The Atlanta Dream and Golden State Valkyries are currently tied at 2-2 as the series heads back to San Francisco for a crucial Game 5. Game 6 of the series will be on Thursday back in Atlanta, but there have been considerable questions about the time and venue, as the Atlanta Hawks play a game against the Cleveland Cavaliers at State Farm Arena that evening.
Now, all parties have announced a resolution to the potential scheduling debacle.
“After a weekend of nonstop frantic discussions and negotiation, Game 6 of the WNBA Finals will be played Thursday at 12:30 pm at 17,000-seat State Farm Arena in Atlanta, sources told ESPN. The Atlanta Hawks-Cleveland Cavaliers game that night will move back to 8 pm to accommodate the doubleheader, just as the Hawks did for Game 4. This allows a potential Game 7 to remain scheduled for Halloween at Chase Center in San Francisco,” reported ESPN NBA insider Ramona Shelburne on X, formerly Twitter.
As Shelburne noted, the Hawks previously moved another game of theirs, on Saturday against the Houston Rockets, to later in the evening to allow the Dream to host a Finals game there earlier in the day.
Article Continues BelowMeanwhile, having a pivotal Game 6 in the middle of the afternoon on a weekday is certainly not an ideal set of circumstances for the WNBA, but ultimately, the league seemed to view it as a better outcome than having the game played in the much smaller Gateway Center in College Park, Georgia, which has a capacity of under 4,000.
In any case, Game 5 is set for Monday at 8:00 pm ET.

