Date, Time, Location: Saturday, July 12th, 1:00pm PDT, Michelob ULTRA Arena (Las Vegas)
Broadcast Information: CBS (full national), Audacy (radio), KWWN (away team radio)
The Golden State Valkyries will finish their road trip on Saturday when they visit the Las Vegas Aces. Their home win in the last meeting between the two teams was their first major statement as a franchise and Wednesday’s win was the signature road victory of the season so far. This game will be a full national broadcast on CBS and will only be available on WNBA League Pass in the United States afterwards.
The Valkyries
Everyone is expected to be available for Golden State, but Natalie Nakase has been making tweaks to the rotation over the course of the road trip as it is hard to play the full roster significant minutes in one game. She has also not been afraid to make changes to the starting lineup based on matchups or who is playing well as she faces the team where she was an assistant coach. Tiffany Hayes missed the last matchup so she will be looking forward to getting the chance to face her former team along with Kate Martin.
The Opposition
The big story ahead of this game will be whether A’ja Wilson will be available after she left Tuesday’s game with a wrist injury. She seems to have avoided major time on the sidelines, but missed their last game on Thursday and her status on Saturday is still to be decided. Both games were losses for the Aces to drop their record to 9-11. Las Vegas’s loss to the Valkyries started a tough stretch for them as they lost four of their next five games before starting to stabilize. Megan Gustafson, who was recovering from an injury in that game, just made her season debut on Thursday and could help them greatly in the frontcourt if Wilson is still hurt.
Las Vegas made roster changes after their game against Golden State as they were not looking like the championship contenders that they were planning on returning to be this year. Crystal Bradford, who played the least minutes of any Aces player in San Francisco, was waived first and replaced by veteran forward Joyner Holmes, but she has already been waived too. They next moved to bolster their frontcourt by trading for NaLyssa Smith, but the corresponding salary cap moves had them waiving Tiffany Mitchell and Elizabeth Kitley, who combined for 25 minutes in their last game against the Valkyries.
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