Date, Time, Location: Friday, July 24th, 7:00pm PDT, Chase Center
Broadcast Information: ION (full national) ,WNBA League Pass (streaming), KGMZ (radio)
After getting significant days of rest during the All Star break, the Golden State Valkyries start the second half of the season with a home game against the Dallas Wings. Other teams returning to play earlier means that the playoff situation has gotten tighter since the last Valkyries game and a win would be big here as the team will head out on a road trip with five games in eight days afterwards. The game will be a full national broadcast on ION.
The Valkyries
Golden State is finally back up to twelve players on their roster with the addition of Iliana Rupert, but will have to deal with bad news right away with Kayla Thornton set to miss the game due to an injury. The Valkyries had just begun to be able to field a consistent starting lineup, but will need to make an adjustment immediately. Dallas will likely be starting their three-guard lineup so the Valkyries will not be pushed into a size disadvantage at small forward.
The Opposition
The first meeting of the teams back on June 17th helped the Dallas Wings pull out of last place and they have improved since then as that was the start of a 5-2 spurt for the team. They lost their last four games heading into the All Star break, but they returned on Tuesday with their biggest winning margin of the season at Seattle. Both teams were missing players due to EuroBasket for that game.
Returning players are not the only change for Dallas since that game as they have made many moves and will also be dealing with injuries for this game. Myisha Hines-Allen, who started at center in that game, is out again with an injury, joining Tyasha Harris and Maddy Siegrist. NaLyssa Smith was the other frontcourt starter, but she has since been traded to Las Vegas. Kaila Charles was on a hardship contract during that game, but was released after the hardship exception criteria were no longer met and has not been brought back to fill other vacancies.
Li Yueru made her Wings debut against the Valkyries and has since become the starting center. Luisa Geiselsoder missed that game due to playing for Germany’s national team, but she has been the starting power forward. Teaira McCowan also missed that game to play for Turkey’s national team and is the only other available true post player. Haley Jones did not play in the first game as she had just signed a hardship contract, but figures to be able to make her Bay Area return as the player to see action as a smallball forward.
JJ Quinerly played the fewest minutes of any Dallas player to see action against the Valkyries, but has since been elevated to the starting lineup alongside Paige Bueckers and Arike Ogunbowale. Aziaha James and DiJonai Carrington, who would also be making a Bay Area return, have been coming off of the bench in the backcourt and Grace Berger was signed to a second 7-day contract starting today to give them another option.
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