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The Valkyries are hoping for a better result than their last meeting with the Sun. Golden State won’t wearing the road whites this time. (Photo credit: Chris Poss)

The fifth-to-last week of the WNBA regular season begins with one game on the schedule, featuring a team embroiled in what’s shaping up to be a mad scramble to poach the final playoff spots in the playoffs between the three teams from states touching the Pacific Ocean. The Valkyries would be the No. 8 seed if the playoffs started today, but they’re tied with the Storm (16-16) and just a half-game up on the Sparks (15-16). Golden State will look to put its beak in front tonight as it hosts a team whose playoff hopes were fried before the season started and is probably just hoping it’ll be over easy from here. In case the title, section header and previous three sentences didn’t give the yolk joke away, I’m making egg jokes to celebrate the hatching of (presumably) the Valkyries’ new mascot this evening from the rather large purple egg that appeared outside of Ballhalla last week (it’s since been moved inside). Bird jokes too, because go birds.

  • Golden State avoided a third straight loss with Saturday’s 72-59 win over the Sparks at Ballhalla, clinching the season series over LA by a 3-1 margin and the crucial tiebreaker that comes with it. The Valkyries fittingly became the first team to coax the WNBA’s hottest offense into laying an egg in August while holding Los Angeles to an offensive rating of just 79.7 points per 100 possessions. LA came in having scored 100+ points in three straight games (the third team to do that in WNBA history) and having had an offensive rating of at least 125 in the previous two games. The Valkyries have incubated a 14-2 record when holding their opponents to ratings under 100 points per 100 possessions compared to a 1-13 mark when they give up a triple-digit rating. Only three teams have held their opponents to ratings under 100 points per 100 possessions more often than Golden State’s 53.3% rate (16 of 30 games) — the Lynx (71.9%, 23 of 32), Mercury and Liberty (both 67.7%, 21 of 31).

  • Connecticut holds teams to offensive ratings under 100 at the lowest rate (16.7%, 5 of 30), and it didn’t do so last night in a 94-86 loss at Las Vegas in which it allowed 108.0 points per 100 possessions to the Aces. It also allowed A’ja Wilson to become the first player in WNBA history with 30 points and 20 rebounds in a game. The Sunny-side-up perspective is that Connecticut had an offensive rating of 107.5 in last night’s loss and posted 109.6 points per 100 possessions in its previous game at Los Angeles. Those were the Sun’s third-and-fourth-highest offensive ratings of the season so far. One of the two that surpassed them came late last month as the Sun shelled out a 95-64 thumping of Golden State in which they bedeviled the Valkyries’ vaunted defense from start to finish. Perhaps the Sun can harness some of those good vibes while they travel about 400 miles as the bird flies to play on back-to-back nights and try to avoid a fifth straight loss. Connecticut is also trying to avoid an 0-4 road trip, but can take solace in largely being done with multi-game road trips after this. The Sun technically have a three-game road trip coming up with stops in Chicago, New York and Dallas, but the middle game is so close to home it might as well be there.

Two Sun players particularly at home in the tri-state area that encompasses Connecticut, New York and New Jersey are Tina Charles and Marina Mabrey. Not only are they with the Sun now, but they hatched their careers in the Empire State and Garden State, respectively.

  • Christ the King alumnus and Queens native Charles — who I still wish had returned to the Liberty as a free agent in the winter instead of the Sun — remains one of the WNBA’s most productive players despite having her quietest season on the boards. The league’s second-leading scorer and leading rebounder all-time is averaging 15.9 points and 5.8 rebounds per game in her 14th WNBA season, one of nine players in the league in the 85th percentile or better in both points and rebounds per game this season. She’s on pace to average at least 15 and 5 for the 12th time, which would tie Lisa Leslie for the most such seasons all-time.

  • Manasquan doesn’t have quite the hoops pedigree of Christ the King (which produced Sue Bird and Chamique Holdsclaw as well as a handful of NBA players), but its most notable hoops alumnus Mabrey won a natty at Notre Dame and has had a seven-year WNBA career and counting. Her 15 points per game this season match the career-high she set in 2023 with Chicago despite hitting a career-worst 29.5% from deep. She’s coming off of a 22-point outing on 8-for-16 from the field in the loss at Las Vegas last night, the most points she’s scored in her last 11 games (a span which includes a month missed due to injury). and It was also her first time hitting 50% from the field since making a frittata out of Dream defenders en route to 34 points and 13-for-22 from the field in a Sun win in early June.

A Valkyries preview without notes on Veronica Burton, the only player to appear in all 30 of the team’s games (and a starter in all of them no less), would be like an omelette without the egg. Cecilia Zandalasini has been whatever ingredient it is that you think ties an omelette together lately. It’s 2025, I know better than to post food takes on the internet.

  • Burton’s making the most of her first opportunity to play extended minutes in the WNBA and seems to have become an extension of coach Natalie Nakase on the floor, particularly in the absence of Kayla Thornton. She’s averaging 10.8 points and 5.0 assists per game, the latter just outside the top 10 in the WNBA (11th), while hitting 36.8% from deep and 87.9% at the line. Burton had 16 points on 5-for-9 from the field in her team’s win over the Sparks on Saturday, as theThe Valkyries improved to 12-7 (.632) when she scores at least nine points. On the flip side, they’re 3-8 (0.273) when she’s held to eight points or fewer. when she led the way with 16 on 5-for-9 from the field in Saturday’s win over the Sparks, but they’re 3-8 (.273) when she’s held to eight points or fewer. That includes Golden State’s losses to Las Vegas in the previous two games, in which Burton scored 14 points combined (8 and 6) on 5-for-14 from the field.

  • Zandalasini scored 14 points on 5-for-7 from the field including 4-for-6 from deep in the win on Saturday, making the Valkyries 3-0 when she scores in double figures since the All-Star break. Golden State is 2-3 in its other five games since the All-Star break — 0-2 when Zandalasini plays and scores fewer than 10 points and 2-1 in games she missed, but those wins came by one point at Washington and seven at Chicago without Angel Reese or Ariel Atkins. The Valkyries also improved to 3-0 when Zandalasini scores more than 12 points this season, compared to 1-9 when she’s in the lineup and held to 12 or fewer.