For even the greatest players in the world, validation can be a beautiful thing and nobody knows it better than Kiah Stokes did on Monday.
After a 64-55 Game 5 victory that put the Golden State Valkyries just completing their five-year championship journey three years ahead of schedule, Ballhalla serenaded the 11-year veteran with boisterous cheers and chants of M-V-P that drowned out the attempt to broadcast her on-court postgame interview to the arena.
"It feels pretty special," Stokes told reporters about hearing the chants. "I always knew what I what I brought to a team, like I always understood my value, but just to hear like an arena full of 18,000 fans, it just really makes me feel appreciated and loved. I mean, there's not another way to say that."
That response came on a follow-up about putting those cheers in the context her career in the WNBA. Just before that, she was as humble as could be - a personality trait that teammate Veronica Burton jokingly suggested was a fault - in noting how basketball is a team game and she's just one piece of that puzzle. But Golden State fans had every reason to deafen their neighbors in celebration over what they saw on the court Monday night.
In a game where neither offense was able to pick up any sort of rhythm, Stokes was a near-perfect metronome, hitting the shots she was called upon to take, and doing so at a truly unprecedented level for her career. Now, statistically speaking, it doesn't take much to get into that unprecedented territory for Stokes in the Finals.
Prior to this series against the Dream, the center's high mark in the title round was eight points in Game 2 of the 2023 Finals against the Liberty, and that was a 28-point victory that gave the Las Vegas Aces a 2-0 series lead. Stokes had already surpassed that during this Golden State playoff run, scoring nine in the Valkyries' historic Game 1 victory against the Dream, but followed that up with zero, two and four points in the next three games.
Monday, though, Stokes ascended into double digits for the first time ever, tying for the team-high with 13 points. Even more remarkably, nine of them came from behind the arc as part of a 3-for-4 night from 3-point range, and when each one went in, it brought Ballhalla as close to absolute mayhem as they've been throughout their entire existence. This is not typical of what Stokes does. She's gone entire seasons scoring fewer than three 3-pointers, and had made just three in the 54 postseason games she checked in for prior to this, including two in that aforementioned 2023 Finals game.
Kaitlyn Chen going nuts on the Valkyries bench after the Kiah Stokes three #WNBA https://t.co/D89cPB3qJS
- Danielle H. (@DanielleHobeika) October 27, 2026
One person who didn't see this as anything new was head coach Natalie Nakase, who knows what Stokes is capable of at this stage because of her experience as an assistant in Las Vegas from 2022-2024.
"Every day her habits are the same," Nakase told reporters of the veteran. "She takes over. She has a smile on her face. She studies the the game plan. She's always there, even with the highs and lows of the game. She just stays really composed... and now just shooting that three-ball like it's a lay-up. It was beautiful, and I love how the players today were just really trusting and moving the ball. Whoever was open, you know, got the shot."
But a singular offensive explosion does not garner the full-throated MVP chants Stokes received at the buzzer. Anchor, stalwart, keystone, whatever go-to defensive descriptor one would want to use to describe her presence in the paint, and under the basket, is what she's delivered and then some. The physicality that brought complaints from Dream star Angel Reese and coach Karl Smesko emanates from her positioning down low and has helped the Valks get back to playing their game, one that turns a basketball game into a drunken slugfest in the mud.
kiah stokes blocks and altered shots vs. angel reese https://t.co/YEuwWGsMeJ
- jack maloney (@jackmaloneycbs) October 27, 2026
The numbers certainly back that up. Dream players defended by Stokes are being held to 9-for-48 from the field (0-for-8 from three) this series. Over the last two games, Stokes helped keep Reese to just 15 points on 4-of-20 shooting, silencing a player who was dictating how these Finals would be played, and possibly won, just five days ago. She also just tied the legend Lisa Leslie for the longest streak of games with three or more blocks in a single postseason with six.
To Stokes, this just is the culmination of putting her head down and playing her game - "blue collar hoops" as she's referred to it. If Stokes' team needs a 3-point performance she's never put together before in her life, or to shut down one of the offensively potent opponents she's faced this postseason, then that's what she's going to give you.
"You know, a lot of my game isn't really pretty," Stokes said, describing the phrase to reporters. "Do all the dirty work, rebounds, blocking shots, defense. But that's just what I know I could bring to the team. So whatever it takes to win."
Today it's called "blue collar hoops," but as soon as Thursday it could be "Finals MVP hoops."
More Valkyries
- Love and grief turned a sports skeptic into a lifelong Valkyries fan
- Fanatics prioritizing Caitlin Clark over Valkyries during WNBA Finals
- Kaitlyn Chen is the Valkyries' 'goofy' secret weapon
- Protesters showed up at the WNBA Finals. Valkyries fans shut them down.
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This article originally published at The Valkyries are one win away from a title after the Kiah Stokes game.