SAN FRANCISCO – Natalie Nakase is back in action after a scary moment near the end of the Golden State Valkyries' 77-73 Game 3 victory over the Dallas Wings in which she suddenly collapsed while talking to an official before getting back up and coaching the rest of the game.

In her pre-game availability ahead of the Valkyries Game 1 matchup with the Las Vegas Aces, Nakase shared what happened to her and how she is recovering.

“Thank you guys for your concerns and everything. I'm good,” the 46-year-old head coach said. “Had a little exhaustion.”

Nakase, who did not take the podium after Golden State's do-or-die win, was examined by team doctors after the game and during the Valkyries' Saturday off-day and is cleared to coach against Vegas. Moving forward, the second-year coach will be wearing a heart monitor as a precaution, along with her Oura ring to track her health metrics, for “information,” and to track her biometrics. Nakase stressed that she did not lose consciousness and remembers everything that happened, and that her collapse was due to exhaustion from her tank “not being full” regarding food, hydration, and rest.

And in an emotional moment during her opening statement, Nakase cited the message her late father, Gary Nakase, told her when she first got into coaching at the highest levels of basketball.

“I've talked to you guys about what I have to learn from my father,” Nakase said, who has often talked about the impact he's had on her life. “He was an extremely hardworking man. I followed in his footsteps, and I thrive in that. But he told me, this was about 10 years ago when I never knew what I was going to do with my career, ‘Do not let your career ever get involved if your mental health or your health gets complicated.' So when that happened, it definitely was like a wake-up call for me.

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“Got checked through the doctors. Everything looks good. But you know what I'm going to do? What my dad didn't do? May rest in peace. I'm going to be proactive… I understand this job for me. I love it. Sometimes I love it too much to a point where I overwork, and so I just want to make sure I'm being smart. So for all you guys too, I know you guys work extremely hard. Just make sure, you guys take care of yourselves, check in, and understand that your loved ones are the ones who (get) very concerned. Because my sister was, I mean, she was crying. So I have to be very smart.”

Natalie Nakase recounts the Valkyries' big Game 3 victory

After detailing how she's feeling better, Nakase finally got a chance to talk about Golden State's biggest win in their young history.

“The game's never over type of mentality, ” Nakase said. “Never quit. We talk about that. Every possession counts, so yeah, maybe for us we got into a hole, right? We were able to get out of the mud. It was very kind of similar to the LA (Sparks) game. We were down 16 as well, so it was really good that we had that experience coming together. More importantly, we stayed composed, and we stayed connected.”

The Valkyries will need that connectivity as they ready themselves for an intense series with A'ja Wilson and the Aces.