Tiffany Hayes Makes Blunt Admission After Valkyries’ 26-Point Finals Loss

Tiffany Hayes scored 14 points off the bench Wednesday night, but the Golden State Valkyries lost 97-71 to the Atlanta Dream in Game 3 of the WNBA Finals at State Farm Arena.

Atlanta leads the best-of-seven series 2-1. Golden State never led.

Hayes shot 6-of-13 from the field and had 7 of the Valkyries’ 15 first-quarter points. She has scored in double figures in four of Golden State’s last five games, according to the team.

Her two baskets in the third quarter kept the Valkyries close. Hayes hit a floater off a Gabby Williams pass to cut Atlanta’s lead to 57-51 with 5:04 left, then scored on a driving layup to make it 59-55 with 3:41 remaining.

The Dream outscored Golden State 12-2 the rest of the quarter.

Hayes named two things the Valkyries need before Game 4.

“Mostly, like she said, our discipline and I think our fight,” Hayes said. “I think this game, they wanted it more than us, and that’s not who we are. That’s not who we’ve been, and that’s not how we got here. So I think we got to get a little bit more of that.”

Atlanta shot 49.3% from the field and scored 44 points in the paint. Golden State committed 17 turnovers, and the Dream turned them into 22 points.

Williams wants the fix to start on defense, with the offense following.

“We’ll have to go back and look at the video,” Williams said. “Again, I think we were a bit undisciplined on defense, but I’ll just have to go back and watch and see where we can adjust.”

Williams led the Valkyries with 15 points on 5-of-18 shooting. She made 3 of 8 3-point attempts and had 8 assists, a career playoff high according to the league, along with 3 steals and 4 turnovers.

In Game 1, she scored 26 points and made the go-ahead free throws with 1:18 left in a 68-64 Golden State win.

The Valkyries talked as a group after Wednesday’s loss.

“Definitely surprising,” Hayes explained. “Like we said, it’s very uncharacteristic of us, but we know we’re going to make mistakes. Everything’s not perfect. It’s a series for a reason. So we all just talk together after the game. Let each other know that it’s a series for a reason.”

“We can adjust, but we have to do it now, and we have to stay together to do it,” Hayes continued.

Golden State put Williams on Jordin Canada more often in Game 3. She called it “just an adjustment that we made” and said the Valkyries will look at the film.

Canada finished with 10 points, 8 assists, and 6 rebounds. She had 5 of her assists in the first quarter.

The 8 assists gave her 104 career playoff assists, passing Angel McCoughtry for the franchise record, according to the league.

She posted 13 points, 10 assists, and 7 rebounds in Game 2.

Fresh legs were part of the reasoning for Valkyries coach Natalie Nakase. Veronica Burton had spent much of the first two games on Canada.

“We just wanted to pick her up a little bit higher and just seeing different bodies,” Nakase said. “And so also just for us to just rotate and to make sure our legs are fresh. So it was just the tactic of seeing different bodies. And then, because V’s been guarding her for a lot. So keeping legs fresh.”

Burton finished with 3 points on 1-of-7 shooting, 4 assists, and 3 turnovers in 29 minutes.

Golden State’s bench scored 38 points. Janelle Salaün had 13 on 5-of-7 shooting, and Cecilia Zandalasini, a starter, also scored 13 and went 4-of-6 from 3-point range.

Kiah Stokes had 11 rebounds and 3 blocks, all of the blocks in the first quarter.

The Valkyries shot 34.8% from the field.

Game 4 is Saturday at 1 p.m. ET at State Farm Arena.