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There were bound to be heated emotions in a matchup between the top two defenses in the WNBA, the Golden State Valkyries and the Minnesota Lynx.
For the Valkyries, it came from head coach Natalie Nakase. The first-year head coach collected the first technical foul of her coaching career midway through the third quarter of the team's 82-71 loss to the Minnesota Lynx.
“I wanted to get one,” Nakase said after the game. “I felt like we were getting not a great whistle in terms of the physicality. If I don't say anything, then either my girls were probably going to get one, or someone was gonna get injured.”
Nakase received the technical foul at the 2:34 mark in the third quarter after arguing with officials over a foul assessed to Kate Martin. Nakase's tech was the team's breaking point when it came to their frustrations with the officiating, as the Lynx were in the bonus for a majority of the game.
“The free throws,” Nakase cited as the outlying difference maker. “It was 15 [attempts] to eight so that was a bit off-kilter. But overall, our girls fought. They fought till the very end.”
But for as big of a free-throw advantage as the Lynx had on Golden State, the Valkyries' offense was glaringly inconsistent all night long in their first game of a four-game road trip. Other than Tiffany Hayes, who finished with 23 points on 8-0f-11 and 5-of-6 from beyond the arc, the Valkyries struggled to attack Minnesota's top-tier defense.
The Valkyries, a team prone to long offensive droughts, couldn't generate any consistency after the team took a 56-54 lead in the third. The Lynx went on a monster 15-4 run to close the quarter and held Golden State to just 11 points in the fourth.
A rocky reintegration for Salaün and Zandalasini
While the Valkyries did challenge the Lynx for most of the game, it was still an awkward showing for them, especially compared to how smooth they looked the last two weeks. From afar, it looked like a rhythm and timing issue; the Valkyries' ball movement lacked precision and decisiveness.
The lack of rhythm on offense makes sense, considering having to reconfigure the rotation to reintegrate Janelle Salaün and Cecilia Zandalasini, who are back from EuroBasket.
Before the game, Nakase did not show concern with reintegrating Salaün and Zandalasini because of their IQ.
“Right away, we kind of just said, ‘look, we tweaked a couple of things,’ we showed them on film, and right away they were like, ‘we got it.’ Why? Because their IQ is so high,” Nakase explained. “People who have high IQ, and they want to learn quickly, and they're willing to stay after practice; it's not as hard to integrate as I had thought.”
But both players only played nine minutes, shooting a combined 0-for-4. Part of that was Nakase easing the two of them back into the rotation. She emphasized being mindful of their “energy levels” after an intense two weeks at EuroBasket.
Regardless, the stats back the eye test– the Valkyries spent a good portion of this game relearning how to play with Salaün, Zandalasini, and even Temi Fagbenle to a certain extent. It'll be something to monitor moving forward, especially since the Valkyries have a quick turnaround before taking on the Atlanta Dream on Monday.
