5 Takeaways From the Valkyries' 2026 WNBA Finals Win Over the Dream

Gabby Williams had 2 points at halftime of Game 7 on Saturday night. She finished with 30, and the Golden State Valkyries beat the Atlanta Dream 68-63 at Chase Center for the 2026 WNBA championship.

Williams was named Finals MVP. Las Vegas swept the first best-of-seven Finals in 2025, and this was the first to go seven games.

Golden State won Game 1 at home 68-64 on Oct. 17. After Atlanta won Games 2 and 3 by 14 and 26 points, the Valkyries took Game 4 by five in Atlanta and Game 5 by nine at Chase Center.

An 80-69 Dream win Thursday forced Game 7. Over the seven games, Atlanta outscored Golden State 500-472. The Valkyries won their four games by a combined 23 points, the Dream their three by 51.

On Saturday, the lead changed hands four times and the score was tied four times. Atlanta led by as many as 9, at 37-28 midway through the third quarter, and never led in the fourth. The last tie came at 57 on Rhyne Howard's driving layup with 2:41 left.

Golden State went 10-of-10 from the free-throw line in the fourth quarter, six of those by Williams. Atlanta went 11-of-15 for the game.

Williams was 1-of-4 from the field in the first half. After halftime she went 9-of-19, including 4-of-6 from 3-point range, and 6-of-6 at the line.

Her 28 second-half points set a WNBA Finals record for points in a half.

With 5:09 left in the third quarter and Golden State down 37-32, she scored the Valkyries' last 13 points of the period. Three of those baskets were 3-pointers on consecutive Golden State possessions between 2:58 and 2:00. An 11-foot turnaround with 1:05 left put the Valkyries ahead 45-44.

From a 53-53 tie in the fourth, she scored Golden State's next 9 points. The last 3 came on a 31-footer that made it 60-57 with 2:18 left.

Williams also scored 26 in Game 1 and 26 in Game 6. In Game 2, she went 3-of-15 and scored 14.

She signed with Golden State before this season after stops in Chicago and Seattle, and Saturday's title was her first in the WNBA.

Atlanta scored 64 points in Game 1, 62 in Game 4, 55 in Game 5, and 63 on Saturday. In its three wins, the Dream averaged 85.3.

Game 7 opened with nine straight Atlanta misses, four of them blocked. Golden State blocked 8 shots in all, 4 by Williams and 2 by Kiah Stokes, who also pulled down 13 rebounds.

Howard was 3-of-14 and missed all 7 of her 3-point attempts. Atlanta finished at 33.3% from the field and 6-of-30 from deep.

Jordin Canada scored 13 points in the first half and 5 after it, going 1-of-5 from the field in the second half.

"Just reading the game and reading the looks and trying to make the right decisions," Canada said. "I thought I did a good job of that. No matter what, I was still getting to the paint. I was just kicking it out this time. Just trying to make the right read and I thought I did a good job of that in the first half [throughout] the whole game."

Dream coach Karl Smesko said Atlanta had more miscommunications and breakdowns Saturday, especially in the second half, than at any point in the series.

Valkyries coach Natalie Nakase put Williams on Naz Hillmon for Game 7. Hillmon took 5 shots and scored 3 points.

Smesko said the matchup would have mattered less if Atlanta had gotten into transition more.

"I thought that was smart because we had been using Naz more as a screener and gave her the opportunity to switch more of those screens, so then we kind of tried to switch who was setting some of the screens," Smesko said. "But really, I thought if we could just get into transition more and get the actions that we wanted to get to in transition, that they were going to have to switch out some other things anyways, and some of those matchup things wouldn't have been as important."

"But if you get through a possession and there's no screening action, no cutting action, then they can just load up to the ball and kind of limit what kind of shots you're going to get," Smesko continued. "So I thought it was a good move by them and I just didn't think that we executed our offense the way we did in Game 6."

Nakase said there was no science behind the switch. Two days earlier, she took responsibility for the slow start in Game 6, when Atlanta led 32-15 after the first quarter.

Golden State hired her in October 2024, after three seasons as an Aces assistant and titles in 2022 and 2023. She was Coach of the Year in 2025, when the Valkyries went 23-21 and became the first expansion team to make the playoffs in its inaugural season. The title came in Year 2, inside the five-year window she said owner Joe Lacob set for the job.

Atlanta went 30-14 this season, its second straight 30-win season under Smesko.

"Probably just about the joy that we've had, just being around each other," Angel Reese said. "This is my third year; this is the most fun I've ever had with a group. It's the most competitive team I've ever been a part of where everybody just wants to see each other get better. Everybody supports each other when somebody gets something or when somebody wins, something happens, everybody is just cheering for the next person, and you love that about a group."

"There's no egos in the locker room and nobody is selfish," Reese added. "Everybody just want to see each other succeed. When you have a team like that, I've been a part of some teams and I know what takes to win a championship. That's the winning mindset. And just because we didn't win today doesn't mean that we won't be champions in the future."

Allisha Gray and Canada re-signed with Atlanta before this season.

"It was nice to get a taste of what the Finals feel like," Gray said, "and next season, we come back together, same group, same core, won't be short."

The Dream were in the Finals for the fourth time and the first time since 2013. Their Game 2 win, when Reese had 30 points and 16 rebounds, was the first Finals win in franchise history. Gray scored 23 in the Game 6 win, and Canada led Atlanta with 18 on Saturday.

Brionna Jones, an All-Star center for Atlanta last season, was inactive for Game 7 with a season-ending leg injury.