Valkyries vs. Mystics: Gabby Williams and Veronica Burton Push Franchise-Record Win Streak to Nine

With 5:55 left on Saturday night, the Washington Mystics led 65-59 at Chase Center, had dominated the paint and the glass, and looked like the team most likely to end the best run in Golden State Valkyries history. Then the Valkyries made four straight threes from four different players, and the whole thing flipped in less than four minutes.

Gabby Williams, who bookended that barrage, led everybody on her team with 18 points, Veronica Burton posted 11 points and 11 assists, and the Valkyries won 74-69 for their ninth straight. It's a franchise record, and at this point it's starting to feel less like a hot streak and more like a personality.

A Rock Fight With Four Mood Swings

Nobody was going to mistake the first half for a shooting clinic. Washington went up 18-10 on Michaela Onyenwere's three with 33 seconds left in the first quarter, and it held an 18-13 edge after one. Golden State then took over with a 23-6 surge, including an 8-0 stretch in the middle of the second, and walked into the break with a 33-28 lead. The Mystics scored 10 points in the entire second quarter, which is more or less what Golden State's defense is designed to produce.

Halftime fixed Washington in a hurry. The Mystics poured in 29 in the third, with an 8-0 run that turned a 35-28 deficit into a 36-35 lead, and they started living in the paint. Sonia Citron took a hard fall beneath the Valkyries' basket after colliding with Cecilia Zandalasini on a rebound with 7:19 left in the frame, but she came back and finished with 12 points on 5-of-6 shooting. It was 57-52 Washington heading into the fourth, and it stayed uncomfortable until the moment it wasn't.

Avengers, Assemble (From 25 Feet)

The closing sequence belongs in the team's highlight reel for the year. Williams started it with a three at 5:55 that cut it to 65-62. Kiah Stokes, not exactly the first name you circle in a late-game scouting report, hit from deep to tie it. Kayla Thornton drilled a 25-footer off a Williams assist at 4:14 to take the lead. Burton buried a 28-footer, also off a Williams feed, with 2:14 left to make it 71-65.

That's a 12-0 run made up entirely of threes, from four different people, on a night when Washington's interior advantage should have decided everything. When Shakira Austin finally stopped the bleeding with a fadeaway at 1:44, Burton found Williams for another three at 1:23 and 74-67. Kiki Iriafen's layup at 1:03 was the last score of the game. The Valkyries finished on a 15-4 run, and the Mystics had nothing left.

The Burton and Williams Show

Burton's line was the night's best argument for reading past the scoring column. She posted the seventh double-double of her career and her second this season, added five rebounds and two steals, and finished a game-best plus-16 in 33 minutes with just one turnover. The team notes that the 11 assists left her one short of her season high.

Williams shot 7 of 15, and for most of this game the 2-of-7 from three looked like a problem. It turned out she was just saving them. She added five assists and three steals, and she shot or assisted at least four of those last five made threes. Thornton gave Golden State 11 points on three makes from deep, and Janelle Salaun chipped in nine off the bench.

Austin was outstanding in a loss, scoring 18 and matching her career high with 16 rebounds while going 8 of 9 at the line. Citron was efficient, and Onyenwere hit three threes and dished five assists. The rest of the backcourt had a rougher night: Georgia Amoore went 3 of 11 overall and 2 of 9 from three.

Where It Actually Flipped

The four straight threes get the headlines, but look at what Washington did around them. The Mystics entered as the league's leading rebounding team, coming off a 45-board night against Portland on Thursday that included 19 offensive rebounds, and they won the glass 37-26 here. They also won the paint by a ridiculous 40-16.

They still lost, because they gave it away 14 times and Golden State turned those into 22 points. The Valkyries turned it over just eight times, for eight Mystics points. Coach Natalie Nakase had said before the game that her team needed to be more of an aggressor, and in the last six minutes it finally looked that way. Washington scored 12 points in the fourth quarter. Golden State's defense entered the night giving up a league-low 76.1 points a game, and 69.2 across the previous five, so holding Washington to 69 was basically right on brand.

Stats That Matter

• 22-8: Points off turnovers for Golden State, the number that undid all of Washington's work inside.
• 12 of 33: The Valkyries from three, against 6 of 23 for the Mystics. A two-to-one edge in makes covers a lot of sins.
• 40-16: Washington in the paint, the rare margin that big that ends up as a footnote.
• 15-4: How the Valkyries closed the game, starting from that 65-59 hole.

What It Means

Golden State moves to 19-7 and 11-3 at home, with 13 wins in its last 15 games. The team's previous franchise-best streak was already a story at eight, and now it's nine, along with a 7-0 all-time record against Washington. A crowd of 18,064 also kept alive another run: the Valkyries have sold out every Chase Center game since their first season began last year.

Washington falls to 12-12 and 7-6 on the road after a second straight loss, including that 75-56 defeat to Portland. The good news is it gets an immediate rematch. The teams meet again on Monday in the same building, the final game for both before the All-Star break.

The Takeaway

Good teams survive nights like this. Great ones make you feel like you were never really winning at all. Washington owned the paint, owned the glass, led by six with under six minutes to go, and still left San Francisco with a loss. If the Mystics want a different ending on Monday, they had better find a way to keep four different Valkyries from turning into Steph Curry at the same time.

Stats from the official box score via ESPN. Game details as reported by the Associated Press. Team notes from the Golden State Valkyries' game recap.