Game Preview: Regular Season Game 6 vs Minnesota Lynx

Date, Time, Location: Sunday, June 1st, 5:30pm PDT, Chase Center
Broadcast Information: KPYX (Bay Area), KMAX (Sacramento), FanDuel Sports Network – North (away team local market), WNBA League Pass (outside local markets), KGMZ (radio), multiple affiliates (away team radio)

The Golden State Valkyries just played two difficult games in New York, but their schedule does not get any easier when they return home to face the Minnesota Lynx on Sunday. Their opponents lost to the Liberty in the finals last season and have started their season with more wins, meaning that the Valkyries now play the league’s other undefeated team. While they have won six games, more decisive wins against Dallas and Los Angeles were followed by closer games against Dallas again, Connecticut, Seattle, and Phoenix.

Commissioner’s Cup

Sunday’s game will be the first day of games in this year’s Commissioner’s Cup, a competition that the WNBA tried out with inspiration from similar competitions in European basketball, which has since been added to the NBA. The Minnesota Lynx won last year’s competition, defeating the New York Liberty in the championship game. Unlike the European leagues that schedule the first half of the season as a full round-robin and use all the games to determine cup qualification, the WNBA has scheduled all of the regular season games that count towards the cup in one stretch.

Playoff seeding no longer takes conferences into account, but the Commissioner’s Cup matches up one team from each conference in the championship game. That means that all of the regular season games that determine the qualifiers are intra-conference games. With seven teams in the Western Conference now, that means that each team plays six games to try to finish at the top of the standings, three home and three away. After this game, the Valkyries travel to Phoenix on Thursday, return home to host Las Vegas on Saturday, and visit Los Angeles the following Monday before hosting Seattle on Saturday, June 14th, and visiting Dallas on Tuesday, June 17th.

The Valkyries

It was almost a clean bill of health for the Valkyries before the last game, but Tiffany Hayes ended up not playing. Cecilia Zandalasini returned in time to get ready to face her former team, the only one that she had played for in the WNBA before being picked in the expansion draft process. Temi Fagbenle also gets to face the team where she started her career while Stephanie Talbot has also played for Minnesota.

The Opposition

The Minnesota Lynx aimed for continuity this season after they were so close to winning a championship and eight players returned for this season. Their star continues to be Napheesa Collier, but she missed the last game due to an injury. Kayla McBride, who missed the start of the season, has returned to the lineup and looks to be back to her best. Bridget Carleton is the other starter on the wing while Courtney Williams is their starting point guard and Natisha Hiedeman is one of the best backups at that position in the league. Former Stanford player Alanna Smith was their other big signing besides Williams for last season and she has been excellent for them at center.

Diamond Miller and Alissa Pili are the other returnees, young frontcourt players who have had flashes of promise, but have not been consistent contributors yet. Jessica Shepard was able to return to the team this year after she could not get out of an existing overseas contract last year that ran past the deadline to report to the team according to the WNBA’s prioritization rules. She moved back into the starting lineup in Collier’s absence and had another excellent game as their other post contributor. The team also added Marieme Badiane, who has extensive professional experience, but is playing in the WNBA for the first time, to their center group. Anastasiia Olairi Kosu, a Russian forward who is one of the youngest players in the league, was one of their two draft picks to attend training camp and she made the opening day roster. Their backup on the wing is Karlie Samuelson, the former Stanford player, who they traded their first-round pick in next year’s draft for right before this year’s draft.