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While the Golden State Valkyries clawed and chipped at the defending WNBA champs, they never made the New York Liberty nervous, falling 95-67 at Barclays Center. New York blitzed the Valkyries right from the jump, opening the first quarter with a 22-3 run. While Golden State got the lead down to 11 midway through the third quarter, the Liberty's offense never failed.
New York shot 14-of-35 from beyond the arc and 50% from the field. Breanna Stewart sleptwalked her way into a 24-point night while Marine Johannes burned the Valkyries with 18 points on six 3s. Golden State, on the other hand, struggled mightily on offense all night long. Kayla Thornton and Veronica Burton got 13 points each, but the team couldn't make up the distance after falling behind 22-3 so early on.
It was a sobering loss for the Valkyries following an early 2-1 start to the season; the Liberty dominated Golden State in every facet of the game. Pick any stat category: 3-point shooting, rebounding, turnovers, fastbreak points. New York beat the Valkyries in nearly every important head-to-head stat. This kind of game reveals a lot about a team in the moment, especially for a Valkyries squad still finding its footing in the W.
The Valkyries' culture of accountability is as strong as ever
It's important to remember that the Valkyries still only have about a month of real basketball time together. While it can be tiring to have that fact paraded around the block, whether it's from the media or the team, it's true. And the lack of time together goes a long way. The Valkyries are quite literally learning how to play together on the fly, and it showed in this loss to the Liberty.
But it's also important to understand that no one on the Valkyries is using that as an excuse. They hold each other and themselves accountable for their mistakes and shortcomings. That also goes a long way for a team of players thrown together through the expansion draft.
That accountability was shown in the team's post-game press conference. It began with head coach Natalie Nakase taking accountability for the Valkyries' sluggish first-quarter start.
“Told them, this is on me. We didn't scrimmage a lot in the past couple of days,” Nakase said. “I chose rest over rhythm, and that's what I get. That's what I get with the first quarter. I'll manage it better in our off days to make sure that they have rhythm, because we did everything pretty much in the half court, and that's what you saw. You didn't see anything go well in transition. So I have to be better, and they told me they'd take better care of the ball.”
Ten minutes later, after Nakase exchanged the podium with Burton and Thornton, a reporter asked if the players also felt like the lack of live scrimmaging affected the team's rhythm. It would have been very easy for Burton and or Thornton to use Nakase's comments as an excuse for the loss. But Burton didn't do that.
“I think coach [Nakase] is probably trying to take some accountability for us,” Burton said. “I guess you can say, maybe that would have helped us get some flow and some rhythm. But at the end of the day, we're professional basketball players. We have a standard that we didn't play to. We didn't set the tone as starters, coming out pretty flat in that first quarter.”
It's a small thing in a sea of public appearances. But having a culture of accountability in place will go a long way for the Valkyries this season. The loss to the Liberty won't be the first disappointing loss the Valkyries will suffer. And it's important long-term for Nakase and Golden State to maintain this locker room-wide mindset.
Turnovers are still (and will be) the Valkyries' Achilles' heel
If there's one thing the Valkyries have in common with the Warriors, it's that they turn the ball over. A lot. Golden State turned the ball over 23 times versus New York. That brings their per-game average up to 16.5, which is second-to-last in the WNBA.
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While not all turnovers are created equal, the Valkyries were primarily bad turnovers. Bad passes and carelessness with the ball let Liberty get into transition. New York burned the Golden State more often than not on the fastbreak, in a game where there was already zero margin for error. Nakase's sluggish first-quarter start in the same post-game press conference.
“Taking care of the ball. That's key, in the way we play. We can't pass it to the other team, especially a team that likes playing in transition,” Nakase said. “We're not just giving up twos when we throw the ball away, especially when it's live. We're giving up threes. It's tough to win a game that way.”
Burton was also asked about the Valkyries turnover issue. She went more in-depth from a player's perspective.
“It's still a learning curve for all of us,” Burton said. She mentioned that New York's length and size gave them trouble. “As point guards, we need to do a better job protecting the ball. We talk about that being a key for us before every game. Not telegraphing our passes, going off two feet, making the simple passes. Sometimes we try and make a read that isn't always there. Or we try and split the defense when we just need some more simple passes.”
Valkyries don't have a player that exactly fits the coveted floor general point guard archetype. It doesn't mean they can't have better ball control; they'll just have to fix that problem as a unit.
The distance from the top remains massive
The loss to the Liberty is instructive in a lot of ways. But it's also a reminder that the peak of the WNBA mountain is still far off. And that's more of a reminder to the Valkyries fanbase. Golden State is establishing itself this season as a team that can muddy the game up with its defense and hustle. But a win over a team like the Liberty, a team that can play any style of basketball, is what everyone in the WNBA is chasing. They are the defending champions after all.
This game also served as a stark reminder of why players like Stewert and Sabrina Ionescu are so important. They change a franchise's destiny. Whenever the Valkyries pushed the deficit down, the Liberty had the luxury of relying on Stewert or Ionescu to get a quality offensive possession.
It's understandable and reasonable why the Valkyries aren't desperate to go star-hunting this season. In a lot of ways, this season is an evaluation season as much as it's a let's make a statement season. But games like this, where Stewert's presence on the floor was literally bending the defense to stop her, show how one player can lift an entire team.
