I’ve made repeated threats in this subreddit (and r/WNBA) to hold everyone accountable and it’s time for everyone to get in line and submit their apology forms here 👇👇👇👇👇

I will not stand for the offseason panic erasure

(guys btw this is a joke)
(ok maybe I am a little serious)

not hard to appear unwell after losing my voice at ballhalla last night! go valks!!!!

Hi Valks fans! I have gotten so much out of being a Valks fan these two seasons and wanted to give something back. I have printed out a bunch of these postcards that I designed (without AI), and will be sending out free postcards to the first 100 or so folks who request one.

Here's the link to request a postcard

No money required at all, but I am also including a link to donate to Trans Lifeline as well. Totally optional! Go Valks!!

Via gamebound on Threads

so let’s wrap up this “KiAh dIdN’T dO ThIS wItH tHe  AcES” nonsense. https://www.threads.com/share/QeeLdHE8z/

Eye on the prize, for sure… if you can grab that championship in game 6 then you don’t mess around.

However…

The consolation prize would be Ballhalla on Halloween night.

A costume party in the most inclusive environment in the history of pro sports? Party of the decade.

#ballhallaween

When refs didn't call the foul, I was so annoyed because having seen the discourse from the Dream fans online after games 2 and 3, I knew they'd jump all over this.

I put on game 4 last night and watched when V got hit in the face by Angel. All the broadcasters said about it in the moment was "Burton slow to get up" no replays or discussions of why or what happened.

During the game I had to rewind the play just to see myself what happened, because they didn't do it for us. Of course, last night, we got to immediately see the review on Gray and hear the commentators saying that's a foul.

Keep it up, announcers, you aren't beating the bias allegations. I just want games called fairly. Burton's gotten beaten up all series and doesn't always get the calls.

Hard to carve a symmetrical logo onto a pumpkin freehand but let's go boohalla

The smile!!!!
Fastest driver in Zootopia!!! Flash Mode Activated !!!

Defense and clutch offense in Game 5, what may eventually be known as the “Kiah Stokes game.”

SAN FRANCISCO — Kaila Charles had to contain her hype. The play wasn’t over.

Atlanta guard Allisha Gray had charged up the court in transition, looking to attack early. Only Valkyries point guard Veronica Burton stood in the way. With Golden State clinging to a precarious four-point lead, Burton had to thwart an All-Star. Burton absorbed Gray’s shoulder, blocked the shot as she fell backward, grabbed the rebound under the basket and dumped it to Charles before crashing into the stanchion.

Charles made the outlet pass to Gabby Williams, who took advantage of the space in transition by driving at Dream forward Naz Hillmon. Williams drew a whistle and banked in the layup. Lying on her back on the hardwood, Williams looked up to see Charles standing over her, roaring and flexing.

This proved to be a pivotal moment in Game 5 of the WNBA Finals. It was a massive bucket for Williams, who was 2-for-11 from the field through three quarters. Her three-point play sparked the 16-4 run Golden State used to put away the Dream, 64-55, and take a 3-2 series advantage.

And it all began with Burton, on an island against one of the league’s best scorers, making a play.

“I got so hyped,” Charles said. “They think they can take her because she’s a smaller guard. But she bodies them, she blocks them and she gets the stop. That’s just the essence of who she is. She’s never gonna give up on a play. She’s never gonna give up at all. We feed off her energy.”

Valkyries take 3-2 Finals lead behind lockdown defense, clutch buckets

Read the rest here for free: https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7728736/2026/10/27/veronica-burton-valkyries-soul-wnba-finals/?unlocked_article_code=1.L1E.nj40.MWdWdaEM97s2&source=emp_shared_article&smid=url-share-ta

In every WNBA thread you'll see a dream fan post the screenshot of VB on Gray's face, and Angel getting chicken winged by gabby. Both missed calls. You'll also see Valks' fans point to the free throw discrepancy.

I saw a dream thread pointing out the difference of style will create a difference of free throw discrepancy, makes sense! a team that is reliant on the 3 ball is going to get less calls. So I did a quick dive in the numbers.

I'm not a data analyst, so I won't go into these numbers for you, but in my opinion both things are true. Golden state is getting away with calls, but ATL is also getting a more favorable whistle in the finals, compared to their regular season matchups.

I don't think officiating is why they're down this series, and while I agree that dangerous missed calls should have been called or looked at, I don't think it's a valid criticism for their fans to have of why they're losing.

Loving the depth we are playing with and not just from a lineup POV (as we've really dialed into a 7-player rotation that's been working on both ends) but also from the fact that across our big 3 this series of Gabby, VB, and Kiah we are seeing their impact and willpower of how much they want this.

Gabby through the first few games had to carry the load offensively while still being elite on defense (2.6 SPG) and having to switch effectively 1 through 5. Idc about shooting splits and efficiency this series because this series is a defensive mud fight and absolutely no one will have good splits when this thing is over, and it's really about who can get it done.

Kiah has been a rock for us all playoffs with her ability to anchor our backline and just have her presence felt at all times on the defensive end regardless of who she matches up with. My favorite aspect about her 3's last night is that they were found within the flow of the offense that we wanted rather then being forced into a Kiah 3 because every other action got shut down. Just a winner through and through.

VB has been playing ELITE defense on ATL's perimeter players and has been an absolute dog all series. Her shift in games 4 and 5 of attacking her matchup and taking more shots really changed the series imo and helped free up and organize our offense enough while still being lockdown on the other end. Some of my favorite things to rewatch has just been VB defensive posessions as her ability to keep up with any switches, screens, tagging to help down, recovering, etc. is a marvel and I would encourage everyone to do the same. Similar to my sentiment around Gabby this is not a series where anyone will shoot well on both teams so to accept that, put your head down, and go to work and change the outlook for your team shows how much of a big time player and winner VB has been. This is not a pretty series and you just need to go and get it and to me she's changed the trajectory for us.

Job's not done and we still need one more so i'll avoid any pre-emptive finals MVP bad juju talk, but wanted to shoutout the depth we've had not only across the team but at the top for us.

Be it Kaila Charles or Gabby Williams or Burton and I’m probably forgetting someone, the team has hustled well to go after the ball that is about to go out of bounds, and pass it to one of our players!

This finals series brought us pain, suffering and loss. But it's also brought us together--as family, friends, fans, and teammates. This bond that ties us together is something the Atlanta Dream will never understand. It's more powerful than any superstar, stronger than any shot. It can't be taken or destroyed.

The next few days will decide the fate of Golden State Valkyries. Every mother/father, every son/daughter, and every fan. They're trusting you, depending on you to win them their future—a future as WNBA Champions.

But take heart. Look around you. You're not in this fight alone against the Atlanta Dream. We face our enemy together, and together, we will defeat them."

Hope everyone is settling down from the high (and terror maybe?) of the last game.

I’m back again with post-mortem to evaluate Game 5 and discuss hope/concerns/thoughts for Game 6.

We’ll kick off revisiting some thoughts I shared on the Game 4 post mortem:

Matching Kiah’s minutes to Angel was also an extremely good change. Kiah (and everyone) needs to continue forcing Angel to her weak side. I doubt she continues to have as poor of a game, but I think shutting her down puts a clamp on ATL’s energy as a whole.

WE DID IT, JOE!!! Shout out Kiah for having a SICKO game with 3/4 three points made. True demon mode. Holding Angel to 1 point less than last game is crazy work.

Some other thoughts:

- Whelp, I’m now concerned the whistle will be in ATL’s favor with how Karl and Angel complained about officiating in the post game presser.

I know our girls are resilient and still won Game 4 despite the FT differential, but I can’t help but be nervous.

- We have to keep Angel in jail and make sure she can’t score. Rhyne’s getting on heater, which worries me, but ATL has been playing heavy minutes throughout the series so far.

- Ceci looks so good coming off the bench. I’m desperately wishing for us to have a good scoring night. Gabby’s shots look off but she’s so good on defense that she still contributes. I just really, really, really am hoping she can find her shot

Any suggestions?