Golden State Valkyries reach WNBA Finals in second season.

The Valkyries swept the reigning champion Las Vegas Aces 3-0 in the semifinals with an 87-77 overtime victory in Game 3 on Friday. The team will face the Atlanta Dream in the WNBA Finals starting Oct. 17.

The Valkyries advanced to the Finals four wins away from fulfilling owner Joe Lacob's Oct. 2023 proclamation that the franchise would win a WNBA championship within five years of its launch.

In their inaugural 2025 season, the Valkyries set an expansion record with 23 wins and became the first expansion franchise to make the playoffs in Year 1. The 2026 season brought skepticism after Golden State traded first-round pick Flau'jae Johnson for two second-round picks.

The team improved to 32-10, a nine-win jump, and earned the No. 2 playoff seed. Their path to the Finals relied entirely on suffocating defense rather than offensive firepower.

The Valkyries lacked depth in scoring. No player averaged more than 15 points per game. They finished seventh in offensive rating (108.2), second-worst among playoff teams, and ranked 13th in true shooting percentage at 54%, ahead of only Seattle and Connecticut.

Defense carried them through. Golden State posted a 99.1 defensive rating, more than four points per 100 possessions better than any other WNBA team. They finished second in opponent true shooting (53.5%) and opponent turnover rate (19.2%).

Against Las Vegas, that approach neutralized A'ja Wilson and Jackie Young. Wilson averaged 23 points on 41.1% shooting, down from her regular-season dominance. Young put up 14.3 points on 31.6% from the field after going 3-0 against Golden State in the regular season. The Aces shot 50.8% true shooting in the series, nearly 10 percentage points below their 59.3% regular-season mark against Golden State.

In the series-clincher, the Valkyries held Las Vegas to two points over the first eight minutes 25 seconds of the third quarter. The Aces went 2 of 16 in that stretch.

Gabby Williams led the semifinal series with 20.3 points and made her second All-Star appearance this season. Williams finished as runner-up for Defensive Player of the Year. Kayla Thornton added 14 points and Tiffany Hayes contributed 11.7.

Golden State shot 39.8% from the field and had a true shooting mark of 54% in the series. They posted 41 assists against 40 turnovers.