Date, Time, and Location: Thursday, June 4th, 6:00pm, Target Center (Minneapolis)
Broadcast Information: Prime Video (full national)
The Golden State Valkyries start a very difficult road trip on Thursday when they visit the Minnesota Lynx. The top seed last year also was the West Conference representative in the Commissioner’s Cup. They have had to retool their roster and deal with injuries, but have not really skipped a beat. The Valkyries are looking for their first win over them having lost twice in the first half of last season before two late-season losses that could have helped with playoff seeding if they could have been turned into wins. That resulted in facing them in the playoffs and two more losses. This will be a national broadcast on Prime Video so neither team will have a local broadcast.
The Valkyries
The injury report is clean for Golden State after Monday’s game. The Valkyries used smallball lineups heavily then and whether that gets used as heavily in this game will depend a bit on Minnesota’s rotations. There are almost certainly going to be times when one of the centers will need to be on the floor to counter specific matchups and not give up too much height in the post, but spreading the floor as much as possible could also be beneficial at other times.
The Opposition
All of the success of recent seasons meant that Minnesota had free agents who were in high demand from other teams without the salary cap room to match the offers that they were receiving. That left them with four returnees as they signed starting guards Courtney Williams and Kayla McBride to two-year market max contracts. Reserve post player Anatasiia Olairi Kosu was already under contract on the second year of her rookie scale contract. Star Napheesa Collier had the core designation applied to her and she signed the one-year contract at the absolute maximum, but has yet to play this season after ending last season injured. They had hoped that Dorka Juhasz would be the starting center after missing last season, but she suffered an injury to end her European club season and is still recovering.
The Lynx did bolster their frontcourt with WNBA veterans to start the WNBA season, bringing Natasha Howard back after almost a decade after her former sting there and signing a hometown player in Nia Coffey, both on two-year contracts. Right before the season, they traded for Maya Caldwell to make sure that they could get her without needing to prevail in the waiver process, where they had low priority. They also benefitted greatly from a previous trade winning the second overall pick in the draft lottery and selecting Olivia Miles, who has had a fantastic rookie season taking on big responsibilities at guard.
Minnesota was aggressive in the international market, signing Belgian wing Antonia Delaere to help their shooting. They also signed promising Czech post Emma Cechova, but she suffered a season-ending injury. Czech guard Eliska Hamzova was also brought in, but they waived her recently and then added her back in a developmental player slot. Their other slot is occupied by Liatu King, who did not make the team out of training camp after experience with two teams last year. Their latest move was to sign Teaira McCowan to add significant height at center.
The Lynx were leading in their season opener against Atlanta, but fell victim to a second-half comeback. They had two close wins, but then dropped another game to Chicago before picking up their first home win against Toronto. They avenged both their losses and then got a second win over Chicago for good measure. Their last game was on Monday when they absolutely dismantled Phoenix on the road.
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