Valkyries vs. Storm: Janelle Salaun's 22 Off the Bench Lifts Golden State Past Seattle 76-72

Golden State made one field goal in the fourth quarter on Friday night. One. The Valkyries went 1-of-16 in the final frame, watched a 13-point lead after three turn into a one-point sweat, and needed Kiah Stokes to erase a potential game-tying 3 in the final seconds.

They won anyway. Janelle Salaun scored 22 off the bench, Gabby Williams dropped 19 on her old team, and the Golden State Valkyries escaped Climate Pledge Arena with a 76-72 win over the Seattle Storm, who have now lost eight in a row.

Who Gave These Teams Permission to Run Like This

Nobody could hold anything in the first half. Seattle ripped off eight straight for an 18-7 edge in the first quarter, and Golden State answered with nine straight of its own almost immediately. The Valkyries then rolled through an 8-0 stretch that crossed the quarter break to go up 24-21, and the Storm came right back with nine in a row to lead 31-26 in the second. All of that produced a 40-38 Golden State lead at the half, with Salaun already at 13 points.

The third quarter is where the Valkyries looked ready to end this early. They opened it 19-6, with a 9-0 burst pushing the score to 59-44, the biggest lead of the night for anyone. They won the period 26-15 and took a 66-53 advantage into the fourth, and at that point Seattle's only real question was how to spend the next 10 minutes.

The Longest Fourth Quarter in America

Then the rim closed, as if someone had nailed a board across it. Golden State didn't score at all until Salaun's fifth 3 with about four and a half minutes left, which made it 69-57 and looked like the knockout at the time. It turned out to be the team's last field goal of the game.

Seattle's 8-0 run started with a Natisha Hiedeman technical free throw and included a three-point play by Dominique Malonga and an Awa Fam layup, getting the Storm to 69-65 with 1:59 left. Tiffany Hayes made two at the line, Hiedeman hit a floater and added a free throw, and two Malonga free throws made it 71-70 with 50.3 seconds on the clock.

Climate Pledge had 10,648 people in it, and all of them got to watch Seattle get the ball back with a chance to take the lead. Flau'jae Johnson's layup try spun out.

The Turning Point: Free Throws and One Very Large Hand

That miss was the game. Hayes drew a foul with 21.3 seconds left and made both. Jade Melbourne answered to make it 73-72 with 13.4 left, Williams hit two more at 11.9, and then Stokes got a hand on Hiedeman's 3-point try at the other end. Kaila Charles split a pair with 2.3 left to finish it.

Do the math on that closing stretch: after Salaun's 3, every remaining Golden State point came from the foul line, seven in all. Coach Natalie Nakase pointed straight to the defense afterward. "Putting in Kiah [Stokes] I thought was really important, because she didn't get phased by their plays," she said. "When we say we rely on our defense, that's how we rely on our defense and we close with our defense."

Bench Mob, Former Team Edition

Salaun tied her career highs in both points and made 3s, going 7-of-14 overall and 5-of-12 from deep with seven rebounds in 33 minutes before finishing with six fouls. Hayes added 17 in 24 minutes, a perfect 7-of-7 at the line and a game-high plus-10. Those two outscored Golden State's entire starting five by themselves, 39-36.

Williams, who spent four seasons in Seattle, was the starter who kept things afloat, hitting all five of her free throws on the way to 19, though she needed 16 shots to get there. Veronica Burton added 11 points, eight assists and five rebounds, and she was the steadying hand in an offense that badly needed one.

For Seattle, Hiedeman was terrific. She set a career high with 26 points, made five 3s, handed out five assists and did a lot of the damage in that fourth-quarter charge. Malonga had nine points and eight rebounds, and Katie Lou Samuelson hit both of her 3s in 12 minutes. The Storm outshot Golden State from deep by a mile and got the deficit to one twice late. They just never got over the hump.

Stats That Matter

• 1-of-16: Golden State from the field in the fourth quarter. Read it again. It still doesn't look like a winning number.
• 20-of-23 vs. 12-of-18: Free throws, an eight-point edge at the line in a four-point game.
• 8-of-37 vs. 10-of-23: 3-pointers. The Valkyries took 14 more than Seattle and made two fewer.
• 24 to 17: Points off turnovers, in Seattle's favor, with the Storm cashing in on 14 Golden State giveaways.
• 40 to 36: Golden State's bench points against its starters' total.

What It Means

Golden State is 8-5 and 3-3 on the road with two straight wins, and it's now 2-0 against Seattle this season, with both wins coming on this floor after a 91-80 result in May. A three-game homestand opens Monday against Los Angeles, and nobody in that locker room should need a scouting report to know what the offense has to clean up first.

Seattle is 3-12 and 2-6 at home. The streak is at eight, and the last two have been decided by a combined nine points, which is the kind of progress that doesn't show up in the standings. The Storm visit Portland on Wednesday.

Learning Lessons, Allegedly

Nakase summed up the whole strange evening without much fuss: "But so many positives that we can take away and a lot of learning lessons." Going 1-of-16 in a quarter is the learning lesson. Winning anyway is the positive. It was the This Is Fine dog in basketball form, except the room stopped burning the moment Stokes got her hand on that shot.

Stats from the official box score via ESPN. Postgame quotes from the Golden State Valkyries' recap. Game details from the Associated Press.