Date, Time, Location: Friday, June 27th, 7:00pm PDT, Chase Center
Broadcast Information: ION (check local affiliate), WNBA League Pass (out-of-market streaming), KGMZ (radio)
After a close loss on Wednesday, the Golden State Valkyries will be looking to get back to a winning record when they host the Chicago Sky on Friday. Their opponents have not made quite the leap early in the season that they had hoped to make this year, but are coming off of a win on Tuesday. The game will be on ION, but is not the national game so those outside of the markets of both teams may only have WNBA League Pass as an option if their affiliate is showing a different game.
The Valkyries
Golden State will be hoping to have Carla Leite healthy for this game and Temi Fagbenle should be ready to return, which could give them a full twelve available players for the game. The Valkyries selected Maria Conde from Chicago in the expansion draft, who never appeared for the team and is missing this season due to injury. No players on the current roster have ever played for the Sky.
The Opposition
Chicago showed some promise last season with two big name rookies in Kamilla Cardoso and Angel Reese. Cardoso will miss this game as she competes with the Brazilian national team at AmeriCup, but Reese continues to be a key player for them both in the post and initiating some of their offense. In order to make a move towards the playoffs, the team traded their top draft pick to acquire wing Ariel Atkins. Courtney Vandersloot returned after previously leaving the team where she won a championship, but she got injured earlier and is out for the season.
They Sky ended up only bringing back one of their free agents as forward Michaela Onyenwere was an occasional starter for them last season. Before the end of last season, they agreed to a contract extension with veteran center Elizabeth Williams despite her missing the end of the campaign due to injury and she has played well in her return this year. Their other returnees arrived via trade in the middle of last season as Rachel Banham was brought in to provide shooting while point guard Moriah Jefferson has been battling injuries this season, but just made her debut.
The other part of last year’s midseason trade was their top pick, which they used on Slovenian forward Ajsa Sivka, who will not play in the league this year. They do have two rookies though as they acquired two other picks in trades. Hailey Van Lith has been coming off the bench as a guard, but has had to play more due to injuries while Maddy Westbeld has had limited opportunities in the post. Chicago also made a trade to bring in forward Rebecca Allen to improve their defensive versatility while signing wing Kia Nurse to bolster the starting lineup.
Along with all the player changes, the team opted to make a coaching change at the end of last season, doing the same thing as the Valkyries by hiring an assistant coach from the Las Vegas Aces. Tyler Marsh was there at the same time as Natalie Nakase and was brought in with a strong reputation for player development. The team started the seasons with four straight losses before picking up their first two wins. They went on a three-game losing streak before winning again, and then had another three-game losing streak before their win over Los Angeles on Tuesday. All of their wins have come against teams outside of the playoff spots right now, but they are still hoping to find some momentum to start this road trip.
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