Golden State beat Minnesota 80-66 at Target Center on Monday night, the first win in Valkyries history over the Lynx. It came in the game Minnesota could have used to clinch the No. 1 seed.
I said Lynx by 10 and Natalie Nakase’s redraw a game late. Wrong on both counts. It arrived on time, and it was hers.
The shooting explains most of it. Minnesota went 21-for-59 from the field, missed 20 of 30 threes, and gave it away 18 times. Golden State turned all of that into 12 steals and 23 assists while shooting 43.7 percent itself.
Courtney Williams did not play. It ended a streak of 122 straight regular-season games dating to 2024. The team’s final injury report listed a right foot while the AP recap called it a right ankle, and until Cheryl Reeve says more, that discrepancy is all we have. Napheesa Collier, cleared after Friday’s rest day, said beforehand that a night without her would feel strange.
https://x.com/adukeMN/status/2091932440453435799
It felt strange. Collier finished with nine points on 4-of-10 in 32 minutes, seven rebounds and a minus-10. Kayla McBride made two of her 11 shots and still got to 12 because she went 6-for-6 at the line. Olivia Miles went 3-for-12 for eight. Natasha Howard led the team with 13, which tells you everything about the night.
Sunday’s preview was built on Gabby Williams watching the fourth quarter in Chicago after an 0-for-6 shooting night. She scored 15 on Monday and finished plus-10 in 30 minutes. Veronica Burton, the one who said out loud that the bench could not keep saving this team, put up 14 points and nine assists. Cecilia Zandalasini scored 18, eight of them in the fourth.
The Valkyries led 63-57 early in that quarter, then ran off 14 straight points against one, making it 77-58. Zandalasini hit her first 3 of the night with 4:39 left and another on the next Minnesota possession.
Carol and Doug both left the room during that stretch. Cats read a box score faster than I do.
The standings math did not move. Minnesota is 31-8 and Golden State 26-11. The Valkyries have seven games left in the 44-game schedule, which caps them at 33 wins, so the Lynx still need three more results, in any mix of Minnesota wins and Golden State losses, with five to play. Minnesota had one of them sitting on the floor Monday.
Olivia Miles did pass Ticha Penicheiro for the second-most assists by a rookie in league history, at 225. That is the whole souvenir.
Nine wins over a franchise buys you nothing on the tenth.
