The Golden State Valkyries beat the Atlanta Dream 68-63 on Saturday night at Chase Center to win the first WNBA championship in franchise history, closing the first Game 7 in WNBA Finals history in just the second season of the team’s existence. Gabby Williams scored 30 points, 28 of them after halftime, as the Valkyries win first WNBA championship honours the hard way, in a winner-take-all game against a Dream team that refused to fold.
FINAL: Golden State Valkyries 68, Atlanta Dream 63
How to watch: Atlanta Dream vs Golden State Valkyries, Saturday, October 31, 2026, 8:00 p.m. ET at Chase Center in San Francisco
TV (Canada): TSN1, TSN5
Stream: Peacock
Valkyries Win First WNBA Championship Behind Williams
Williams was the game. Held to two points in the first half, she took over the third quarter, scoring 15 points in the frame on a run of 13 straight Golden State points that included three three-pointers in less than a minute. She finished 10-for-23 from the field, 4-for-8 from three and a perfect 6-for-6 at the line, adding three rebounds, two assists, two steals and four blocks. With two minutes remaining, she drove for a layup and followed it with a 31-foot three that gave the Valkyries a three-point lead they never gave back. Veronica Burton sealed the title at the line, hitting two free throws with five seconds left after Allisha Gray had cut the margin to 66-63.
The support work mattered in a game this tight. Tiffany Hayes scored 11 points, Burton posted 10 points, 10 rebounds and five assists, and Kiah Stokes controlled the glass with 13 rebounds and eight points as Golden State won the rebounding battle 47-44 and blocked eight shots to Atlanta’s two. The Valkyries shot just 37.5 percent from the field, but they went 15-for-16 at the free-throw line, and in a five-point game that discipline at the stripe was the margin.
Atlanta got 18 points and five assists from Jordin Canada, who carried the Dream through the first half, and 16 points from Gray. Angel Reese was held to eight points but pulled down 12 rebounds, while Rhyne Howard, so dangerous earlier in the series, was limited to six points on 3-for-14 shooting and missed all seven of her three-point attempts against Golden State’s defence.
A Defensive Game 7, Decided In The Third Quarter
The night started like a game nobody wanted to lose. Golden State opened with an 8-0 run and held Atlanta scoreless for more than five minutes, yet the Dream closed the first quarter within two at 14-12 and then won the second quarter 18-10 behind Canada’s pace and probing drives. Atlanta led 30-24 at halftime and pushed the lead to nine in the third quarter, the largest either team held all night, with a first title in the Dream’s fourth trip to the Finals suddenly looking close.
That was when Williams changed the game. Her three three-pointers in under a minute turned a nine-point hole into a one-point game and lit up a sellout crowd of 18,064 at Chase Center, the building the Golden State fans call Ballhalla. Golden State won the third quarter 21-14 to lead 45-44, then won the fourth 23-19, closing the game the way this team has won all season, with stops. Burton had said it plainly after the Game 6 loss in Atlanta: “We feel great. We love Ballhalla; we have the best fans. But at the end of the day, it’s going to be a dogfight. We understand that. Both teams want it.” A dogfight is exactly what Game 7 became, and Golden State’s defence won it.
Second Season, First Title, And A Promise Kept Early
The scale of the achievement is in the timeline. The Valkyries were awarded to San Francisco in October 2023 as the WNBA’s first expansion team in more than a decade, began play in 2025 and immediately set a league record with 23 wins by an expansion team, becoming the first expansion franchise ever to reach the playoffs in year one. This fall they swept the defending champion Las Vegas Aces 3-0 in the semifinals to reach the Finals, then survived a seven-game war with Atlanta: 68-64, a 79-65 loss, a 97-71 loss, 67-62, 64-55, an 80-69 loss that forced this decider, and finally 68-63.
Owner Joe Lacob set the bar out loud the day the team was introduced: “I’m telling you right now, we will win a WNBA championship in the first five years of this franchise.” He gave his team five years. Head coach Natalie Nakase, the first coach in franchise history and a former Las Vegas assistant on back-to-back championship staffs, needed two. The club has sold out every home game it has ever played, led the league in attendance and became the first billion-dollar franchise valuation in women’s sports along the way, and Saturday night the basketball caught up to the business story. As centre Kiah Stokes said before tip-off, “I think it’s pretty awesome, first ever Game 7.”
For Atlanta, the wait goes on. Swept in each of their three previous Finals trips in 2010, 2011 and 2013, the Dream won three Finals games this time and led a Game 7 on the road in the third quarter, but they shot 33.3 percent, went 6-for-30 from three and could not find a late answer for Williams. For the WNBA, in its 30th season and two years into the best-of-seven Finals format, the first Game 7 delivered a new champion and a finish the format was built for. The Golden State Valkyries are champions in year two, and the bar for every expansion team that follows has been set in San Francisco. TSN’s Game 7 report has the closing details from Chase Center.
