5 Biggest Takeaways From the Valkyries' Stunning Sweep of the Aces

The Golden State Valkyries swept the defending champion Las Vegas Aces in three games, closing it out with an 87-77 overtime win Friday night at Michelob ULTRA Arena and sending the second-year franchise to the WNBA Finals.

Golden State won 71-60 in Game 1 and 83-81 in Game 2, both at Chase Center. Las Vegas, which had won three of the previous four titles, averaged 72.7 points in the series.

Across the three games, Golden State outrebounded Las Vegas 147-108. The Valkyries had 37 offensive rebounds to the Aces' 14 and outscored them 42-15 in second-chance points.

The widest gap came in Game 1. Golden State won the boards 58-34 that afternoon, with 17 offensive rebounds against two for Las Vegas.

Kayla Thornton had 11 offensive rebounds in the series. Kiah Stokes grabbed 31 rebounds over the three games, 14 of them in the opener, and blocked eight shots. She did not score until Game 3, when she went 5-for-5.

Stokes knows her teammates have her back, and they know she has theirs.

"It does feel good," Stokes said. "But this is definitely a team, a very special team. When you have people who really buy into their role, I'm not out here scoring 25 points a game, but I know what I can bring defensively and as a bigger presence. That's all I try to do. It feels good knowing that my teammates have my back, I have theirs, and we're building something special."

Each game had a different leading scorer for Golden State. Gabby Williams had 25 points and 11 rebounds in Game 1. Tiffany Hayes scored 21 off the bench in Game 2 on 6-of-10 shooting and 8-of-8 at the line, and Thornton had 18 in Game 3.

Williams finished the series with 61 points. Hayes had 35, and Thornton had 42.

Golden State's reserves outscored Las Vegas' 88-34 over the three games, including 34-14 in Game 2.

Aces coach Becky Hammon said Kalani Brown, a foot taller than the players guarding her, kept getting hit on offense without a whistle. Brown had eight points and eight rebounds in Game 3.

"It was okay," Hammon said. "At times I thought she got hit a lot offensively. They weren't going to call that stuff. She's a foot taller than their defenders, and she's not just out there missing. However, that's the way it goes. Golden State really plays a lot of target ball in their offense, so any perceived weakness, they really try to go at some of these individual matchups. They'll run actions to get certain matchups, and we just weren't solid enough in those situations as a group."

"I'm not just referencing Kalani," Hammon continued. "You have to be really great one-on-one defenders when people back you up to half-court and try to get you ahead of steam. And they're willing passers. That is a team, and I think they really play great team ball. On any given night, any of them can have 15 or 20 on you because they share the ball. It seems like nobody cares who gets the credit, and that's a really special thing to have on a team. I think Golden State has that."

Las Vegas led Game 3 by nine at halftime. Golden State then ran off 17 straight points, and the Aces scored seven in the quarter, matching the fewest in franchise playoff history.

Las Vegas turned it over six times in Game 1, 12 times in Game 2, and 15 times in Game 3. Golden State had 24 steals in the series and scored 44 points off turnovers.

The Aces shot 72-of-187 from the field over the three games and 22-of-60 from 3-point range.

Hammon said the Aces fell short of the top-three or top-four defense a champion needs.

"What I saw from us was the ball not moving," Hammon explained. "More importantly, we weren't scoring. The ball quit moving. You have to have ball movement against that team. Sometimes it becomes ball and player movement, so maybe our bodies were not moving, so the ball's not moving."

"But I saw a very stagnant offense, and then I saw us not getting scoring, and it affected our defense," Hammon added. "And you can't have that. In fact, your defense has to buckle down when the ball's not going in. But I thought we played very stagnant basketball in the third quarter."

Natalie Nakase spent three seasons as Hammon's first assistant in Las Vegas, from 2022 through 2024, and won titles in 2022 and 2023 before the Valkyries hired her on Oct. 10, 2024. Two of her current players, Stokes and Hayes, also came from the Aces.

Nakase said she pushed her staff hard enough this postseason that many of them lost their voices Friday night.

"Becky is basketball; basketball is her life," Nakase said. "We were competitors in the NBA, but when we sat down for coaches' meetings, we realized we were the same. We obsess about basketball and text at two or three in the morning. I gained confidence because I found someone like me. Our whole staff became super close."

"I remember meeting A'ja at a UNLV women's game," Nakase continued. "She gave me the biggest hug, and I wondered if we were best friends. She brings charismatic care the moment she meets you. She's the best player in the world, but also one of the most genuine human beings. From Becky and A'ja, I learned to be authentic and unapologetically myself. A'ja's winning is about inspiring youth — not just basketball, but imprinting on and opening doors for the next generation. That's empowering."

A'ja Wilson was named MVP for a fifth time the day before Game 3. She scored 69 points in the series, 23 per game, on 23-of-56 shooting.

Chelsea Gray totaled 52 points and Jackie Young 43. Hammon said keeping Young is a big priority for Las Vegas.

"Obviously we're going to have some — we've got to make some adjustments," Hammon said. "We've got to make some moves. Try to address our weaknesses. It's a hard question to answer right now. There's a lot of things going through my head."

Golden State will host the Atlanta Dream, who beat the New York Liberty in overtime in Game 2 on the way to their own sweep, in Game 1 of the Finals on Oct. 17 at 3:30 p.m. ET on NBC and Peacock.