Valkyries beat Dream 64-55 to lead WNBA Finals 3-2, with a morning tip-off awaiting in Game 6
The Golden State Valkyries beat the Atlanta Dream 64-55 in Game 5 of the WNBA Finals at the Chase Center in San Francisco on Monday, taking a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven series. One more win would give Golden State the championship.
Golden State got a balanced offensive effort at home, with four players in double figures. Kiah Stokes and Veronica Burton each scored 13 points, while Tiffany Hayes and Cecilla Zandalasini each had 12. For Atlanta, Rhyne Howard led all scorers with 20 points. The Dream's Angel Reese had a quiet scoring night, finishing with just 7 points, though she collected 15 rebounds.
The Chase Center crowd was raucous throughout. Fans of the two-year-old team, clad in their giveaway lavender T-shirts, filled the arena and willed their team on every play on the way to the victory.
The bigger talking point for fans now is the schedule for the next game. Game 6, a potential title-clincher, will be held in Atlanta on Thursday with a 9:30 a.m. Pacific time tip-off, meaning an early-morning wake-up call for Valkyries fans on the West Coast. One female fan said she would be taking time off work that day for sure; another, who brings her children to games, said that despite school drop-offs she would make it work somehow; and a couple of male fans said they would watch on their laptops at work.
The strange start time is due to conflicts at State Farm Arena. The Dream normally play at Gateway Center Arena, which has a capacity of only 3,500 for basketball, so they have played playoff games at State Farm Arena. But with the NBA season under way, State Farm — home of the Atlanta Hawks — has become busy, and there is a Hawks home game on Thursday night. Several other options were considered before the early tip-off was chosen, creating an unusual doubleheader of sorts.
The pre-game national anthem has also been a running controversy throughout the Finals. As in every Finals game, both teams in Game 5 left the floor moments before the anthem and returned seconds after it ended. A provision in the WNBA rulebook states that players should stand respectfully on the court during the anthem, but the league has not enforced that rule since 2017.
For many fans, however, the Game 6 scheduling chaos is a far bigger concern than the anthem controversy. One male fan called it 'a non-controversy that people are trying to make into a controversy', saying that not being on the floor for the anthem says nothing about patriotism or loyalty. A retired military couple said they themselves stand with hands on hearts to honour the flag, but had no objection to what the players do to prepare for the game. Many fans said being on court for the anthem should be a personal choice for athletes.
All eyes now turn to Thursday's Game 6 in Atlanta. A win there would make the Golden State Valkyries WNBA champions; a Dream win would send the series to a seventh and deciding game.
