It has been a tough two weeks for the Golden State Valkyries. Golden State fell to the Seattle Storm 67-58 for his or her fifth loss in six video games. Of their ultimate recreation earlier than the All-Star break, it was yet one more recreation the Valkyries could not shut accurately.
Trailing 56-54 with 4:48 left within the fourth, the Valkyries have been properly inside placing distance. However their subsequent three possessions have been a foul move turnover, an out-of-bounds turnover, and a shot-clock violation. That gave the Storm ample alternative to separate, and the Valkyries by no means made one other discipline purpose for the remainder of the sport. It was a season low of 58 factors in a recreation for the Valkyries.
After the sport, head coach Natalie Nakase chalked the loss as much as the shotmaking.
“Simply did not make the photographs. We had attractiveness. It did not go in, did not bounce our approach, and that is going to occur generally,” Nakase mentioned. “That is why we need to depend on the defensive finish and attempt to push tempo. I assumed we generated actually high quality appears for one another. We stayed the course– it simply did not go our approach.”
The loss places the Valkyries in an odd space halfway by means of the season. Golden State is 0-7 versus the highest three groups within the West. Nonetheless, they’re 6-3 versus the subsequent 5 groups within the standings, in order that they’re clearly a aggressive group. And a troublesome one to beat. Go ask any group that is walked into Ballhalla. Ask a number of the stars who had the life squeezed out of them by the Valkyrie protection.
But when June was Golden State’s month of kicking open the door and telling the WNBA they’ve arrived, then July up to now has been the league doing its greatest to shove them out of the home and again onto the doorsteps.
In Minnesota, it was Napheesa Collier and the Lynx strangling the Valkyries’ offense right into a drought. In Atlanta, it was Alisha Gray and the Dream blitzing Golden State with an enormous run within the ultimate 5 minutes. Versus the Las Vegas Aces, it was A’ja Wilson demonstrating what a real star can do for a group. And at house in opposition to the Phoenix Mercury, it was Alyssa Thomas steamrolling her option to a game-winning free throw.
Like several ball membership making an attempt the break into the membership of the elite, the Valkyries have hit a wall. And so they’re reckoning with the best way to get by means of it.
Widespread denominators within the Valkyries’ shut losses?
Rewinding to the wake of the Valkyries’ slim 78-77 loss to the Phoenix Mercury, a reporter requested Tiffany Hayes and Veronica Burton a specific query concerning the group’s latest struggles.
“Are there frequent denominators in the best way you guys have been struggling to shut video games over the previous week and a half or so?” the reporter requested. On the time, it was the Valkyries’ fourth lack of July. Losses that have been aggressive all through the sport till the fourth quarter, when their opponents have been in a position to do little extra to recover from the end line.
Hayes and Burton bristled on the query, an understandably robust one to digest lower than half-hour after falling to a game-winning free throw.
“I do not know, perhaps y’all see it,” Hayes answered, shaking her head. “We’re simply working laborious, making an attempt to get wins. That is it.”
Burton jumped in proper after Hayes.
“I feel we’re simply making an attempt to get higher with every recreation. I feel we have now completed that,” Burton mentioned as Hayes nodded in settlement. “Like I do assume we have… once more, we executed down the stretch the previous two video games, however it does not matter in the event that they’re additionally scoring or they’re making performs too. So I would not essentially say frequent denominators. It is basketball. However on the finish of the day, we simply bought to search out methods to return out on prime.”
From afar, we are able to simply level to the irritating errors within the ultimate 5 minutes of a few of these video games. We will say the offense must shoot higher. We will go as far as to lament the truth that the Valkyries haven’t got a Collier or Wilson-type of famous person who can go get a bucket within the clutch. However that does not make Burton and Hayes fallacious.
Simply half-hour earlier, the Valkyries executed two ATOs to get Janelle Salaün simply sufficient area to bury a 3 and hit the game-tying mid-range shot. Recall earlier this season in a detailed recreation with the New York Liberty, when the identical group caught a 5-second violation on an analogous ATO scenario. The Valkyries’ ATO execution on these performs was small incremental progress, however it’s actual, tangible progress nonetheless.
Quick-term ache for long-term acquire
Nonetheless, as Nakase has emphasised all through the season, this group’s expectations for itself are loftier than shut losses. The Valkyries need to win. They need to be a playoff group. And the one factor weighing them down at this level within the season is their incapacity to win shut video games. It eludes them, it is proper there on their fingertips, frustratingly out of attain.
That’ll imply determining the best way to keep a constant offense throughout this All-Star break reset. The Valkyries are one of many streakiest groups from past the arc. They shoot essentially the most threes within the league, however additionally they boast one of many lowest capturing percentages within the league. Equally, Golden State has to take care of that consistency within the ultimate 5 minutes of the fourth quarter. Which means chopping down turnovers and executing to the diploma they’re able to.
The second half of the season can be a race for the eighth and ultimate seed within the playoffs. The Valkyries sit in ninth a recreation behind the Aces and Mystics, and a recreation and a half behind the Fever. To not point out the Sparks and the Sky lurking two and three video games after them.
In some methods, it is a tough spot to be in, contemplating they have been in additional management of their playoff future at 9-7 on the finish of June. However in different methods, it is precisely the place they need to be. After the Seattle loss, Nakase was requested how she feels about her group heading into the all-star break.
“I really feel nice. I really feel proud,” Nakase mentioned. “Particularly as a result of once more, with a bunch of gamers not realizing one another, seeing their faces day one, and now having the ability to go at them otherwise and simply be authentically myself, however be truthtellers and go proper at them, I really feel nice.”
“We simply had an excellent dialog about possession of all of the issues we might have completed higher at this time. Together with myself. I assumed I might have defined issues higher and faster in timeouts. I really like the place we’re at proper now.”
All season lengthy, the motto for the Valkyries has been short-term ache for long-term acquire. Proper now, they’re within the ache portion of that motto. However this group has defied the expectations of everybody this season. It isn’t conjecture when Burton and Hayes say the Valkyries are working laborious. It isn’t delusion when Nakase emphasizes her pleasure in the place they’re at. Golden State has earned the advantage of the doubt on that entrance.
However quickly it is about reaching the long-term, issues change quick within the WNBA. They will look to take action once they return from the All-Star break as they make a historic push for the playoffs.