Valkyries use wild comeback to stun Sparks 76-75, clinch WNBA’s No. 2 seed for playoffs

LOS ANGELES – For most of the second half, Gabby Williams wasn’t a part of things. The Golden State Valkyries were struggling, and their star was on the bench while they tried to get their offense right.

She needed just 1:30 to flip the game on its head.

After trailing for nearly the entire game on Thursday night in Los Angeles, Williams hit a game-winning 3-pointer to clinch the No. 2 seed for the Valkyries in a wild 76-75 comeback win over the Sparks.

The Valkyries will face the Dallas Wings the best-of-3 first round of the WNBA playoffs, which begin on Sunday. Golden State will host its first ever playoff game Sunday with the game time TBA.

“It was great,” Kaitlyn Chen said with a breathless smile when asked about Thursday’s frantic finish.

Williams hit her 3-pointer with 20.4 seconds left from the corner to give Golden State a 73-72 lead, its first since the opening quarter, right in front of a jubilant Valkyries bench.

The Sparks got the ball back and got it to longtime WNBA star Nneka Ogwumike, playing in her last game, who missed with Valkyries’ center Kiah Stokes in her face.

Williams, who finished with 14 points, sat from the 7:48 mark of the third quarter until 4:10 left in the fourth, when the Valkyries were trailing by 12. In her stead, Chen scored 18 points off the bench and essentially kept the Valkyries close to a single-digit deficit for the fourth quarter.

Veronica Burton scored 17 points but had five fouls, which also kept her off the court for spurts late in the game.

“I feel like our fight was there tonight,” Chen said. “That’s something we’re going to need going into the playoffs. Like things aren’t always going to go our way, and we can’t just put our head down and pout. I thought we did a great job of just sticking with it, and we knew we weren’t going to win it one play at time, or we weren’t going to win it in like one miraculous play.”

Chen scored all of her points in the second half and brought the Valkyries to within seven points with 2:06 to play on an and-one layup.

“It starts with my teammates, with people like (Burton) telling me I can score,” Chen said. “I feel like that’s the confidence I need, and seeing a few go in always helps.”

Williams closed the Valkyries within four points with a 3-pointer with under two minutes to play, then almost immediately ripped a steal away before running end-to-end for a transition layup to make it 72-70.

Golden State led for the entire first quarter and nearly surrendered that lead on a buzzer-beating 3-pointer from Chance Gray, before it was called back on a replay review. But the Valkyries were shooting poorly, and the Sparks charged ahead in the second quarter while the bench struggled for the second game in a row.

“It wasn’t our greatest start,” said head coach Natalie Nakase. “We knew this was going to be a big game for the Sparks and Nneka, so it was like, how are we going to respond to get through these punches?”

Los Angeles led by as much as nine in the second quarter. The Valkyries didn’t make a 3-pointer until 1:25 in the second quarter after starting the game 0-for-8. They trailed 35-26 at the half, shooting just 28% from the field.

The Sparks hit consecutive 3-point shots in the opening minutes of the third quarter to go ahead 41-26. Burton then scored six consecutive points herself for the Valkyries but then picked up her third foul, forcing her out of the game before she could generate any more momentum.

Rae Burrell hit consecutive 3-pointers to extend the Sparks’ lead to 14 near the end of the third. The Valkyries cut it to nine on a pair of Chen buckets before the fourth quarter before truly coming back.

“We still got to come out better, and we can’t let it get to that,” Burton said. “But it is the reality of what the playoffs are going to be, you’re not going to play perfectly. It’s a whole game, and for us to have that fight and the resilience that we showed, that’s what we needed in the playoffs.”

Before Tuesday, the Valkyries had been 30-5 on the season against non-Las Vegas and Minnesota teams. With the top seed once in play, though, they lost to Portland on Tuesday and needed to win on Thursday to keep the second seed, since Las Vegas beat Phoenix earlier in the night and owned the tiebreaker over the Valkyries.

Now they’ll face a Dallas team they went 3-0 against in the regular season and who are missing first overall pick Azzi Fudd, who is out with a knee injury. Dallas did finish the season having won seven of its last 10 games.

“This was a big win in terms of seeding,” Burton said. “But more importantly, just showing what we can do and what we’re made of down the stretch.”

Notable

Aminata Gueye, a 6-foot-3 center who signed with the Valkyries last week, made her WNBA debut late in the third quarter. She wound up playing four minutes, missing her only shot and picking up a pair of fouls.

The 24-year-old Gueye is familiar with at least a couple of her teammates, having playing for France in the FIBA World Cup alongside Gabby Williams and Janelle Salaün.