Valkyries vs. Tempo: Janelle Salaun's Career-High 26 Fuels Franchise-Record Sixth Straight Win

With 2:22 left on Wednesday night, Janelle Salaun hit a three. Thirty-five seconds later she hit another. Thirty-one seconds after that she hit one more, every one of them off a Veronica Burton pass, and Coca-Cola Coliseum went from loud to checking the parking app.

That flurry finished off the Toronto Tempo, and the Golden State Valkyries left town with an 83-75 win and a sixth straight victory, a new franchise record. Salaun, who doesn't even start, scored a career-high 26. She had 16 of them in the fourth quarter on 5-of-5 shooting from the field, which is a ridiculous way to close out a road game against an expansion team that had spent the previous quarter making everybody very uncomfortable.

Golden State's Slow Starts Are Becoming a Bit

The Valkyries scored 11 points in the first quarter. If that sounds familiar, it's because they also scored 11 in the first quarter on Monday in Washington. Toronto led 17-11 after one, and for a minute it felt like the Tempo might actually make the visitors pay for the habit.

Nope. Golden State ripped off 10 straight early in the second to go up 21-17, then finished the frame with 30 points while allowing 14. Kayla Thornton and Kaitlyn Chen combined for half of that output. It was 41-31 at the break, and Marina Mabrey still hadn't made a field goal.

Then the game flipped again, because this one had nine lead changes and no interest in being simple. Holding a 46-37 edge early in the third, the Valkyries went cold and Toronto ran off 11 straight to grab a 48-46 lead. The Tempo won the quarter 28-16 and carried a 59-57 advantage into the fourth, with a crowd of 8,210 fully convinced this was happening.

Salaun Turned the Box Score Into a Prank

Start with the efficiency: 7 of 10 from the field, 5 of 6 from three, 7 of 9 at the line, plus six rebounds, all in 23 minutes. That's a plus-11 in a game decided by eight. She outscored Toronto's entire bench by herself, 26-20. Golden State's notes have her leading all qualifying WNBA reserves in scoring, and nights like this are why the word "reserve" feels more like a scheduling detail than a job description.

Chen was the co-star, scoring 16 on 8-of-12 shooting, with those eight makes setting a career high. She had 14 against the Mystics two nights earlier, so the second unit has quietly become a nightly problem for opposing coaches. The Valkyries got 52 points from their bench and 31 from their starters. Thornton was the only starter in double figures, with 15 points and nine rebounds, four of them on the offensive glass. Burton scored just six, but her six assists included the three passes that ended the night.

The one sour note: Gabby Williams, the team's All-Star starter, left in the fourth quarter with a back contusion after a battle for a rebound and did not return. The Valkyries called her status for Friday uncertain.

Toronto got 24 points and eight rebounds from Isabelle Harrison on 10-of-17 shooting, plus nine points and seven assists from Julie Allemand. Mabrey's night was harder. Named the Tempo's first WNBA All-Star just one day earlier, and only a few games removed from tying the league's single-game record with 53 points, she finished with 11 on 2-of-9 shooting, along with six rebounds and four assists. According to Golden State, she's the 12th straight opposing leading scorer the Valkyries have held under her season average. That's not a fluke. That's a scouting department showing off. Toronto also played without Brittney Sykes, Kiki Rice and Temi Fagbenle.

Two Minutes and 55 Seconds

Down 59-57 to open the fourth, Golden State scored the quarter's first 12 points. It took 2:55. By the 7:01 mark it was 69-59, and a Toronto team that had clawed all the way back was suddenly staring at double digits again.

To their credit, the Tempo didn't fold. Harrison and Mabrey kept attacking, and Mabrey's driving layup made it 73-67 with 2:59 to go. Six points, under three minutes, a home crowd still in it. That's when Burton found Salaun for the first of those threes. A Harrison layup between the second and third barely registered. When the last one dropped, it was 82-69, and Golden State's biggest lead of the night had arrived at the most convenient possible moment.

Stats That Matter

• 52-20: The bench scoring margin, and frankly the whole story.
• 11 of 30: Golden State from three, against 6 of 22 for Toronto. Salaun made five by herself.
• 11-4: The Valkyries' edge in offensive rebounds, a lot of extra looks in a game this tight for this long.
• 20: Toronto turnovers, which Golden State turned into exactly 20 points.
• 0: Valkyries fast-break points. Toronto had nine and won the paint 36-26, and it still wasn't enough.

What It Means

Golden State is 16-7 and 6-4 on the road, and according to the team it's the first club in the league to reach 16 wins this season. The streak dates to a June 24 win over Atlanta, and it topped a franchise best of five that the Valkyries had only just matched on Monday. Next up is a Friday stop in Connecticut.

Toronto drops to 9-12 and 5-6 at home, with three straight losses. This was the first meeting between these clubs, and the Tempo gave a much better team a real scare for about 33 minutes. That counts for something in Year 1, even if it doesn't count in the standings. Their next game is Friday against Dallas in Montreal.

Install Later

Golden State has now spent two straight games treating the first quarter like a software update it will get around to later, and it won both. At some point that stops being a warning sign and starts being a personality. Six straight wins, a franchise record and a reserve going 5 for 5 in a fourth quarter suggest that point has arrived. The rest of the league can keep waiting for those slow starts to catch up with the Valkyries. So far, the Valkyries keep hitting snooze.

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.