SAN FRANCISCO — Golden State Valkyries forward Gabby Williams hit the go-ahead jump shot with 1:17 on the clock, one of the rare moments when the Valkyries led the Dallas Wings in Game 3 of the first round of the WNBA playoffs. But that wasn’t the game-winning play — not really.
It was when Williams tiptoed inbounds to snag an offensive rebound with 13.1 seconds left and Golden State up by a point, forcing Dallas to foul her, then hit her free throws. That’s what got the Valkyries to their first WNBA semifinals in just their second season as a franchise.
For all the talk of the Valkyries’ lack of “star power” in a league where Caitlin Clark and A’ja Wilson dominate headlines, Williams put the team on her back.
“That’s Gabby,” said veteran guard Tiffany Hayes. “She’s our dog. She’s our leader. She’s the one we go to, and she showed you exactly who she is. We’ll do it again and again, over and over. We believe in her. That’s Gabby F— Williams.”
During her on-court interview with ESPN after the game, Williams said, “Man, I’m happy. I don’t care. I’m lit right now.”
“BAY AREAAAAA!” she then immediately shouted, and the Ballhalla crowd drowned her out. She smiled.
This was why she chose the Valkyries over the Minnesota Lynx, who finished with the league’s best record in the regular season, and the Las Vegas Aces, whom the Valkyries will face in the semifinals.
It was time for someone to believe in her.
“I never really had that, in the league, at least,” she said. “I think I’ve had these moments with [the Turkish team Fenerbahçe], with my national team, but I never quite got that belief in the W from the staff or from my teammates.”
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Williams finished with 19 points, but most of her damage came after a rough-shooting first half. She entered the third quarter with only 2 points before scoring 17 over the final 13 minutes.
She hit two late 3-pointers, in addition to that 17-foot, game-winning midrange jumper.
“[No team has let me shoot threes like this.] Never in the W [have I had] the green light to shoot those,” she said. “My teammates did a great job of finding me because, yeah, I wasn’t getting anything easy, and so … [Hayes] drives and draws people and then is able to find me, so that I can finally get a clean look at the basket and then it just gets me going. So yeah, I appreciated my teammates finding me in those moments.”
Williams has been known as one of the best players in the world. She was a key player on two EuroLeague championship teams and brought France to the gold-medal game against the United States in the 2024 Olympics. She was also named to the All-Star Five after helping France to a silver medal in this year’s FIBA World Cup. But in the WNBA, she’s never been seen as a true star whom a team could build a championship-like season around.
On Friday, she missed seven of her first eight shots. She shot just 2-for-5 in the third quarter and 3-for-7 in the fourth, but each of those buckets felt like the most important of her career.
She swished four late free throws, something she has had some difficulty doing this season. But not in Game 3. Not when it counted most.
“There were times where she wasn’t playing her best game, but she kind of just stuck with it,” Valkyries assistant coach Kasib Powell told reporters postgame. “It wasn’t the previous game for us, but she’s someone who we rely on, we count on. So even in moments when she’s not playing her best early, we still look to her during the end of the game, and I think she came up big.”
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Williams has hit four game-winning shots this season. The two most important gave the Valkyries home court advantage in the WNBA semifinals. In that series, head coach Natalie Nakase will face her mentor, Aces head coach Becky Hammon; Hayes and center Kiah Stokes will face their former squad; and Williams will face a team that tried to woo her.
With the Valkyries, she is the star. They’ll need her to play like it throughout the series against the defending champions, a team full of stars.
Beyond her official game-winners, how many plays has Williams made like that offensive rebound on Friday? How many late decisions has she made that ultimately pushed Golden State to a closing victory it never could have achieved without her?
That might be unquantifiable, but it’s why the Valkyries believe in her.
“I love these situations,” Williams said. “I love high-pressure situations. I think I’m best when I don’t have a choice but to be my best. So I like being put into that position.”
