Date, Time, and Location: Friday, October 7th, 6:30pm, Michelob ULTRA Arena (Las Vegas)
Broadcast Information: Peacock (streaming full national)/NBCSN (carried by some providers)
The Golden State Valkyries visit the Las Vegas Aces on Friday to try to complete a sweep of the series and avoid playing another game on Sunday. The opposition knows that they need a win to extend the series and will be trying to carry over the success that they found late in the last game to avoid elimination. Golden State has the confidence from the last two wins and the closest of the regular season meetings was in Las Vegas as well. This will be another game that is broadcast on Peacock and NBCSN.
The Valkyries
It is another clean initial injury report for the Valkyries as they look to close out the series as quickly as possible. This has been an extremely interesting matchup from a strategic perspective and the coaching staff will have had more time to reflect on what worked and did not work in the first two games. The rotation will probably not change much, but it will become more critical for substitution patterns to counter what Las Vegas is doing and not to generate problematic matchups on defense. Smallball is again likely to only be used in very specific situations while the double-center lineup was a big defensive move that does lead to different decisions on offense. There were more variations on what the team was looking to do out of pick and roll actions as the Aces worked to stop the easy baskets out of the roll and the basic principle on offense will continue to be working to find the best matchup to attack on the perimeter.
The Opposition
Player availability was again the big question for Las Vegas as they are hoping to be at full strength for this game. Jewell Loyd is listed as questionable after missing the last game having been initially listed as doubtful. Stephanie Talbot is listed as questionable even after she played in the last game. She did return, which was critical for depth and positional flexibility, but she did not play as many minutes in the second half as she did earlier in the game. With the season on the line, the Aces would only be ruling out players if they are absolutely unable to play.
Las Vegas ended up playing all available players and trying out everything in an effort to falling into a big hole in the series. Having more perimeter players was a big help while they were able to punish the Valkyries in the post during multiple stretches. There is a short turnaround for this game and it would be even quicker to the next game so the heavy minutes for their stars could start to take their toll, but getting to full strength would allow them to rely on the players that they trust the most in this situation.
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