Valkyries Beat Dream 68-63 in the First WNBA Finals Game 7 as Gabby Williams Scores 30
Golden State won a championship in its second season at Chase Center on Halloween night, overturning a six-point halftime deficit behind a 28-point second half from the Finals MVP.
Sunday, November 1, 2026/3 min read
The first Game 7 in WNBA Finals history ended with a jump ball. Veronica Burton won it against Allisha Gray with the Valkyries up by three, went to the line and made both free throws with 5.1 seconds left, and Golden State beat the Atlanta Dream 68-63 at Chase Center on Saturday night to win the championship in only its second season, the Associated Press reported.
Gabby Williams scored 30 points and was named Finals MVP. Only two of them came before halftime. Her 28 in the second half are a WNBA postseason record for a half, according to CBS Sports, and her 30 are the second most in a Finals clincher behind A'ja Wilson's 31.
How did the Valkyries come back in Game 7?
Slowly, then all at once. Atlanta led 30-24 at the break after Jordin Canada scored 11 of her 18 points in the second quarter, and every team that had led at halftime in this series had gone on to win. Natalie Nakase told Williams at the interval that the game would come to her. It did: Williams scored Golden State's final 11 points of the third quarter, and the Valkyries took a 45-44 lead into the fourth.
Rhyne Howard's layup tied it at 57 with 2:41 left. Williams answered with a three, then two free throws at 1:40, and Kiah Stokes added a late basket to go with her 13 rebounds and two blocks. Gray, playing with an injured hand, made two free throws with 11 seconds left to cut it to three before Burton's jump ball settled it.
Tiffany Hayes, 37 and two years out of retirement, scored 11. Stokes is now a four-time champion. Nakase, who changed her starting lineup to bring in Hayes and Kaila Charles after falling behind 2-1 in the series, called Williams her closer. Williams's own summary was shorter: "I wasn't gonna lose on Halloween."
What went wrong for the Atlanta Dream?
Shooting, mostly. Howard went 3 of 14 from the field and 0 of 7 from three. Angel Reese had eight points and 12 rebounds but four turnovers, and Atlanta's unbeaten record when she made a three-pointer, 16-0 this season, was no help on a night she did not. Karl Smesko said his team had more miscommunications and breakdowns in the second half than at any point in the series. DeWanna Bonner became the first player to reach 600 career postseason defensive rebounds, and the franchise fell to 0-4 in Finals appearances.
Reese's verdict afterwards was that the title had been delayed, not denied.
How did the series get to a seventh game?
Neither side ever led by more than a game. ESPN's series log runs 68-64 Golden State, 79-65 Atlanta, 97-71 Atlanta, 67-62 Golden State, 64-55 Golden State, then Friday's 80-69 Dream win that forced the decider, as we reported on Friday. Reese had 30 points and 16 rebounds in Game 2; Williams had 26 in Game 1.
The Valkyries were the first expansion team to make the playoffs in their first season and, CBS notes, the first champion with no All-WNBA player on the roster. Owner Joe Lacob had promised a title within five years. He needed two. Nakase, the 2025 coach of the year, now has a championship to go with it, and an arena that has seen a Game 7 nobody else in the league's history ever played.
Published in The Outspoken Digest
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