Valkyries vs. Sky: Tiffany Hayes Drops Season-High 22 as Golden State Swipes a Franchise-Record 16 Steals

Tiffany Hayes needed 17 minutes on Wednesday night to do something the Golden State Valkyries say no one in WNBA history had done. She came off the bench for a season-high 22 points, six rebounds, five assists and three steals, and the team's notes call her the first player ever to reach those four marks in less than 20 minutes of action.

The Valkyries turned a sluggish start into a 91-71 rout of the Chicago Sky at Chase Center, their fifth straight win, and they did it with a franchise-record 16 steals. Golden State was missing its starting center and its top reserve, and by the end it hardly seemed to matter.

Chicago Had a Plan for About 12 Minutes

The Sky came out looking like the team with the better idea. The restricted area produced 12 of their 24 points in the opening period, Courtney Vandersloot made her first three shots, and Chicago led 24-16 after one, with Golden State stumbling to a 7-of-20 start that included 3 of 10 from deep. The Valkyries were playing without Kiah Stokes, who was in the concussion protocol, and Janelle Salaun, who had soreness in her right knee. Laeticia Amihere got her first career start and Ashten Prechtel played a career-high 18 minutes, which is a fun way of saying the frontcourt was held together with tape.

Then Hayes checked in and things got weird for Chicago. Her first four shots all fell. There was a three, then a layup off her own inbounds steal, and in the second quarter she added an and-one and a layup that put Golden State ahead. Golden State won that period 27-16 with an 8-0 run in the middle of it and took a 43-40 lead to the break, with Hayes already at 11.

The third is where the Sky came apart. Chicago was within 59-55 with 2:24 left in the quarter when the Valkyries scored 10 straight. Hayes started it with a three-point play after taking a shot to the face on her drive, then found Kaila Charles for a fadeaway and Kaitlyn Chen for a three from the right wing, and Gabby Williams finished the run with a steal and score. It was 72-58 after three. The lead eventually reached 23, and the fourth quarter was basically a victory lap.

Seventeen Minutes of Pure Nonsense

Hayes went 8 of 11 from the field, 5 of 7 at the line, and finished plus-23 in those 17 minutes. Nine of her points came in the third, when the game was actually decided. That's the whole pitch for a bench scorer: she shows up when the offense is stuck, solves the problem and goes to sit down. Hayes added real defensive bite, too, including that inbounds steal that got her going.

She had help. Charles added 15 points, five rebounds and three steals off the bench. Veronica Burton had 13 points and six rebounds, Williams scored 13 with three steals, and Cecilia Zandalasini chipped in 12 with four rebounds and two blocks. Five Valkyries in double figures with two rotation bigs out is a depth flex. Prechtel even made the first free throws of her career, going 3 of 3 in the second quarter, which feels about right for a night when everything eventually fell Golden State's way.

Chicago's best player was Kamilla Cardoso, who scored 20 on 7 of 13 shooting in 22 minutes and kept punishing the Valkyries inside. Natasha Cloud had nine assists to go with nine points and Rachel Banham hit three threes for 11 off the bench. But Vandersloot never scored again after those first three makes and finished with six, and DiJonai Carrington went 1 for 9 for three points. Nobody else picked up the slack after halftime.

Ten Straight, and the Sky Fell

The turning point was that 10-0 run late in the third. Up to then Chicago had absorbed every Golden State push, and a four-point game with two minutes left in the quarter was entirely playable. Hayes had a hand in three of the four baskets, either scoring or setting them up, and Williams' steal at the end was the exact kind of play the Valkyries spent all night making. In under 90 seconds a tight game became a 14-point one, and the Sky never recovered.

The Valkyries Were Everywhere

• 16: Golden State's steals, a franchise record, with eight different players recording at least one and four finishing with three.
• 25-18: The Valkyries' edge in points off turnovers. Chicago coughed it up 18 times.
• 48-24: Golden State's edge in bench points. Exactly double, led by Hayes and Charles combining for 37.
• 15-5: Fast-break points, Valkyries. Steals are fun, but this is what they buy you.

Five Straight and Closing In

Golden State moved to 24-9, 14-4 at home, and has won five in a row and 14 of its last 16. That's already one more win than last year's 23, and the AP notes the Valkyries could lock up a playoff berth by the end of the week, a year after they became the first expansion team to make the postseason in its inaugural year. The win also evened the season series with Chicago at 1-1 after the Sky stole one here, 69-63, back in May. Dallas comes to town Monday.

Chicago fell to 12-22, 4-13 on the road. The Sky have now lost four of five and three in a row, and they visit Seattle on Sunday before a three-game homestand that can't come soon enough.

The Heist Movie Nobody Saw Coming

Sixteen steals, a veteran off the bench running the whole operation in 17 minutes, a crew missing two key members and improvising anyway. Somebody call Steven Soderbergh. Every Ocean's movie has the same scene near the end, where the mark finally checks the vault and realizes it's been empty for an hour. Chicago led by eight in the first quarter and felt great about things. By the time the Sky checked, the Valkyries were out the door, and the 18,064 at Chase Center, the team's 40th straight regular-season sellout, were in on the job.

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