Valkyries vs. Liberty: Kaila Charles Scores 13 as Golden State's Bench Tops New York's 39-11 in 76-67 Win

Sabrina Ionescu went into halftime on Sunday with zero points. The New York Liberty went in with 29, their lowest first-half total of the season, and the 18,064 at Chase Center went to the concession stands feeling excellent about their life choices.

The Golden State Valkyries beat the Liberty 76-67, never trailed, led by as many as 22, and did most of the damage with people who don't usually get their names on the marquee. Kaila Charles came off the bench to score 13, tying her season high, and Golden State's reserves outscored New York's 39-11. If you only have time for one number from this box score, that's the one.

A Rock Fight Until It Wasn't

Neither team could throw it in the ocean early. Both missed their first eight 3-point attempts, which is a rough look for the two WNBA teams that, per the Valkyries, lean hardest on the 3 for their scoring. Golden State still led 20-15 after one, mostly because somebody had to.

New York hung around anyway. With 1:48 left in the half it was 30-29, and this looked like a game headed for a long slog of ugly possessions. Then Cecilia Zandalasini hit a step-back 3 as the shot clock expired, the Valkyries' first make from deep all day, and the lid came off. Golden State hit three straight from out there, closed the half on an 11-0 run and tacked on a bucket after the break. That's 13 unanswered, and it was suddenly 43-29.

The third quarter brought more of the same. A 9-0 run turned 47-36 into 56-36, and Janelle Salaun supplied the highlight of the game. With 3.7 seconds left in the period she caught a lob well beyond the arc, took two dribbles, leaned through contact and banked in a layup at the horn for a 64-48 lead. The Valkyries scored the first six of the fourth, and at 70-48 with 8:20 left, the only remaining question was how much of the bench would get to enjoy it.

To New York's credit, it didn't fold. The Liberty held Golden State to 12 points in the fourth, and the Valkyries didn't score at all after Kaitlyn Chen's floater with 3:54 left. Jonquel Jones hit a 24-footer, Han Xu hit a 25-footer, Rebekah Gardner scored twice in the last minute, and an 8-0 closing run made the final look a lot more respectable than the game had been.

The Second Unit Stole the Show

Charles got her 13 on 6-of-12 shooting in 23 minutes, with all six makes coming inside the arc, which is a nice way to contribute on a day when her team kept missing outside it. Salaun scored 10 in 14 minutes, Chen added eight in 13 and Tiffany Hayes had eight with two steals in 18. None of them started. All of them mattered.

The best player on the floor may have been a starter who barely shot. Veronica Burton had eight points, eight assists, six rebounds and zero turnovers, and finished a game-best plus-25 in 27 minutes. The Valkyries say they're now 9-0 when she has at least six assists. Kayla Thornton added 11 points and a plus-16 against the team she won a title with in 2024, two days after going scoreless against Atlanta. Zandalasini had 10 on just five shots.

New York's stars mostly got numbers without getting the game. Jones led everybody with 21 points and seven rebounds, shooting 5-of-8 and going 8-of-10 at the line. Breanna Stewart scored 15 but needed 11 shots and turned it over three times. Ionescu's scoreless first half was her fourth zero-point half of the season, per the AP, and she finished with nine points on 3-of-10 shooting and a team-worst minus-23. Behind them, the entire Liberty bench produced 11 points. Marine Johannes went 1-of-5, and Betnijah Laney-Hamilton and Raquel Carrera combined for zero points in 21 minutes.

The Last 1:48 of the Half

That's where the game flipped. Before it, New York had spent the better part of two quarters shooting poorly and was still within a point. After it, the Liberty spent the rest of the day chasing a number they never caught.

The irony is that Golden State did this despite losing the 3-point battle. New York finished 9-of-25 from deep and the Valkyries 7-of-28, a 25 percent night that would sink most teams. What saved them was everything else: 13 more shots, a 30-22 edge in the paint and only eight turnovers. When the 3s finally dropped, they just happened to arrive all at once, at the exact moment a tired-looking half was about to end.

Five Numbers That Tell It

• 39-11: Bench points. That's the ballgame.
• 29: New York's first-half points, its fewest in a first half this season.
• 15-6: Points off turnovers, favoring Golden State, as the Liberty gave it away 12 times.
• 65 to 52: Field-goal attempts, with the Valkyries getting 13 more cracks at it.
• 7-of-28: Golden State from 3. It won by nine anyway.

Third Place and a Road Trip

Golden State is 13-7 and 10-3 at Chase Center, with three straight wins to close a perfect home stand. The win breaks a tie with New York and gives the Valkyries the league's third-best record, behind only Minnesota and Las Vegas, the team noted. They've now beaten the Liberty twice, 87-70 in Brooklyn in May and now this, and those are the only two games all season in which New York has been held to 70 or fewer. After five days off, a five-game road trip starts Saturday in Atlanta.

New York drops to 12-8 and 6-4 on the road, with back-to-back losses and three defeats in its last four. There's no time to sulk. The Liberty go home to host Las Vegas on Tuesday in the Commissioner's Cup Championship.

The Understudies Took the Stage

The Liberty brought the names you'd put on the marquee. Golden State brought four reserves who combined for 39 and a lead that never once went away. Anyone who's ever walked into a Broadway theater, found the little slip in the program announcing an understudy and then watched that understudy steal the whole show knows how this one felt. New York, of all places, should recognize the plot.

Stats from the official box score via ESPN. Game notes from the Golden State Valkyries. Context as reported by the Associated Press.