After a week away from the court, the Valkyries practice facility in Oakland was active again but felt different. Four players – Gabby Williams, Janelle Salaun, Miela Sowah and Cecilia Zandalasini – are taking part in the FIBA Women’s World Cup in Berlin, as is head coach Natalie Nakase, as an assistant with Team USA.
So it was a bit quieter on the court on Tuesday afternoon as the team finished drills before ramping up to a more intense, training-camp-like week as they ease back into competition. Golden State has four games left before the postseason begins at the end of the month.
There are still some things left to learn about this team before the postseason begins, too.
Now that they’ve defeated Minnesota, the Valkyries aren’t chasing any ghosts. It’s a matter of the things they can control about themselves over the final four games.
“We need to not fall off in any of these games,” said Valkyries point guard Veronica Burton. “Follow (the coaches) lead in terms of their game plan, in terms of execution.”
The Valkyries have the easiest schedule in the league out of the FIBA break, playing Portland twice – once at home and once on the road – in addition to Seattle and Los Angeles, all teams out of the postseason.
There is still a chance at the No. 1 seed, too. Minnesota has a two-game lead and the tiebreaker over the Valkyries, but they have two games with Indiana and one with New York and have to win at least two of those games to officially clinch, if the Valkyries win all of their games.
Golden State will almost surely host the first game of the first round, whether it’s the first or second seed in the league. But with their last game against a playoff team coming back on August 27 in New York before an actual postseason game, their last four games will be more of a chance to improve in a few areas before the basketball ramps up again.
“We’ll work on getting everyone’s confidence up,” said assistant coach Kasib Powell, who was speaking to the media in place of Nakase. “Got to tweak a couple of things, just get ready for the end of the season and a playoff run.”
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Even with the Valkyries’ strengths this season, their biggest concerns are still on the offensive end of the floor. Their 82.6 points per game are the second-fewest in the WNBA, as is their 42.5% field goal percentage. Their offensive rating is in the upper half of the WNBA, though, because they’ve found ways to generate scoring off their defense.
That’s still an area where they feel like they can be better at.
“I think we can (do better) at executing in general,” said center Kiah Stokes. “We have to make sure we know our sets, know what we want to run, look at how we’re willing to attack.”
Nakase has stressed an improvement in communication on defense throughout the season, and Stokes said they still have an opportunity to keep working on that.
“We have to clean that up,” she said. “The playoffs are just another level of intensity, so I think we have to be ready for the step up.”
Before the break, Golden State had won four games in a row, including at Minnesota, following two losses against the Lynx and Chicago. In those games, there were moments when their offense went silent, especially at times when Williams was shooting cold, but their bench stepped up. In their last five games, they’ve had four different leading scorers and three of them are reserves: Salaun, Tiffany Hayes and Laeticia Amihere.
The Valkyries have arguably the best bench depth in the league but still have to find their lock-in, late-game scoring. At times, that has been Williams this season, but Golden State asks a lot from her on both sides of the ball, as they do Burton. They can use these last four games before the playoffs to find ways to finish games and, like Stokes said, attack on offense.
The World Cup will continue until Sept. 13, and even when the four players come back from Berlin, it wouldn’t be surprising if Nakase gave some of them a rest, especially with a back-to-back right out of the break.
But Nakase herself is still finding a way to make an impact on practices; Powell said they were filming the sessions so she could have input even in a far-away time zone, and Stokes joked the coach was still texting players, “talking s–.”
“She’s been having her imprint on it,” Powell said. “We try to keep everything consistent and the same. The players all miss her, but we have a job to do.”
