alive, knotted this year’s Finals at 3-3 and forced the series back to San Francisco for the first Game 7. In a fitting end to the WNBA’s 30th season, Golden State hosts Atlanta at 8 p.m. ET on Saturday to decide the longest series in league history.
“Winning a championship is not easy, and it’s never going to be easy,” Dream forward Angel Reese said. “So we’re expected to continue to have to fight. None of us thought it was over.”
If history is any precursor, it suggests the host Valkyries are favored Saturday at Chase Center. Of the eight championship series since 2005 that have gone the distance, the home team won six of the decisive games.
Players on both teams have won championships before. For the Valkyries, center Kiah Stokes won three titles with the Aces, and Tiffany Hayes was also on one of those championship teams. Kayla Thornton won with the New York Liberty, and Cecilia Zandalasini won with the Minnesota Lynx.
For Atlanta, DeWanna Bonner and Jordin Canada each have two championships with the Phoenix Mercury and Seattle Storm, respectively. Shatori Walker-Kimbrough won with the Washington Mystics.
Four of those titles were decided in a winner-take-all. But even the addition of two games feels different in this year’s Finals, which opened Oct. 17, will conclude exactly two weeks later and required the teams to make five cross-country trips as Golden State also hosted Games 1, 2 and 5.
“It for sure feels longer,” Bonner said. “Especially because the travel is so long, too, it’s 4½ hours back and forth. I can absolutely feel the difference … you feel it mentally and you feel it physically. It’s how you handle it.”
“I know we are always saying, ‘Yeah, seven games is a long series,’ but none of us have ever played in a seven-game series,” Stokes said. “But man, it is long.”
Golden State had hoped to clinch the title on the road Thursday but fell behind early and trailed by as many as 25 points in the first half. Still, the Valkyries’ Veronica Burton said there was a silver lining.
“We didn’t quit,” said the guard, who added that the same couldn’t be said about Golden State in its losses in Games 2 and 3.
The Finals so far have been defined by which team can impose its style on the opponent first. The three games won by the Valkyries were powered by their stifling defense. The Dream’s wins were driven by an offense that scored more than 70 points in each game.
Any series — best-of-three (as in the first round), best-of-five (WNBA semifinals) or best-of-seven — requires a different level of planning and gamesmanship than the regular season. Lineup and rotation adjustments can shift the game plan. The marginal details become the difference-makers. The physicality increases every night.
But by Game 7, there are rarely any more surprises.
“We know the schemes, they know our set, we know their tendencies and they know ours,” Stokes said. “Who can execute the game plan more? And it comes down to who wants it more?”
And the mental game becomes even more important.
“You’re tired of seeing them,” Golden State leading scorer Gabby Williams said. “You can tell — the handshakes feel a little softer before the game and stuff.”
“You can’t let your opponent win the mental game,” Gray said. “It could be the crowd. It could be if you’re making shots or not. It can be even the refs. So the biggest thing is just staying poised and staying within yourself and don’t get too out of body.”
Both the Dream and Valkyries have been challenged to maintain their identities throughout the series. After Game 3, Williams said she didn’t recognize her team. After Game 5, Bonner said Atlanta lacked the joy it needs to win.
Each team responded, overwhelmingly.
In Game 7, the Valkyries will look to find themselves one more time, while the Dream will have to maintain the dominance they displayed Thursday. Both teams know they have to be desperate in their pursuit.
“We have to want it more,” Williams said. “This is probably going to be the hardest game that we will play in our entire lives, honestly, because both teams want it so bad.”
Added Reese: “You’re going to have to peel me off the court. I want to be so damn tired. Like, I want to just be able to give everything.”
