Valkyries Beat Dream 64-55, Move One Win From First WNBA Title

The Golden State Valkyries defeated the Atlanta Dream 64-55 in Game 5 of the WNBA Finals on Monday night at Chase Center, taking a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven series and moving within one win of the franchise's first championship. The result, confirmed by the team's official game recap published on the Valkyries' WNBA.com site and corroborated by live coverage from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, sets up a pivotal Game 6 in Atlanta on Thursday.

Golden State, which entered the league as an expansion team in 2025, is in just its second season of existence. The WNBA's official 2026 playoff bracket page lists the Valkyries as 3-2 series leaders over Atlanta, which is chasing its own first title in franchise history.

Key numbers from Game 5

Center Kiah Stokes finished with 13 points, eight rebounds and three blocked shots, extending a streak in which she has recorded at least three blocks in six consecutive playoff games, according to the Valkyries' recap. Guard Veronica Burton matched Stokes with 13 points and eight rebounds while adding a playoff career-high four blocks, a total that ties a mark set by Diana Taurasi in 2009 for most blocks by a guard in a Finals game. Tiffany Hayes and Cecilia Zandalasini each scored 12 for Golden State.

Atlanta's offense stalled for long stretches. Rhyne Howard led the Dream with 20 points, but Angel Reese, the team's leading scorer for most of the postseason, was held to seven points, a postseason low, per the official recap. Allisha Gray added 12 points, six rebounds and five assists. The Dream shot just 3 of 20 from three-point range (15 percent) and committed seven turnovers in the fourth quarter alone, managing only two field goals in that period, according to the Journal-Constitution's live updates. Golden State led 25-22 at halftime; Atlanta's 22 first-half points were the Dream's lowest total for any half this postseason.

A back-and-forth series

The Finals have swung repeatedly. Golden State won Game 1 at home, 68-64, behind 26 points from Gabby Williams. Atlanta answered by taking Game 2, 79-65, as Reese posted 30 points, 16 rebounds, three assists and two blocks. The series shifted to State Farm Arena in Atlanta for Game 3, where the Dream routed the Valkyries 97-71 in front of a sold-out crowd of 17,099 to move ahead 2-1, with Reese posting her third straight double-double at 21 points and 12 rebounds, according to an Associated Press account of that game. Golden State then won a defensive battle in Game 4, 67-62, on the road to even the series at 2-2, setting up Monday's pivotal Game 5 back at Chase Center.

The series has drawn record attention for a league accustomed to playing in the shadow of men's professional sports. Game 1, a 68-64 Golden State win at Chase Center, averaged 2.1 million viewers across NBC and Peacock, up 11 percent from last year's series opener and the most-watched WNBA Finals Game 1 on record, according to NBC Sports' viewership release. The Valkyries have sold out every home game at the 18,064-seat Chase Center across their first two seasons, a run that has made the expansion franchise one of the league's most closely watched business stories as well as an on-court contender.

The Valkyries reached this Finals by sweeping the defending-champion Las Vegas Aces in the semifinals. For Atlanta, built around Reese, Howard and Gray, the loss marks the first time this postseason the team has faced elimination. A win in either of the final two games would give the Dream their first WNBA title; a loss in Game 6 would hand Golden State the championship in just the franchise's second year of existence.

The Valkyries' rise has been rapid even by expansion-team standards. In their 2025 debut season, they became the first expansion franchise in WNBA history to reach the playoffs in its inaugural year, clinching a berth with an 84-80 win over the Dallas Wings, before losing in the first round to the top-seeded Minnesota Lynx. Along the way they led the league in home attendance and became the first team in WNBA history to sell 10,000 season tickets, filling the 18,064-seat Chase Center for all 22 home games. A year later, with much of that same roster, they are two wins from a championship.

Reaction from the winning locker room

Valkyries head coach Natalie Nakase singled out Burton's two-way performance after the game, praising the fourth-year guard's defense alongside her scoring.

"I think she's the best point guard right now in the league."

Stokes, who has anchored Golden State's interior defense throughout the postseason, was blunt about what comes next. "It's do or die," she said of Game 6, according to the team's official recap.

What's next

Game 6 is scheduled for Thursday at 12:30 p.m. ET at State Farm Arena in Atlanta, a matchup listed on the league's official game page. The unusual midday tip-off reflects scheduling constraints the WNBA has navigated throughout the series, after Games 3 and 4 were also shifted to accommodate Atlanta Hawks home dates and other events at the city's arenas. Should Atlanta force a seventh game, it would be played back at Chase Center on Oct. 31. A Golden State win Thursday would make the Valkyries the first team in WNBA history to win a championship in its second season, and would add another chapter to a run that has also included a franchise-record streak of blocked shots from Stokes through the playoffs.