The Golden State Valkyries are on to the semifinals of the 2026 WNBA playoffs after completing a 16-point comeback to beat the Dallas Wings in their winner-take-all Game 3 on Friday, 77-73. This was the first playoff series victory for the Valkyries, who entered the league as an expansion franchise last season. 

The Valkyries will face the reigning champion Las Vegas Aces with a trip to the Finals on the line. 

After a stunning overtime win in Game 2, the Wings carried that momentum into Game 3 and built a nine-point lead early in the second quarter. The Valkyries were able to surge back in front late in the second, however, and it seemed they would take control from there. 

Instead, the Wings ended the first half on an 11-0 run to go back in front, and they pushed their advantage up to 16 in the third quarter as the Valkyries’ offense went ice cold. The momentum swung again late in the third, as the Valkyries ripped off a 14-4 run to make it a five-point game going into the fourth. 

The final frame was back-and-forth and filled with drama. In the final two minutes, Valkyries coach Natalie Nakase collapsed on the floor briefly in a heated discussion with officials. She got up quickly and coached the rest of the game, and the team told ESPN postgame that she was “exhausted got lightheaded during the game, but is fine now.” 

Eventually, the Valkyries’ defense, energy and crowd proved too much for the Wings. With 1:17 to play, Gabby Williams hit a pull-up jumper from the mid-range to give the Valkyries the lead for good, then sealed the game at the free throw line. 

Williams finished with a team-high 19 points, while Veronica Burton put up 16 points, 10 rebounds and six assists and Tiffany Hayes added 18 points off the bench. 

Arike Ogunbowale, who set a WNBA playoff scoring record with 45 points in Game 2, backed that up with 30 points despite an apparent late groin injury. She did not get enough help, however. Notably, Paige Bueckers had 17 points but shot 3 of 14 from the field. 

Game 1 between the Valkyries and Aces is set for Sunday in San Francisco. Before the quick turnaround, let’s take a look at how the Valkyries completed their remarkable comeback. 

The real Valkyries defense arrived

The Valkyries’ 99.1 defensive rating was the best in the league during the regular season and more than four points per 100 possessions better than any other team. They held opponents to 53.5% true shooting and turned opponents over on 19.2% of their possessions — both marks were second in the league. 

But in the first six halves of this series, that defense was nowhere to be seen. Their dominant Game 1 win was much more about their offense, and they gave up 100 points for the first time in franchise history in their Game 2 defeat. It was much of the same through the early portions of the third quarter in Game 3. 

The Wings shot 20 of 38 (52.6%) en route to their 16-point lead, which crested at the 6:02 mark of the third, and to that point had turned the ball over just six times. 

Prior to the game, Valkyries coach Natalie Nakase said that the team was going “to play the best four quarters of defense of our lives tonight.” That didn’t happen, but they did play one and a half of them. Over the final 18:02, the Wings scored just 20 points and shot 6 of 21 with four turnovers. 

“I think just the fact that we knew it was the last 10 minutes of the game, backs against the wall, pressure situation,” Hayes said when asked what changed for the Valkyries. “Our backs against the wall, we’re gonna scratch and claw and do whatever we need to do and really lock into our schemes.”

“We were absolutely on a string, we were absolutely communicating with each other. We were on the floor, we were helping each other,” Hayes continued. “A switch flipped honestly, because I know it did for me in my head like, ‘this is it.’ It’s literally win or go home, so you gotta do something.”

Defense fuels the offense

All season long, the primary concern with the Valkyries was their offense, which is historically 3-point happy and lacks a go-to scorer. While they often overwhelemed teams with effort and physicality in the regular season, there were plenty of questions about what would happen in the playoffs if the 3s weren’t going in and they couldn’t get out and run. 

We got our answer in the first two-plus quarters on Friday, and it was not pretty. 

It took nearly three minutes for the Valkyries to score in Game 3, and they had six different scoreless streaks that lasted at least two minutes. The longest of which, on either side of the halftime break, stretched on for a staggering six minutes and 40 seconds as the Wings built their 16-point lead. During that drought, they missed 15 shots in a row. 

But once they strung together a few stops, they were finally able to play with some pace, which is when they’re most comfortable. A few easy baskets begot even more defensive effort, which begot more confident shooting. The Valkyries’ offense was far from perfect down the stretch, but after shooting 13 of 44 (29.5%) to fall behind by 16, they shot 14 of 33 (42.4%) over the final 18:02. Crucially, that included 7 of 10 from 3-point range. The most important of those 3s was back-to-back makes by Williams and Kaila Charles to tie things up in the middle of the fourth. 

Williams comes up clutch

Gabby Williams finished runner-up to Angel Reese in Defensive Player of the Year voting, but while she may be best known for her defense, she was an All-Star for the second time in her career because she also led the Valkyries in scoring with a career-high 14.4 points per game. 

She had 20 points in Game 1, and poured in a playoff career-high 36 in defeat in Game 2. But in Game 3, she couldn’t get anything going on offense. She had just two points in the first half, and Nakase even benched her for over four minutes in the third as the Wings took control. 

The extended stay on the bench helped Williams reset, and she hit a 3-pointer immediately after checking back into the game late in the third, and another triple to end the frame. She ended up scoring 17 of her 19 points in the second half, including eight in the final 1:40 to take the Valkyries home. 

With just under two minutes remaining, and the Valkyries still down by three, she barrelled through Bueckers to make it a one-point game, then hit the go-ahead mid-range jumper on the very next possession before icing the game at the line. 

“Big shot Gabby. She’s our dog, she’s our leader, she’s the one we go too,” Hayes said. “She showed you exactly why she is who she is, so we’ll do it again and again, over and over. We believe in her. It’s Gabby f—ing Williams.”