Dream vs. Valkyries: Allisha Gray and Rhyne Howard Fire Atlanta Past Golden State to Force WNBA Finals Game 7

Angel Reese kept telling her teammates the shooting slump would not last forever. On a Thursday afternoon in Atlanta, the forecast finally changed.

Allisha Gray scored 23 points, Rhyne Howard added 21 and the Atlanta Dream buried the Golden State Valkyries 80-69 in Game 6 of the WNBA Finals at State Farm Arena, evening the series at 3-3. After scoring 62 and 55 points in back-to-back losses, Atlanta hung 32 on Golden State in the first quarter alone, built a 25-point lead and then survived a late Valkyries push to force a winner-take-all Game 7 on Saturday night in San Francisco.

A First Quarter Straight Out of a Shooting Drill

The 12:30 p.m. EDT tipoff took plenty of heat in the days leading up to the game, but the Dream had announced a sellout and the building looked like it, with only scattered empty seats up top despite worries that work and school would thin the crowd. Those who showed up got a show.

It was 6-5 Atlanta early before the Dream rattled off 13 unanswered points, including two 3-pointers from Jordin Canada, to go up 19-5. Atlanta made 6 of 8 from deep and 11 of 15 shots overall in the opening quarter and led 32-15 after one. For context, the Dream had scored 22 points in the entire first half of Game 5. They matched that in the first 6:30 on Thursday.

Reese joined the party with a corner 3 in the second quarter, Atlanta kept pouring it on, and the halftime score read 46-26. Golden State made only 9 of its 34 first-half shots, many of them contested by a Dream defense that suddenly looked like the one that swept through the first two rounds.

The Valkyries Make It Interesting, Briefly

Howard opened the second half with another 3. Golden State's Veronica Burton was assessed a flagrant foul on a Howard drive midway through the third after an officials' review. Kaila Charles finally gave Golden State something to cheer with a 3 to close the quarter, trimming the margin to 63-47.

The Valkyries got within 68-55 in the fourth before Gray and Reese answered with 3s to push it to 74-55. Then Golden State made one last charge. Gabby Williams hit a 3 at 4:06, went to the line twice, and Laeticia Amihere knocked down free throws at 2:36 and 1:56. Williams converted a three-point play with 1:15 left to make it 77-69, capping a 12-3 burst that started from 74-57. The comeback window was open for about 19 seconds of game clock. Gray slammed it shut with a 22-foot 3 off a Reese assist with 56 seconds left.

Three Minutes That Decided Everything

Golden State never recovered from those three minutes in the first quarter. Atlanta's 13-0 run turned a one-point game into a 14-point lead, and the Valkyries led for exactly zero seconds after that. Their largest lead all day was two points. When you spend 40 minutes chasing, a late run usually ends up as a footnote, and this one did.

Gray and Howard Find Their Range

Gray went 8 of 12 from the field and 5 of 7 from 3, adding six rebounds, three blocks and two steals. Howard was 6 of 11, 4 of 6 from deep and 5 of 5 at the line with four assists. Together they went 9 of 13 from beyond the arc, which is roughly what happens when two shooters who had been bricking for a week suddenly find the rim again.

Reese did not shoot it well, going 5 of 18 with six turnovers, but she still piled up 15 points, 14 rebounds and six assists. Naz Hillmon was a quiet plus-15 with seven points on 3-of-4 shooting.

"It's been frustrating for all of us not being able to shoot great ... and open shots that we have been getting, not hitting them at the right time," Reese said. "And I always told the girls it's not going to rain forever."

Dream coach Karl Smesko framed it as a return to basics. "We played with a different spacing and pace," he said.

For Golden State, Williams scored 26 on 8-of-22 shooting and Tiffany Hayes added 15 on an efficient 6 of 10. The rest of the operation sputtered. Burton went 2 of 13, including 0 of 6 from 3, and Kiah Stokes was held scoreless in 20 minutes with a team-worst minus-25. Amihere gave the Valkyries a spark off the bench with five points, 10 rebounds and a plus-14.

"The way we started in the first quarter was unacceptable on our end," Burton said. "You can't let that happen out of the gate."

Coach Natalie Nakase did not sugarcoat it either. "We knew they were going to be desperate," she said. "This is the Finals. The physicality is supposed to be up. You want to have that physicality. You want to have that fight. You want to have that give-it-all mentality. We just did not do that."

Splash Math

• 13 of 30: Atlanta from 3-point range (43 percent), compared with 7 of 27 for Golden State.
• 32-15: The first-quarter score, essentially the whole ballgame.
• 22 of 70: Golden State's shooting from the field (31 percent).
• 8 to 2: Atlanta's edge in blocks, with Gray swatting three.
• 25: Atlanta's largest lead, against a Golden State high-water mark of two.

Winner Take All

The series is tied 3-3, with a decisive Game 7 at Chase Center on Saturday night. Each team is chasing its first championship. The trend that matters most heading into it: through six games, the team leading at halftime has won every single one.

Atlanta also has a trend in its pocket. Per the AP, the Dream are now 16-0 this season when Reese makes at least one 3. She hit two on Thursday.

Golden State, meanwhile, blew its first chance to close and has to regroup fast after digging its deepest first-quarter hole of the series. The good news for the Valkyries is that Game 7 is at home, where they won Games 1 and 5. The bad news is that Atlanta won Game 2 in that same building.

Here Comes the Sun

Reese had the line of the day, and she earned it: "The sun peaked out a little bit more today and gave us an opportunity to see Game 7."

The Dream spent two games in a monsoon and finally found the umbrella. Now both teams get what neither franchise has ever had: one game, in San Francisco, for a first title.

Stats from the official box score via ESPN. Postgame quotes as reported by the Associated Press.