Valkyries instant analysis: Golden State survives Mercury comeback
SAN FRANCISCO - The Valkyries almost blew it.
In front of a raucous home crowd, Golden State built a lead as large as 18 in the first half, only to see the Mercury whittle away at that advantage throughout the final two quarters.
But behind a flurry of clutch buckets and key defensive stops down the stretch, the Valkyries escaped with an 87-81 at Chase Center to snap their two-game losing streak.
Veronica Burton and Gabby Williams had arguably their best game as a duo this season.
Burton finished with 25 points and Williams also had 25 against a physical Mercury defense.
“We would have would have preferred for it not to be that close and to be able to sustain our lead, but obviously we’ve lost a couple close ones,” Burton said. “So I think just being able to figure it out, even when things go wrong and when they hit tough shots, we just stayed together. I thought our composure took a really big leap tonight, just made winning plays, honestly.”
Alyssa Thomas had 22 points and Monique Akoa Makani scored 19 for the Mercury.
The Valkyries closed the final six minutes of the first half, outscoring the Mercury 18-5 to go into halftime with a 17-point lead.
After a slow start, the Mercury woke up in the third quarter. Phoenix beat Golden State 29-17 in the third quarter behind 4-of-5 shooting from beyond the arc to cut the deficit to just six going into the final 10 minutes.
“They were hitting a lot of their shots,” Williams said. “I think they’re a really good transition team, and not necessarily even transition to get to the basket, but a transition team that spreads out to the three.”
Makani’s 3-pointer with just over three minutes left cut the Valkyries’ lead to one – the tightest the game had been since the first quarter. A few possessions later, Makani came up clutch again when her pullup jumper was pure to make the score 81-78 as Phoenix continued to chip away at Golden State’s lead.
But the Valkyries responded in a big way.
On the next possession, Williams scored a driving layup on an assist from Burton while getting fouled to put the Valkyries up six. When Phoenix got the ball back, Williams picked off a Thomas pass to seal the win.
“I was trying to get a stop,” Williams said of the game-sealing steal. “Credit to my teammates. They did a great job on it. We knew that it was going to go through (Thomas) in some way, and I felt like they my teammates did a great job of making her uncomfortable. And so anybody could have gotten the steal. It was easy.”
Burton goes off
The former Northwestern star had one of her best games of the season.
After shooting an abysmal 1-for-8 from the 3-point line in Saturday's loss to the Aces, Burton hit two of her seven attempts from deep and was 7-of-15 from the field. She shot 11 free throws, making nine of them.
Over the previous four games, Burton had no more than 15 points but she got back on track when her team needed her the most.
The scoring came early as she had 19 points through the first two quarters. She also recorded eight assists while committing just two turnovers.
Hayes' solid minutes
Veteran Tiffany Hayes has been a rotation regular for the last few games, and it might stay that way after contributing solid minutes against Phoenix.
Hayes finished with seven points in 13 minutes and had a plus-minus rating of +11.
The 36-year-old guard did suffer an injury after a hard collision fighting for a rebound. Nakase said the veteran is doing OK, but took issue with how Hayes got hurt.
“As she jumped in the air, boom, she’s getting hit in the head,” Nakase said. “The ref said she hit her head on the ground and I was like, ‘Well, check something.’ In some way, that can’t be an OK physicality play. But again, Tip is probably one of the toughest.”
Another DNP for Amihere, Jocytė
After playing at least five minutes in her first three games, rookie Justė Jocytė didn’t see the court in a second consecutive game.
Backup center Laeticia Amihere has continued her fall out of Nakase's rotation, becoming a healthy scratch for her third straight game.
Nakase opted to run with Hayes, Janelle Salaün, Kaila Charles and Kaitlyn Chen off the bench.
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This story was originally published June 9, 2026 at 9:31 PM.