{"id":1005808,"date":"2026-08-17T04:19:28","date_gmt":"2026-08-17T04:19:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1005808\/"},"modified":"2026-08-17T04:19:28","modified_gmt":"2026-08-17T04:19:28","slug":"golden-state-valkyries-can-clinch-wnba-playoff-spot-by-beating-dallas-wings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1005808\/","title":{"rendered":"Golden State Valkyries can clinch WNBA playoff spot by beating Dallas Wings"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Portland Fire made the Golden State Valkyries wait at least one more day to clinch a spot<\/a> in the WNBA playoffs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Portland, in ninth place in the WNBA standings, earned a come-from-behind 88-85 road win<\/a> over the Phoenix Mercury on Sunday night, preventing the Valkyries from sealing a playoff spot for the second straight year.<\/p>\n

In Portland\u2019s win, Carla Leite scored 23 points to help spoil the Mercury\u2019s halftime and postgame ceremonies for franchise icon Diana Taurasi.<\/p>\n

Leite had the final two baskets in a 6-0 run, and the expansion Fire moved in front 81-80 with 1:12 remaining. Portland\u2019s Emily Engstler and the Mercury\u2019s Kahleah Copper traded baskets before Katie Lou Samuelson hit the second of two foul shots with 20 seconds left to put the Fire up 84-82.<\/p>\n

DeWanna Bonner and Alyssa Thomas both scored six points to guide Phoenix to a 22-18 lead after one quarter. Bonner had 14 points by halftime, and the Mercury took a 42-36 lead into intermission.<\/p>\n

Frieda Buhner and DiLeo sank 3-pointers late in the third quarter to get Portland within 64-61 heading to the fourth.<\/p>\n

Still, it\u2019s only a matter of time before Golden State punches its ticket to the postseason. The Valkyries (24-9) are in second place in the league standings and would have to lose all 11 of their remaining games, while Portland (15-20) wins its last nine, to fall out of a playoff spot. The top eight teams make the postseason, and the top four have home court advantage for the first round of the playoffs.<\/p>\n

Golden State, winners of five straight and 3 1\/2 games back of the first-place Minnesota Lynx, can clinch a playoff spot on Monday when they host the Dallas Wings at Chase Center. The Valkyries were the No. 8 seed last season and lost to top seed Minnesota 2-0<\/a> in a best-of-three series.<\/p>\n

The reason for Golden State\u2019s incredible season is easy to find.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Entering Friday night, the Valkyries ranked top of the league in a slew of defensive stats under coach Natalie Nakase\u2019s direction.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Despite missing starting center Iliana Rupert (pregnancy) for the entire season, they pace the league in points allowed per game (76.9), defensive rating (102.9), fewest field goals allowed per game (26.7) and fewest assists allowed per game (18.3).\u00a0<\/p>\n

The addition of All-Star Gabby Williams has fueled the team\u2019s impressive form, but growth from returners such as Veronica Burton, Janelle Salaun, Kaitlyn Chen, and others has helped the offense take a step in the right direction too.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And center Kiah Stokes, though her statistics are far from gaudy, has been a dependable and prolific rim-protector in Rupert\u2019s absence. She missed Wednesday\u2019s game with a concussion and is now day-to-day.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Valkyries are also 1.5 games ahead of the third-place Las Vegas Aces. The WNBA takes a prolonged hiatus from Aug. 31 to Sept. 16 for the international break, when Williams and several other Valkyries are expected to play for their respective national teams.<\/p>\n

The Associated Press contributed to this story.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Portland Fire made the Golden State Valkyries wait at least one more day to clinch a spot…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1005809,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[49],"tags":[1339,15173,276,2473,1362,1370,15178,2750,15180,62,67,132,68,232],"class_list":["post-1005808","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-basketball","tag-bay-area","tag-california","tag-golden-state-valkyries","tag-inside-sports","tag-latest-headlines","tag-peninsula","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-county","tag-sports","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-wnba"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117108930488623738","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1005808","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1005808"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1005808\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1005809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1005808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1005808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1005808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}