Valkyries lose one other on the street, this one to Atlanta Dream

The Golden State Valkyries name their dwelling flooring “Ballhalla,” a spot of glory and triumph.

For all they’ve completed of their enlargement season, Valkyries have but to determine how one can take “Ballhalla” on the street.

The Atlanta Dream used a 12-0 run within the fourth quarter to take command en path to a 90-81 win Monday night time over Golden State at Gateway Middle. The Dream outscored the Valkyries 26-13 within the fourth quarter.

The Valkyries fall to 9-9 and are 2-6 on the street versus 7-3 at Chase Middle. Each street wins got here in Los Angeles in opposition to the Sparks, which means they’ve but to win a WNBA sport out of the state of California.

Golden State was coming of a loss in Minnesota in a sport by which they have been additionally aggressive, solely to let issues get away late.

Atlanta, which received 24 factors from All-Star Allisha Grey, improved to 12-8.

Turnovers helped doom the Valkyries, who had 21 in all in a sport and 7 within the final 5 minutes. They led by as a lot as 12 factors within the first half. Atlanta scored 27 factors off turnovers.

“We’re not going to win any sport with 21 turnovers,” All-Star ahead Kayla Thornton stated. “We’ve received to return into the books, sit down collectively, re-evaluate one another, re-evaluate ourselves and work out what we have now to do. We have now two large video games coming as much as end this street journey.”

Ahead Monique Billings led Golden State with 19 factors, with Thornton scoring 15 and Tiffany Hayes 12.  For Atlanta, Naz Hillman had 16 factors and Brionna Jones 14.

Billings resisted blaming the venue.

“I don’t know if the street has something to do with it,” Billings stated. “I believe it’s nearly us being constant. We began out nice, threw the primary punch and that’s a very good staff. Credit score to them. It comes all the way down to us being constant, constructing off the losses and studying from them.”

Golden State constructed its early lead with the assistance of 3-pointers, hitting its first 5 in a row. For the remainder of the night time, they have been 6-for-26 on 3-point makes an attempt.

In a sport the place the groups appeared fairly equal by way of physicality, Atlanta had 24 free throws (making 21) whereas Golden State had simply 9, making all of them.

“They get 15 extra free throws, and we misplaced the sport by 9,” coach Natalie Nakase stated. “I get it. Residence cooking. However to me, I believed for certain we have been going up simply as aggressive as their gamers and we simply didn’t get the whistle. I’m going to maintain combating for my gamers, and 24-to-9 is simply an excessive amount of for me.”

The Valkyries took a 68-64 lead on a observe shot by Billings off a missed 3-point try from Kate Martin as time was operating out within the third quarter.

After main the primary quarter by 10 factors, the Valkyries started to misfire from 3-point vary and the Dream climbed again into the sport. Atlanta even led by as a lot as 43-37 after a step-back 3-pointer by Grey with 2:08 left within the half.

Golden State, nevertheless, closed with an 8-0 run that included 3-pointers by Thornton and Hayes and led 45-43 at halftime.

The Valkyries hit 17 of 32 first-half photographs (53.1 %) to 43.8 % for the Dream (14-for-32), however Atlanta scored 14 factors off 11 Golden State turnovers.

Billings, inserted into the beginning lineup, led the Valkyries with 11 factors in 11 minutes within the opening half. Grey had 16 and Brittney Griner 10 for Atlanta.

The Valkyries led 26-16 after the primary quarter as Veronica Burton hit all three of her long-distance makes an attempt for 9 factors. Billings had eight within the first quarter and made her solely 3-pointer.

In distinction to its earlier loss to Minnesota, the place Golden State gave up 25 factors within the first quarter, the Dream have been restricted to 6-for-17 (35.7 %) taking pictures within the opening quarter. Atlanta’s Grey had 9 factors within the quarter.