Date, Time, and Location: Wednesday, August 26th, 4:00pm, Mohegan Sun Arena (Uncasville)
Broadcast Information: KPIX (San Francisco Bay Area) and KOVR (Sacramento Area) and KION (Monterey Bay Area), NBC Sports Boston (opposition’s home broadcast area), WNBA League Pass (streaming outside of teams’ broadcast areas)
The Golden State Valkyries visit the Connecticut Sun on Wednesday, the first of two games on consecutive days. This will be the last time that the teams play as the franchise is relocating after the season. Their opponents have had a tough season in having known that this would be their transition year with the Valkyries winning both games between the teams. This will be a game with no national broadcast, just the local options in the team markets and then WNBA League Pass streaming outside of those areas.
The Valkyries
The initial injury report for the Valkyries is clean again as national team duty is about to affect the team and not leave everyone available. This seems like a game for activating developmental players even though neither of them can activated for every game for the remainder of the season. With all of the travel and the back-to-back games, any way of managing minutes for all players will be a big help if the team can get the lead. In terms of lineups, it makes sense to start with the regular ten-player rotation and adjust from that over the course of the game, although player availability concerns for the Sun could make smallball fit well.
The Opposition
Connecticut is not obligated to release their initial injury report until the morning of the day of the game since they just played against the Chicago Sky. They picked up the win without either Brittney Griner or Olivia Nelson-Ododa available at center. Leila Lacan has also joined the French national team already, so she just missed her first game. It was the second time in a row that the Sun broke a two-game losing streak with a win. While they did win the next two games after losing to the Valkyries in the last meeting between the teams, they lost five games in a row after that for a total record of 5-9 since then.
The Sun have made a few other moves in the last month. They traded forward Aneesah Morrow to Toronto for a 2028 draft pick and the rights to sign Maria Kliundikova. To fill the vacant roster spot, they brought back Rayah Marshall, who was drafted by the team last year and spent the season with them before trading her for current starter Diamond Miller. She had been signing 7-day contracts so that they could maintain flexibility, but then Los Angeles offered Valkyries draft pick Ashlon Jackson a regular contract after she was finally getting chances as a developmental player. Connecticut matched that offer to retain her, signing Marshall to the developmental player slot instead.
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