Date, Time, Location: Tuesday, June 16th, 5:00pm PDT, College Park Center (Arlington)
Broadcast Information: KPIX (Bay Area) and KMAX (Sacramento area), various local affiliates (away team broadcast in many Texas markets), WNBA League Pass (outside local markets), Audacy (radio)
After a third straight win on Saturday, the Golden State Valkyries hit the road to face the Dallas Wings on Tuesday. While the game is a part of the Commissioner’s Cup, neither team is able to advance so this will be the last game for both sides in the competition. The Wings have struggled this season and are currently in last place, but the Valkyries will certainly not be taking them lightly as they try to continue the early season momentum and get back to a winning record.
The Valkyries
The only question on the health front continues to be Tiffany Hayes. Golden State will have both Chloe Bibby and Kaitlyn Chen available for this game so their best case scenario would be eleven players dressed before they can sign another player. Temi Fagbenle’s departure for EuroBasket means that Monique Billings will step in at center with Laeticia Amihere being her primary backup.
The Valkyries picked Carla Leite from the Wings in the expansion draft process, but she never played a game for Dallas. Two Valkyries players did start their careers there as Veronica Burton played two seasons there before being waived last year and Aerial Powers was traded partway through her third season. Kayla Thornton did not start her career in Dallas, but her five seasons with the team helped her establish a long-term role in the league. Monique Billings played there for most of last season on a hardship contract, helping her secure a spot in the league too.
The Opposition
The Dallas Wings certainly thought that they could make some strides this season after they won the draft lottery and selected Paige Bueckers with the first overall pick. Star Satou Sabally requested a trade though and the team opted to use that opportunity to trade four other players too, bringing in four players and a draft pick in return. They started the season with only three players from the group that finished last season, matching their turnover elsewhere too. Greg Bibb, who is part of the ownership group, gave up most of his basketball responsibilities and brought in experienced former coach Curt Miller to run that side of the team. Miller hired his former assistant coach Chris Koclanes to be a first-time head coach for them.
Arike Ogunbowale is the only returnee who will be able to play in this game and her entire career has been in Dallas, where she has always had free reign to score as many points as she could. The addition of Bueckers this year has given them another player in the backcourt who is expected to both score and facilitate and the rookie has missed several games, but had some excellent performances too. Their big trade brought in former Stanford player DiJonai Carrington to be their other starter on the wing and to spearhead their perimeter defense.
One of the other new players from the trade was NaLyssa Smith as she was opened the season in the starting lineup, but lost that spot. Given their current depth issues, she is likely to return as the starting power forward. Myisha Hines-Allen was their biggest signing from free agency and she will start at center. Behind them, the only backup post player right now is Li Yueru, who would be playing in her first game with the team after they traded for her. Rookies Aziaha James and JJ Quinerly are the available backups in the backcourt.
Dallas is down to the eight players listed so they could certainly add two more players on a hardship exception before the game. Like the Valkyries, they lost players to EuroBasket, sapping them of post depth with Teaira McCowan playing for Turkey and Luisa Geiselsoder playing for Germany. Guard Tyasha Harris had season-ending knee surgery recently and then forward Maddy Siegrist just had her injury details revealed after missing the last game. Kaila Charles was also waived when Li Yueru was brought in, so she is no longer on the team.
The struggles for the Wings have been mentioned as they opened the season with four straight losses before defeating the Connecticut Sun. They have not won a game since then, losing seven consecutive contests. While they have had their share of uncompetitive games, they have also had a few close losses, including a tough late collapse in their last game at Las Vegas on Friday. Even though Dallas may still be trying to figure out how to navigate the season with their roster, they have the kinds of players who can go on a scoring run to single-handedly win a game so the Valkyries will certainly be looking to execute their defensive gameplan while finding an offensive rhythm against the team that has given up the most points.
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