Key events
“We know if we don’t keep it up, we go home,” Dream guard Allisha Gray says in the half-time interview. “I’m not ready for my season to be over yet.”
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End of first half: Valkyries 26-46 Dream
Golden State found some momentum at the end of the second quarter, getting a three-pointer from Tiffany Hayes and then a layup from Laeticia Amihere off an Atlanta turnover. Those were the Valkyries’ first points off a turnover of the game. The Dream went the final three minutes of the quarter without scoring, but their 20-point lead is comfortable heading into the second half.
It’s too soon to say we’re certainly headed to a Game 7, but it feels like the Dream are one big run from putting this one away. They have more made three-pointers (eight) than Golden State have made field goals (seven). Rhyne Howard has 11 points and went 3-for-5 from deep. Hayes leads the Valkyries with 11, but as a team they are just 26% from the field.
Valkyries 21-46 Dream, 2.31, second quarter
The Valkyries missed three layups in a span of two minutes, which just about sums up their first half. Meanwhile, this sums up Atlanta’s first half: the Dream are 15-0 (!) this season when Angel Reese hits at least one three-pointer. The record for a half-time lead in the WNBA finals is 22 points.
Valkyries 21-44 Dream, 4.00, second quarter
Angel Reese hits her first three of the game, meaning that all five of Atlanta’s starters have hit at least one from deep so far. The Valkyries are looking uncharacteristically sleepy. Allisha Gray put the Dream up 22 points with a coast-to-coast layup – the kind of play Golden State and their league-leading defense don’t usually allow. Gabby Williams and Veronica Burton are a combined 2-for-15 from the field. Is the early tip-off time affecting them?
Valkyries 17-37 Dream, 5.52, second quarter
Natalie Nakase calls a time out as Atlanta stretch their lead to 22 points. The Dream’s ball movement has been excellent in this first half, with Angel Reese and her five assists leading the way.
Valkyries 17-37 Dream, 6.30, second quarter
Rhyne Howard is up to three three-pointers, and the Valkyries cannot buy a basket. The Dream have now hit more threes than they made in all of Game 4 (four) and Game 5 (six). Karl Smesko, mic’d up for USA Network during the break, tells his Atlanta team he wants them to keep playing at a “100-point pace”.
Valkyries 15-32 Dream, end of first quarter
It looks like it’s 9.30am for the Valkyries. Their defense is out of sorts. The Dream, on the other hand, may have just played their best quarter of the entire series. They scored more points there than in the entire first half (22) of Game 5.
End of first quarter: Valkyries 15-32 Dream
If Atlanta keep up this shooting form, it could be a long afternoon for Golden State. The Dream got the start they needed after their Game 5 disappointment, hitting six of their eight three-point attempts and shooting 11 for 15 from the field. The Valkyries got a pair of threes from Gabby Williams and Cecilia Zandalasini, but they are 5 for 17 from the floor.
Atlanta’s 32 points are the most by either team in any quarter this series. Allisha Gray leads all scorers with eight points.
Valkyries 10-27 Dream, 2.00, first quarter
The Dream couldn’t have scripted a better start. They opened the game on a 13-0 start and have made six of their first eight three-pointers. Four of their five starters have hit a three so far, including two each from Rhyne Howard and Allisha Gray. Atlanta are dictating the pace of play. DeWanna Bonner is their first player off the bench.
Valkyries 5-11 Dream, 5.04, first quarter
Angel Reese scores her first points of the afternoon on a drive that draws a foul from Kiah Stokes. She hits the free throw to put the Dream up 11-5. The Reese-Stokes matchup has been the standout matchup of the past two games. Golden State are off to a cold start, with seven straight misses.
Valkyries 5-8 Dream, 6.41, first quarter
Valkyries point guard Veronica Burton scored the game’s first points with a floater jumper, but Allisha Gray and Naz Hillmon punched back quickly with a pair of threes for Atlanta. The Dream needed to start this game on a fast note, and they have. The home crowd is loving it in Atlanta.
Starting lineups
We should be under way shortly in Atlanta. Here are the starters for both teams.
Atlanta Dream
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Jordin Canada (#3)
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Allisha Gray (#15)
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Rhyne Howard (#10)
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Naz Hillmon (#00)
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Angel Reese (#5)
Golden State Valkyries
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Veronica Burton (#22)
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Tiffany Hayes (#15)
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Gabby Williams (#1)
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Kaila Charles (#6)
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Kiah Stokes (#41)
“The word of the day is mimosa,” play-by-play announcer Kate Scott jokes on the USA Network broadcast. She’s kidding – the real word of the day is turnovers because of how defense-minded these teams are – but I have enjoyed seeing how WNBA fans are making the best of the matinee circumstances. Bars in the Bay Area are doing breakfast pop-ups for the early start. Another women’s sports bar in Chicago built out reserved work station areas so fans can work while watching the game. Other bars around the country put in rush orders for coffee, milk and matcha to match their normal offerings.
Noted women’s sports supporter Flavor Flav even wrote up an official sick-day note for fans.
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As someone who covered Veronica Burton during her college career at Northwestern, I would be remiss not to bring up how she has stepped up for the Valkyries in the past two games. In Game 5, she scored 13 points and blocked four shots, tying the record set by Diana Taurasi in 2009 for the most blocks by a guard in a game.
Valkyries coach Natalie Nakase called her the “best point guard in the league”.
A refresh on the action in Game 5 as we get closer to Game 6’s tip-off:
And a plug for our WNBA 30 newsletter, helmed by the fantastic Jordan Robinson, who is one of the best out there at covering the league. If you’re not already subscribed, make sure you sign up so you can read her thoughts once this series wraps up:
The Dream have said that even with the matinee tip-off, this game will be a sellout. More than 10,000 tickets were sold in the first 90 minutes they were put on sale.
The Hawks-Cavaliers game tonight was pushed from 7pm ET to 8pm ET, so there will be enough time to switch the court from Dream to Hawks branding.
It’s still probably going to be a bit of a tight turnaround, especially if accounting for a title celebration.
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“I still believe in our team. I still believe that we can win this and one game at a time,” Angel Reese said after the Dream’s Game 5 loss. “We’re just going to take it one game at a time and just get back to who we are.”
Reese has been incredible at points of this series – specifically in Games 2 and 3, when she had 30 and 21 points respectively as the Dream won both games. But she’s been kept quiet in the past two. She had eight points and nine rebounds in Game 4, followed by seven points and 15 boards in Game 5. It was the first time this entire season that she’d scored in single digits in back-to-back-games.
“It doesn’t matter what time [Game 6] is. At the end of the day, we just need 94 feet, two hoops in each other,” Valkyries center Kiah Stokes said. “It’s a close-out game. Atlanta is a great team and we don’t want to give them basically any life. So as much as we love ‘Ballhalla,’ we don’t want to come back here. So we need to go in with the mentality that we have to win. It’s do or die.”
When the Guardian staff made our predictions for the finals, Stokes was a near-unanimous pick for the player most likely to break out in this series. That was a smart call: she has been a defensive force, with three or more blocks in all five games. She also added 13 points in Game 5, tying Veronica Burton for Golden State’s team high. Chants of “MVP” broke out for Stokes at Chase Center on Monday.
Preamble
Hello and welcome to our live coverage of Game 6 of the WNBA finals! Yes, it’s not even noon ET on a Thursday, and we’re getting ready for a potential championship-clincher. If you’re on the US west coast, you’re probably enjoying basketball with your breakfast. If you’re in Europe, you may be getting ready for dinner. If you’re still up in the middle of the night/morning in Australia, cheers to you.
Why is a game of this magnitude being played at midday on a weekday? The Atlanta Dream’s normal home, Gateway Center Arena, seats only about 3,500 people. The Dream have played all of their playoff games through their historic run to the finals at the Atlanta Hawks’ State Farm Arena, which fits more than 17,000 fans. The Hawks have a game later tonight, and all of the relevant parties – the WNBA, NBA, the Dream and the Golden State Valkyries – spent the weekend working out a solution. The Dream said this was the best option, but also that their concerns to find a suitable venue ahead of time did not receive adequate attention.
Quick Guide
WNBA finals 2026
Show
Schedule
Best-of-seven series. All times US Eastern Daylight Time (EDT).
Sat 17 Oct Game 1: Golden State 68, Atlanta 64
Mon 19 Oct Game 2: Atlanta 79, Golden State 65
Wed 21 Oct Game 3: Atlanta 97, Golden State 71
Sat 24 Oct Game 4: Golden State 67, Atlanta 62
Mon 26 Oct Game 5: Golden State 64, Atlanta 55
Thu 29 Oct Game 6: Golden State at Atlanta, 12.30pm (USA/CNBC)
Sat 31 Oct Game 7: Atlanta at Golden State, 8pm* (USA/CNBC)
*-if necessary
How to watch
In the US, the series will air on NBC, USA Network and CNBC, with all games streaming on Peacock. In the UK, it will be carried by Sky Sports. In Australia, fans can watch through WNBA League Pass, with selected coverage also available through ESPN.
It’s unfortunate that this scheduling snafu took up a lot of the airspace the past few days around what has been a pretty fantastic finals. The Valkyries – in just year two of existence as an expansion franchise – have a 3-2 series lead. Kiah Stokes’s star turn in Games 3 and 4 put Golden State in position to seal the deal today. But Atlanta won’t go quietly: their star Angel Reese has been quiet the past two games of the series, but if she can find the form of her standout performances from Games 2 and 3, this could be a different story. A Dream win would send the series back to Golden State for a Game 7 on Saturday.
When the Bay Area was awarded an expansion team three years ago, Valkyries owner Joe Lacob made the bold promise of a championship within their first five years. Let’s see if that vision comes true today.
Tipoff is 12.30pm ET (5.30pm BST). More to come!
Ella will be here shortly. In the meantime here’s the latest on what led to today’s surprise matinee.
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/sport/live/2026/oct/29/golden-state-valkyries-v-atlanta-dream-wnba-finals-2026-game-6-live-buildup
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