SAN FRANCISCO — Ballhalla may be draped in a delightful violet shade, drawing glamorous movie stars like Zendaya to its stands, but there were no style points to speak of in Chase Center on Monday night. And that’s how the Valkyries like their Finals basketball: a heaping helping of grit, with a pinch of production (from wherever they can get it). As unattractive as it can be, Natalie Nakase’s grind-it-out, by-committee basketball delivered the Valkyries a 64–55 win over the Dream in Game 5 and has put them on the doorstep of a championship.
Anyone in Nakase’s rotation can be the difference-maker on any given night, adding just enough offensive spark to lift Golden State over the line. In Game 5, Kiah Stokes was that x-factor. Knocking down three of her four three-point attempts, Stokes finished with 13 points, eight rebounds and three blocks. As such, “M-V-P” chants rained down from a thunderous Ballhalla crowd after the buzzer, with the jumbotron catching Stokes fighting a coy smile. Nakase endorsed the sentiment in her postgame press conference, calling Stokes the Valkyries’ most valuable player.
“I mean, I just appreciate the support, but at the end of the day, I just feel like our whole team, everyone on our team is so important,” Stokes said after Game 5. “So I think it’s cool, it made me smile and stuff, but I don’t know. I feel like if you take any person off our team, we’re not in this position.”
Splashy buckets aren’t typically on Stokes’s calling card; she does enough on the defensive end to warrant her starting spot. “Blue collar” is a phrase often used to describe Stokes, and one she has come to embrace. Acknowledging that her game “isn’t really pretty,” Stokes is more than happy doing the “dirty work” and “whatever it takes to win.” One of the best rim protectors in the WNBA, Stokes takes pride in the stuff; the often-underrated art of denying entry. With 17 blocks, Stokes set the all-time Finals record for swats, but on Monday, she was also tied with Veronica Burton as her team’s top scorer, putting the spotlight on the 11-year league veteran who has flown under the radar.
“I always knew what I brought to a team; I always understood my value,” Stokes said. “But just to hear an arena full of 18,000 fans, it just really makes me feel appreciated and loved.”
While she’s already a three-time champion with the Aces, Stokes hasn’t always been lauded in the way she is on Nakase’s defensive-minded team. Helping hold Angel Reese to eight and seven points in Games 4 and 5, respectively, Stokes has served as Golden State’s bellwether and bouncer, shutting down the paint (as she did in Game 5, limiting the Dream to 18 paint points).
“All her hard work is paying off, now you guys get to see Kiah Stokes at her best …” Nakase said. “Nothing rattles her, and I think when you have a player like a star like Kiah who doesn’t feed into wanting attention, then it just keeps her laser-focused because every day is the same, every day her habits are the same; she takes over, she has a smile on her face …”
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Humility is rare in professional sports, but it oozes out of Stokes and is the Valkyries’ secret sauce. No superstar, a la A’ja Wilson or Napheesa Collier, no problem. Golden State’s success is a group project, and Nakae’s team wouldn’t have it any other way. The Valkyries head coach can switch up the starting five (as she did ahead of Game 4), dig deep into her bench or serve an unlikely hot hand without batting an eye. The next-player-up mentality has not only helped codify Golden State’s rock-solid identity, but it’s also helped them on the court as a tough squad to game plan against.
“That’s what’s kind of, you know, dangerous about our team,” Nakase said ahead of Game 5. “It’s hard to scout when you have so many options, and so that’s what I love, and I go back to a common theme of, I’ve never met 14 players that want to see success in their teammate that’s sitting to the right or the left.”
What Nakase asks of her players, she also demands of herself, walking the walk and talking the talk. She, too, is not so overcome by ego that she can’t admit when she’s strayed. Throughout the Finals, Nakase has spoken about how she has needed to tailor her message better, pointing the finger at herself for the Valkyries’ woes in Games 2 and 3. “It’s always on me. It’s always on the head coach’s delivery,” Nakase said. Labeling herself an extremist in her pursuit of perfection, Nakase realized that she instead needed to take a breath, listen to her players and reflect on what wasn’t working.
Righting the ship their way, with candor and an unmistakable mettle, the Valkyries are now one win away from clinching the league trophy only two seasons after joining the WNBA as an expansion team. Only a controversial afternoon game in State Farm Arena stands between Golden State and history, but that’s no concern for the Valkyries.
“At the end of the day, we just need 94 feet, two hoops and each other,” Stokes said. From anyone else, that sounds like a line, but from Stokes & Co. it rings true. Not the flashiest or most dazzling, Valkyries basketball is unselfish, unpretentious and unapologetically ugly, and isn’t there something beautiful about that?
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