5 Biggest Questions That Could Decide Dream-Valkyries WNBA Finals

Atlanta has not lost a playoff game, and it has not beaten Golden State this season either, after dropping all three meetings in an 11-day stretch between June 24 and July 4.

Every fan at Chase Center on Saturday will get a violet "This is Ballhalla" shirt, according to the Valkyries, when Golden State opens the WNBA Finals against the Atlanta Dream at 3:30 p.m. ET. NBC and Peacock have the broadcast.

Neither team has won a title. The league counts seven other Finals in its 30 seasons that matched two franchises in that spot, according to the WNBA, most recently Las Vegas and Connecticut in 2022.

This is Year 2 for the Valkyries, who went 32-12 and took the second seed. Atlanta's 30-14 record was a franchise best. The Dream have not lost in 10 games, a run that started before the regular season ended.

The Dream are 5-0 in the playoffs. The Valkyries are 5-1.

Golden State finished the regular season with a 99.1 defensive rating, the best in the league. Opponents managed a 47.8% effective field goal percentage against the Valkyries, also a league low.

Atlanta saw it up close. The Dream averaged 91.3 points per game, sixth-most in league history. In three losses to Golden State, they averaged 74.7, seven fewer than they scored against any other opponent.

Those games came in an 11-day stretch between June 24 and July 4. Game 1 will be the first meeting between the teams in more than three months, and DeWanna Bonner was not on Atlanta's roster for any of the first three.

Dream coach Karl Smesko said Golden State is a great team and the Finals are the ultimate challenge.

"I think we're a pretty good team at that point," Smesko said Tuesday. "But we were still learning how to play with one another and there were a lot of improvements to be made. We've obviously added a piece in DB. Angel has grown in her comfort level within our team, both on an offensive and defensive standpoint. She's just raised her game to a whole other level. So I do think we're a much better team than we were at the time we played."

The playoff order has flipped. Atlanta owns the best defensive rating of the postseason at 102.0, and Golden State is second at 104.1.

Nobody on Atlanta scored more than Allisha Gray in the regular season, when she averaged 19.0 points to rank ninth in the league. On Oct. 4, early in Game 1 of the semifinals, she got a hand on a Sabrina Ionescu pass and injured her left hand.

She returned to that game with her fingers taped, then aggravated the injury on another defensive play in the second quarter. She has not played since.

Gray is left-handed. She warmed up before Game 3 at Barclays Center and was ruled out about an hour before tip-off.

She is now day-to-day after a procedure on her hand. Gray said her teammates told her to rest through the New York series and promised to handle business so she would have more time to prepare for the Finals.

"I feel good," Gray said Tuesday. "I'm just taking it day by day. Progress is good, so that's a good sign. A few jump shots, they're going in, so that's a good sign as well, but right now, just day by day."

Angel Reese said Gray looks really good back on the floor with the team.

"It feels good," Reese said. "We were teasing her, telling her she owes us 40 minutes three times. So it's really good to have her back out there. And she's getting back in the swing of things, and she looks really good. Same old Leesh, the killer that we know. So I'm looking forward to it."

During the regular season, nobody forced turnovers at a higher rate than Atlanta, which took the ball away on 19.5% of opponent possessions. Those turnovers became 18.1 points a game for the Dream, another league high.

In the playoffs, Atlanta is averaging 10.4 steals and 24.4 points off turnovers. Rhyne Howard, Jordin Canada, and Reese finished the regular season as the top three players in the league in steals per game.

Against New York, the Dream forced 49 turnovers to the Liberty's 30. They outscored New York 72-31 in points off turnovers. Atlanta shot 41.9% in the series, New York shot 47.1%, and the Dream swept anyway.

Howard said the Dream have spent a full week going back over what they did wrong and what they did right in the three losses to Golden State.

"I think our defense is at the top of [the winning streak]," Howard said Tuesday. "We're forcing teams into turnovers. We're forcing them into tough shots. And we're getting rebounds and pushing it. Our defense is at the top right now, and so is our transition game. And so if we put those two together, it's really [hard] to stop us. Obviously, I think we're shooting better than what we had in that little rough patch, and so that also helps."

Golden State takes care of the ball. The Valkyries tied for second in the league in turnover rate at 15.1%. Opponents scored a league-low 11.7 points per game off their giveaways.

Atlanta's starters averaged 31.2 minutes per game, the most in the league. Golden State's averaged 24.1, the fewest.

Golden State's reserves scored 35.9 points a game, the most in the WNBA. Atlanta's bench was 14th, at 17.9.

Janelle Salaün led that group at 12.7 points and was a unanimous choice for Sixth Player of the Year. Behind her came Tiffany Hayes at 8.9 and Kaitlyn Chen at 7.2.

Gray, Howard, and Reese all made the All-Star team. Golden State's lone All-Star, Gabby Williams, was voted a starter, a first for the franchise.

Shatori Walker-Kimbrough won a title with Washington in 2019, and she and DeWanna Bonner have been talking the team up from the sideline, each from a different perspective.

"I don't know if it's like different, I might have to say a lot of similarities," Walker-Kimbrough said Tuesday. "When I say similarities, it's more so just the closeness, just the way that everyone's just overly locked in. You just have that feeling of everyone's just on the same page. No one really cares about who's getting the recognition. We're just all there for the trophy, and you can just feel that from top to bottom."

"I'm even getting goosebumps just thinking about it," Walker-Kimbrough continued. "But that's the similarities. I don't really see many differences. We obviously look and play different than what we did in 2019 in DC, but here it's just the camaraderie. We genuinely love each other. We're always joking around, and we're genuinely going to work."

Games 2 and 3 fall on Monday and Wednesday. Tuesday is for the cross-country flight.

Two of the three regular-season meetings were decided by five points or fewer. Atlanta went 9-6 in clutch games during the regular season, and Golden State went 9-9. Two of the Dream's six clutch losses came against the Valkyries.

In the playoffs, Atlanta is 3-0 in clutch games. Golden State is 3-1.

When games get close, Golden State gives the ball to Williams, whose clutch usage rate this postseason is 41.1%. She has 25 clutch points, more than anyone else in the playoffs, and shot 7-of-18 to get them. Veronica Burton's 10 clutch points include the go-ahead 3 she hit in the last minute of Game 2 against Las Vegas.

For Atlanta, Reese has been nearly perfect late: 5-of-6 from the field and 4-for-4 at the line, good for 14 points. She was a 72.1% free throw shooter in the regular season. In the playoffs, she is at 87.1%.

USA and Peacock carry Game 2 on Monday at 8 p.m. ET. Game 4 at State Farm Arena tips at 1 p.m. ET on Oct. 24, hours before the Hawks open their season in the same building.