Valkyries vs. Dream: Gabby Williams Scores 13 Straight Points in the Fourth to Beat Atlanta, 78-75

For three quarters, Gabby Williams was a rumor. She had three points, Golden State's ball handlers were being treated like unattended luggage by an Atlanta defense that would finish with 14 steals, and Allisha Gray's running layup had just put the Dream up 65-63 with 3:50 to go.

Williams scored on the next trip, and then she simply refused to stop. Every Golden State point from there until the final seconds belonged to her, 13 in a row, and the Valkyries beat the Dream 78-75 on Friday night in front of 18,064 at Chase Center. It was their second win over Atlanta in three days, and it was considerably more stressful than the first.

Fourteen Lead Changes, Zero Exhales

Kiah Stokes set the tone inside the first two minutes by swatting an Angel Reese layup and burying a 3 from the left wing at the other end. She scored Golden State's first four points and had four blocks by the end of the opening quarter, and Atlanta still led 21-20 because Jordin Canada hit a step-back 3 with 1.9 seconds on the clock.

The second quarter was ugly for the home side. Golden State scored 12 points and, according to the team, turned it over a season-high 12 times before halftime, with the Dream collecting nine steals. Canada already had 13 when Atlanta took a 35-32 lead into the break.

The third quarter played like a pickup-game argument over who had next. Reese scored six, Kaitlyn Chen's 26-foot 3 flipped the lead to Golden State at 42-41, and Tiffany Hayes scored all eight of her third-quarter points in a back-and-forth that ended with Atlanta up 55-51. Chen tied it with four straight early in the fourth, and then the ties just piled up: 59, 61, 63, 65, 67, 69. The official count finished at 14 lead changes, and the Valkyries tallied 15 ties, which is a lot of cardio for the people in the seats.

Swats, Step-Backs and One Brutal Stat Line

Williams finished with 16 points in 22 minutes. Thirteen of them came in the fourth, when she went 4-for-4 from the field and 5-of-8 at the line against a team that had spent the first 30 minutes keeping her quiet.

Stokes is the reason the Valkyries were still close enough for any of that to matter. She posted season highs of 13 points and seven blocks, and the team says those seven are the most in a game in franchise history and tied for the most by anyone in the WNBA this season. She shot 5-of-7, hit two 3s and, per the AP, logged her seventh game this season with three or more blocks before fouling out.

Chen (13 points on 5-of-9) and Hayes (12 on 4-of-6, plus a season-high five assists and, less charmingly, five turnovers) combined for 25, more than double Atlanta's entire bench.

Canada was magnificent in the loss, scoring a season-high 23 on 7-of-11 shooting, 3-for-3 from deep and 6-for-6 at the line. Reese piled up 15 points, 12 rebounds and a game-high six steals, good for her 12th double-double of the year. Then there was Rhyne Howard, who had the kind of night you delete from the group chat: 2-of-16 from the field and 1-of-8 from 3. Her nine points did lift her to 2,631 for her career, good for third on the Dream's career scoring list, so at least the evening comes with a plaque.

Sixteen Seconds at 69-All

Gray's running layup at 2:35 gave Atlanta a 69-67 lead, and it turned out to be the Dream's last one. Williams tied it on a contested layup at 2:16. With 1:39 left she rose for a 10-footer to put Golden State ahead, and on the next Atlanta possession she ripped the ball loose and took it the other way for a layup at 1:23.

That's a four-point swing in 16 seconds from one player, on both ends of the floor, with the whole game sitting right there for anyone brave enough to grab it.

Atlanta never quite went away. Howard made two free throws and Reese split a pair, but Williams kept getting fouled and kept making one of two, three separate times in the final 1:04. Not elegant. Extremely effective. Veronica Burton finally interrupted the solo act by making both free throws with 5.7 seconds left for a 78-72 lead, which turned Howard's 25-foot 3 at the 2.3-second mark into a footnote.

The Numbers That Explain It

• The shooting gap: Golden State shot 44 percent (27-of-62). Atlanta shot 34 percent (23-of-67), with Howard's 2-of-16 doing a lot of the damage.
• The block party: The Valkyries had nine blocks, and Stokes had seven of them by herself.
• The turnover problem: Atlanta scored 20 points off 18 Golden State turnovers. The Valkyries scored seven off 14 Dream giveaways.
• The fast break: Atlanta won that column 17-6 and still lost the game.
• The bench: Golden State's reserves outscored Atlanta's 35-12.

Season Series Secured

Golden State is 12-7, 9-3 at home, and the team says it sits tied for fourth in the league standings. The win also clinched the season series with Atlanta, a solid return for a group that arrived at this two-game set off losses to Minnesota and Las Vegas.

The Dream fall to 12-6, 6-4 on the road. They came to San Francisco with four straight wins and had not dropped two in a row all season, so this trip counts as a genuine first. The AP billed this as a meeting of two of the league's top five clubs, and the finish held up its end of that bargain.

Atlanta visits Seattle on Saturday. New York comes to Chase Center on Sunday, the last home date before the Valkyries leave for five straight on the road.

Encore Energy

Every great live band has a night where it noodles through the deep cuts for an hour, tests everyone's patience, then rips the roof off during the encore. That was Williams. For three quarters she was barely on the setlist. Over the last 3:31 she played every hit she had, and the sellout crowd (the team's 35th straight, if you're counting) went home humming the only part that mattered.

Stats from the official box score via ESPN. Additional details from the Associated Press and the Golden State Valkyries.