Date, Time, and Location: Saturday, October 24th, 10:00am, State Farm Arena (Atlanta)
Broadcast Information: NBC (full national), Peacock (streaming)
The Golden State Valkyries face the Atlanta Dream on Saturday in Game 4 of the WNBA Finals as they try to tie the before heading home for the next game on Monday. After two losses by large margins, the Valkyries will be hoping that the extra day of rest will give them time to prepare for a good start this time. The game had been scheduled for later in the day, but will be in the early afternoon local time in order to fit in the arena schedule as part of the arrangements eventually made once the championship matchup was set. There will be a full national broadcast on NBC and the streaming broadcast will be on Peacock again.
The Valkyries
Falling further behind in the series would make it extremely tough for the Valkyries so the expectation is that they will try anything different if their main strategies are not working. The big early decisions to watch include the backup center minutes after Aminata Gueye replaced Laeticia Amihere in that role in the last game. Janelle Salaun was also able to have some success on offense in the first half after struggling recently and seeing her second half minutes dwindle. Cecilia Zandalasini chipped in with some more shot-making as both teams ended up with good percentages from deep in the last game.
Having at least one additional scoring threat on the court would be big as the Dream have been able to focus their defense on containing the ballhandlers and being aggressive overall. The lack of success on offense combined with turnovers has been giving Atlanta the kind of offensive possessions that they have wanted with an ability to score on the fastbreak or attack matchups early in the shot clock. When Golden State has been able to make them slow it down, the defense has been more effective, but pretty much everyone in the rotation for the Dream ended up having a good game on the offensive end on Wednesday, making it even harder to try to contain their stars.
The Opposition
There is no surprise player news for Atlanta either as they have been able to play the last two games the way that they have wanted to in picking up a pair of wins. They will be looking to continue that momentum at home and avoid losing the homecourt advantage that they picked up by winning Game 2. They have gotten contributions from all seven players that have been in their rotation as everyone has played their role well. While they may have found matchups that they want to attack further, they are likely to go with the same strategies that have worked.
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