Another day, another dominant performance by the Golden State Valkyries. On Thursday, the 2nd seed traveled to Brooklyn to face off against the New York Liberty, with the goal of sweeping the season series 3-0. And sweep they did: Golden State, in commandeering fashion, held New York to only 60 points, its lowest mark of the season.
At risk of stating the obvious, this Valkyries defense is good. Devastating, even. The second-year franchise currently has a defensive rating of 99.9, a whopping 3.5 point difference from the second-best mark (held by the Minnesota Lynx). They only allow a league-leading 75.6 points per game from opponents, and have so far held the Liberty (60), Lynx (66), Atlanta Dream (66), Indiana Fever (75), Washington Mystics (49), and Los Angeles Sparks (58) to their season-lows in scoring. They're relentless, from Gabby Williams' ability to get into passing lanes to Veronica Burton's pesky perimeter presence to Kiah Stokes' rim protection.
A quick aside to give Stokes the credit she so badly deserves and rarely gets: as of August 28th, Stokes boasts a 7.5% block rate, good for 3rd in the league, and has a defensive rating on/off percentage of -2.7. She has the fourth highest defensive Regularized Adjusted Plus-Minus (RAPM) with a -1.7. In plain speak, Stokes is a defensive force to be reckoned with, and the Valkyries defense wouldn't be as good without her. Her 2.3 stocks per game show that clearly without all the analytics jargon.
Valkatraz, as the team's defense has been dubbed, may be the single biggest threat to any team come playoff time–no player is immune to its effects. Olivia Miles, the runaway Rookie of the Year and strong Most Valuable Player candidate, scored only 8 points against the Valkyries on Monday, shooting only 25% from the floor and 20% from three. It was only the second time in Olivia Miles' WNBA career that she scored less than 10 points. The first instance came on June 19th, against none other than the Golden State Valkyries.
They held Caitlin Clark to 13 points and 4-14 shooting in July. Paige Bueckers only scored 2 points in the first half in Chase Center earlier this month. Marina Mabrey barely cracked double-digits both times she faced the Valkyries in 2026. Kayla McBride shot 2-9 against them in their latest matchup. The list goes on and on; almost every star in the league (with the exception of A'ja Wilson, really) has been humbled in a major way by the oft-underestimated Valkyries.
Coach Natalie Nakase said on Thursday that Gabby Williams and Veronica Burton fight over who gets to guard the other team's best player. Defense is part of the culture in the Bay, not just some incidental skill.
Does defense really win championships?
Here's the thing: the Las Vegas Aces and the Minnesota Lynx (ignoring their last game against Golden State) have proven over and over again that good offense is 100% capable of trumping good defense, especially when the defensive team isn't converting on the other end of the floor. There are some players you just cannot shut down, and those are the types of players that win championships.
Offense has been a recurring struggle for Golden State: they currently average only 82.5 points per game, the second-worst in the league, and they're second to last in offensive rating among playoff teams.
When the team is hitting its threes, though, paired with that Valkatraz defense, there's not much an opposing team can do. Especially given that the first round of the WNBA playoffs is only three games, all it takes is two above-average shooting nights from Williams, Burton, Salaün, Zandalasini, or anyone willing to rise to the occasion to end any other team's dreams of hoisting a championship trophy this year.
Especially when you factor in the playoff inexperience of some of the league's biggest stars like Miles and Bueckers, as well as how awe-inspiringly loud Ballhalla gets for its team, there's a real chance that the Valkyries defense carries them much farther than previously thought possible.
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