The team didn’t win, but everyone stayed. It wasn’t even their building. And still, most of the Golden State Valkyries fans who’d schlepped to an alternate arena in San Jose for the team’s first-ever home playoff game stuck around to cheer when the season was over. The WNBA’s expansion success story ended on Wednesday, with Golden State’s 75-74 Game 2 loss to the champion favorite Minnesota Lynx.
All season long, the Valkyries earned that fan devotion with their distinct, jittery brand of basketball. Their defense could constrict and expand in sync, aggressively helping to deny drives before darting out to recover. Against the Lynx last night, it worked well. At halftime, the Lynx had scored just 28 points on 12-of-35 shooting, and while the Golden State's scheme generally concedes lots of three-point attempts, Minnesota wasn’t cashing in there either. A hot shooting start from the Valkyries, including a 27-point first quarter, gave them a 41-28 lead at the half, and they pushed it up to 17 early in the third, before the queasy and inevitable fourth quarter began.
As blown leads go, it was a fairly forgivable one. Minnesota eats away at opponents with exhausting efficiency. It is very much like them to coolly plod their way back into a game, which they did, one Napheesa Collier baseline jumper or Kayla McBride floater at a time. In a 26-11 fourth quarter, the Lynx reminded the Valkyries exactly who the No. 8 seed was up against: a team with similar principles, but more talent.
Maybe that’s why Valkyries head coach Natalie Nakase didn’t seem too distressed when Cecilia Zandalasini missed the would-be game-winner on the team’s last possession. In the postgame press conference, she described gathering her team on the court when the game ended. “Number one, I said, ‘Get your fucking heads up.' They were down and I said, ‘I want everyone’s eye contact. I want to feel every single person right now. And I want your emotions, I want your heart, I want everything.’ And everyone looked up, and I just told them how proud I was.”
The fanbase agreed. All night they had provided a pretty awesome soundtrack to a game that deserved it, and was better for it. The Valkyries’ home arena in San Francisco—christened “Ballhalla” earlier in the summer—had been booked for another event, but you couldn’t really tell the difference. Fans lingered to cheer when the game was over.
Team owner Joe Lacob paid tens of millions of dollars for the honor of building something new. The players on the team didn’t have much of a choice. Thrown together in an expansion draft that seemed just OK at the time, they all grew in new ways. When Zandalasini went up for the last shot against the team that left her unprotected last year, Nakase thought she looked like Michael Jordan in the air.
“She was able to create separation, lift. It was so beautiful,” Nakase said, beaming in the postgame press conference. Earlier in the day, she had accepted the league’s Coach of the Year award. “Going from what Ceci was last year, and to now, me closing with her in a playoff game? That’s incredible growth."
Veronica Burton bounced around a couple teams, never quite developing a shot, before landing with Golden State, where she did. The 2025 Most Improved Player conducted the offense nobly, with 13 points and nine assists in Wednesday’s loss. “Coach Nat has genuinely changed my career,” Burton said afterward. Something that hadn’t existed one year ago, or six months ago, was suddenly here, undeniable and brilliant.
