Date, Time, and Location: Saturday, October 17th, 12:30pm, Chase Center
Broadcast Information: NBC (full national), Peacock (streaming)
The Golden State Valkyries host Game 1 of the WNBA Finals on Saturday when they welcome the Atlanta Dream to San Francisco, also hosting the next game of this best-of-seven on Monday. Both teams start the series with a week of rest after sweeping their opponents in the semifinals. The Valkyries won all three meetings between the teams during the regular season, but both teams have had some changes since they last played back in early July. Peacock will have streaming coverage of all games in this series with NBC carrying the national broadcast for this game.
The Valkyries
It is another clean initial injury report for the Valkyries as the team has succeeded by using their depth and multiple options to keep advancing in the playoffs. Golden State ended up using pretty minute distributions in their three wins against Atlanta for their ten-player rotation. Laeticia Amihere did not end up playing at all against Las Vegas, but she did play 37 minutes against the Dream in regular season, having some success against her former team. There are lineups that Atlanta could run where she would match up well while Aminata Gueye could be important again if the Dream turn to their backup center and try to run taller lineups instead after they were effective in short stretches against the Valkyries. The series against the Aces did not feature the maximum perimeter defense group that the Valkyries deployed against Dallas, but it could return to neutralize offensive threats again.
The Opposition
Atlanta has made a number of moves since the last time that they faced the Valkyries, but only two of them have an effect on their roster for this game. Before the contract guarantee day, they waived Indya Nivar and added more experience to the squad by signing Shatori Walker-Kimbrough after she had played for them last season. They added even more experience before the World Cup break when they waived Aaliyah Nye to sign DeWanna Bonner after her contract was bought out in Phoenix. She has been a key addition for them at forward to help them advance to this point.
Atlanta swept both playoff series and enter this game having won ten consecutive games stretching back to the regular season. Their record overall has been 23-5 since their last loss to the Valkyries. There are two players listed on their injury report as Brionna Jones, who missed all three games against Golden State, has been ruled out for the season even though they did not sign a replacement player for her. Allisha Gray exited the first game of the semifinals with a finger injury and has not played since, but she is listed as questionable again.
With the injuries, the Dream have tightened their rotation considerably, so having Gray back will be important to running the lineups that they want to play. In the clinching win against New York, they played fewer than 23 bench minutes and did not use their frontcourt substitutes, opting to run smallball lineups when needed. Even with Gray, they figure to not expand their rotation beyond seven players unless they feel the need to experiment or counter the Valkyries differently.
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