Iliana Rupert – Sports Radio Service

By Morris Phillips

SAN FRANCISCO–Remember when the Valkyries seemed like they were biting off more than they could chew shooting 3-pointers? Well, if you do, then you probably remember when the Valkyries resembled a first-year expansion team as well.

It’s been a while.

These days, the violet-and-black look like a well-oiled machine in regards to how they play, and win games. Simply, their defense is that good: it allows a squad that’s suffered numerous personnel changes, and misses more shots than they make to be a consistent threat to their more established opponents. The Fever, on Sunday night again without Caitlin Clark, know better than anyone.

The Valkyries started hot, making nine of their first 10 threes, and building a lead that briefly hit 20 points in the second quarter. From there, Indy’s defense and competitiveness showed, but not enough to keep the hosts from holding on for a 75-63 win at Chase Center.

The win gave the Valkyries a 3-0 sweep of the Fever, and more importantly, a half-game lead in the playoff hierarchy that has Golden State currently in seventh place.

Afterwards, coach Stephanie White was left to explain the hosts hot start that came after a 10-minute break three minutes into the game due to several equipment malfunctions inside the arena. The hosts caught fire after the unexpected pause in a stretch that essentially decided the game.

“They’re really good at spacing the floor,” White said. “Their passes are on time and on target, so you can’t make a lot of defensive mistakes. And I felt like we overhelped. We were trying to not allow catch-and-shoot threes. We didn’t want to overhelp on drivers. We overhelped. We over-rotated. The timing on the rotation wasn’t very good, and we gave them wide-open catch-and-shoot threes, and they are a really good team when they can get that.”

White’s description mirrored the league stats that show that the Valkyries lead the WNBA with just under 10 made threes a game. But they don’t shoot a high percentage from three, and they’re dead last in overall shooting percentage.

But… Iliana Rupert is the WNBA’s most consistent 3-point shooter at better than 46 percent. Cecilia Zandalasini, who was again unavailable due to injury, is fourth at better than 44 percent. Leaving those two open is a mistake, and an open door for the Valkyries to go on an extended scoring run.

Against the Fever, Rupert started 4 for 4 and finished 5 for 8 from distance. After Rupert’s third make, the Valkyries led 22-9. Meanwhile, the visitors, again without Clark, were in a stretch of 15 missed threes in 18 attempts that proved how shrewd Golden State’s strategy of packing the paint was.

The Fever got within six points in far more competitive second half, but couldn’t get any closer. Kate Martin came up with a critical three after the Valkyries went scoreless for almost all of the first three minutes of the fourth quarter. A flagrant foul on Aerial Powers for not allowing Martin landing space gave Martin a free throw as well and the lead grew to 59-50.

Rupert led Golden State with 21 points. Janelle Salaun and Martin both added 10. Powers led Indiana with 17 points off the bench, but was 1 for 5 from distance.

The Valkyries final home stand continues on Tuesday against the New York Liberty.

By Morris Phillips

SAN FRANCISCO–Like fog making a dramatic entrance from the Pacific Ocean, defense descended on the Chase Center Sunday night and almost didn’t leave.

The Atlanta Dream starting five got the first taste of the weather in the first quarter in which they were limited to one made basket from Brionna Jones.

The Valkyries found out how sparse made baskets would be in a 10-point second quarter that saw the Dream’s defense take hold.

Throughout the gritty defense included scary collisions that saw the hosts lose Iliana Rupert to concussion protocol for the remainder of the game and Veronica Burton for a critical stretch at the end of the third quarter.

From the Valkyries’ perspective, what was beautiful turned ugly quickly and decisively in a 79-63 loss that ended their four-game win streak.

The Dream simply started slow and finished fast by eventually finding the gaps in the Valkyries’ defense on their way to 38 points in the paint.

“In the first half our spacing wasn’t very good,” said Naz Hillmon, who finished with 12 points and five rebounds. “We know that the Valkyries are a team that really wants to make sure they pack the paint and help each other rotate. I think in the second half we made the right plays. First by spacing out, getting good hits on our ball screens and going from there.”

The game was a defensive struggle at the break with the scored tied at 25. But Burton’s absence signaled the breaking point as a 30-8 run spanning the third and fourth quarters swung the game to the visitors.

“They beat us in all the hustle categories and that just can’t happen,” coach Natalie Nakase said. “You can’t win a game if you’re getting out hustled.”

“Credit to Atlanta. They just did a hell of a job on both ends of the floor.”

The Valkyries fell to 18-16 with ten regular season games remaining. Their cushion over ninth place Los Angeles is two games, but this was the beginning of a closing stretch that will see Golden State play a number of teams with winning records. They’ll need some wins against those teams to maintain a playoff spot.