Dream Beat Valkyries 80-69 in Game 6, Forcing the First Game 7 in WNBA History

The Atlanta Dream needed 6½ minutes Thursday to match their entire first-half scoring from Game 5. By the end of the first quarter they led the Golden State Valkyries 32-15, and they held on for an 80-69 win that evened the WNBA Finals at 3-3.

Game 7 is Saturday, Oct. 31, at Chase Center in San Francisco. Tipoff is 5 p.m. PT, 8 p.m. ET. Neither franchise has won a title, so a first-time champion will be crowned either way. It will be the first Game 7 in league history.

The game

Allisha Gray scored 23 points and Rhyne Howard added 21. Angel Reese had 15 points and 13 rebounds. Atlanta led 46-26 at halftime and by as many as 25.

Golden State had won Games 4 and 5, 67-62 and 64-55, on defense, and arrived one win from the title. Gabby Williams scored a game-high 26 and Tiffany Hayes had 15. The Valkyries cut it to 77-66 on two Laeticia Amihere free throws with 1:57 left, but Gray hit a late three to end the run.

"The way we started in the first quarter was unacceptable on our end," Valkyries guard Veronica Burton said.

Valkyries coach Natalie Nakase said the Dream were desperate and her team did not match it. "This is the Finals. The physicality is supposed to be up," she said. "We just did not do that."

Reese said the Dream's shooting slump was bound to break. "I always told the girls it's not going to rain forever," she said.

Williams refused to blame the hour. "They played at the same time as us, right? So it's not an excuse. We have to be better."

How a Finals game ended up at 12:30 p.m.

The Dream played their playoff home games at State Farm Arena, home of the NBA's Atlanta Hawks. It seats about 17,000. The Hawks had a game there Thursday night at 8 p.m. ET, and the building needed time to change over.

The Dream's regular-season home, Gateway Center Arena, seats 3,500. State Farm becomes the team's permanent home next season.

The Dream published an open letter Tuesday saying it raised concerns about conflicting games with the WNBA two months ago and was ignored. Sources close to the league told CNBC the opposite: that securing a backup arena was the team's job, and that the league issued playoff dates in December 2025. The Dream never lined up another venue besides Gateway.

The WNBA runs its own scheduling division, separate from the NBA. The NBA was brought in only in recent days, according to two people familiar with the matter who spoke to CNBC.

The talks included both ownership groups, WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, Hawks CEO Steve Koonin and Versant, which holds the Game 6 media rights.

The options on the table:

• Move the Hawks game.
• Play Game 6 at Gateway in front of 3,500.
• Shift Game 6 to Wednesday, Friday or Saturday at State Farm.
• Move Game 7 to Tuesday.

Each had a problem. The Hawks also played Wednesday. USA Network had WWE's Friday Night SmackDown in primetime and the Breeders' Cup on Saturday afternoon. State Farm had a Young Miko concert booked Saturday night. A Friday-to-Tuesday turnaround for Games 6 and 7 was reportedly considered before the league settled on Thursday midday.

Reaction

The start time was 9:30 a.m. on the West Coast. Valkyries co-owner Peter Guber said he was not worried about the home crowd, and the team set up a viewing area at Chase Center's Thrive City. Ole Miss women's coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin posted that she would rather play anywhere else than have a 12:30 tip for a Finals game.

Warriors coach Steve Kerr, who works for the same ownership group as the Valkyries, joked that it beat "having it at the YMCA that night in front of 75 people."

Warriors forward Draymond Green put the blame on the arena's ownership structure on his podcast. The Hawks' owners do not own the Dream, he said, so they have no reason to give up their own slot. "Why would they compromise their money for a team that they don't own?" Green said.

Had Golden State won, the Valkyries' trophy celebration would have been moved to a practice court so the arena could be reset for the Hawks.

The Dream announced a sellout for Game 6 on Wednesday, and the upper level showed only scattered empty seats despite worries about work and school.

What's next

The series has been a defensive grind. Through six games the Dream are shooting 37.2 percent and the Valkyries 34.5 percent. The winning team has scored 68 points or fewer in three of the six games. Game 6 was Atlanta's offensive breakout, and Golden State's defense will have to answer it at home.

The Game 7 tip time is set and no arena conflict is reported. The Dream and the league have not reconciled their accounts of who was supposed to solve the Game 6 problem, and nobody has said what will change before next season's playoff dates.