Valkyries Stun Aces 71-60 in Game 1, Holding Las Vegas to a Season-Low 60 Points

SAN FRANCISCO, OCTOBER 4, 2026 — The defending champions got bullied on the glass, and the expansion-era wonder in lavender just took the biggest punch in the series first. The Golden State Valkyries beat the Las Vegas Aces 71-60 on Sunday afternoon at Chase Center, holding Las Vegas to a season-low 60 points and seizing a 1-0 lead in the best-of-five WNBA semifinal. This was not a finesse win. It was a 52-25 rebounding demolition, a 17-2 evisceration on the offensive glass, and the loudest statement yet that the second-year Valkyries are not here to learn from the champs — they’re here to take their crown.

The glass told the whole story

Becky Hammon didn’t need the box score. “All we talked about for the last 48 hours was rebounding and blocking them out, and we did not do it. Period,” the Aces coach said afterward. “I could end this whole thing right now. Don’t ask me about the game. It’s rebounding. That was it.” Then the Hammon flourish: “Good news is we played like ass and only lost by 10. So dissect that however you want.”

The numbers are almost hard to believe for a team with A’ja Wilson and two straight titles: the Aces didn’t secure a single offensive rebound until Brianna Turner grabbed one roughly two minutes into the second half. The Valkyries finished with 20 second-chance points, and the possession that told the story came in the fourth quarter, when ex-Ace Kiah Stokes pulled down an offensive board and Kayla Thornton then grabbed three more on the same trip before finally drawing a foul.

Stokes was the ghost of the Aces’ past haunting their present: 14 rebounds, seven of them offensive, three blocks — and zero points. She didn’t need any. Every extra possession she clawed back was a dagger by itself.

“It’s very evident that the rebounding was the issue,” Chelsea Gray said. “It’s hard to recover when teams get 17 O-boards and 20 second-chance points. The game was in the margins and the hustle plays, and they beat us every single time in that category.” Kierstan Bell was blunter: “They wanted it more than us.”

The halftime score masked it. Golden State led 22-18 after the first quarter and stretched the edge to 34-23 in the second before the Aces closed on an 8-0 run — Wilson scoring five in the stretch, Jackie Young hitting a three off Turner’s assist — to trail just 34-31 at the break. But the Valkyries had already won the glass 25-12 with 10 offensive boards to the Aces’ zero, and the third quarter was when the bill came due.

Gabby Williams ran the show

If the glass was the headline, Williams was the author. The two-time All-Star poured in 25 points with 11 rebounds and 5 assists, attacking from every level while the Aces’ defense scrambled to contain everyone and contained no one. When Young’s three pulled Las Vegas within 58-53 with 8:25 left — the closest the fourth quarter got — Williams answered with a step-back three, and Kaitlyn Chen followed with a running layup that forced an Aces timeout and stretched the lead back to double digits.

Chen’s 11 points off the bench were the kind of contribution that defines this Valkyries team: depth, everywhere. Thornton added 11 rebounds of her own, Aminata Gueye chipped in seven third-quarter points, and Golden State outscored Las Vegas 34-18 in the paint. The Valkyries have been one of the league’s premier defensive teams all season, and on Sunday they proved the rating travels.

The Aces missed their first five shots of the third quarter, finished 21-of-62 from the field (33.8 percent), and went nearly six minutes in the fourth without a field goal — their final make coming on Kalani Brown’s putback with 53.4 seconds left. Wilson, Gray and Young combined for 51 of the team’s 60 points; nobody else scored more than four.

A quiet record in a loud building

Buried in the wreckage was genuine history. Gray became the WNBA’s all-time playoff assists leader on a pass to Wilson for a three-point play with 4:10 left in the third quarter — the record falling in the most Chelsea Gray way possible, a dime carved through traffic. She also moved into eighth place on the league’s career playoff scoring list during the game, per Dice City Sports. Milestones don’t come with asterisks, but this one came with a 71-60 loss and a minus column that stings.

The building deserves a word. Fans packed Chase Center in matching lavender We Are Ballhalla shirts, per the Review-Journal, and every time Wilson touched the ball she met a wall of purple-clad defenders, usually with Stokes shadowing her. Wilson shot 8-for-21 and finished a minus-12. For a team that swept all three regular-season meetings against these Valkyries, Sunday was a cold correction: Hammon said before tip that “the first mistake is believing that beating them 3-0 in the regular season matters. It doesn’t matter.” She was right.

The injury list keeps growing

Las Vegas’s rotation is being held together with tape and belief. Jewell Loyd, who had stepped up in Stephanie Talbot’s absence Thursday against Indiana, exited early in the third quarter with a left leg injury — scoreless in 17 minutes — and was ruled out for the remainder of the game. Hammon had no update after the game, per the Review-Journal. Talbot missed her second consecutive game with a left knee injury; Hammon said before the game she is day-to-day.

Once again Hammon leaned on her veteran stars for heavy minutes: Young played more than 38, Wilson and Gray more than 35 each. “We just got to go with what’s sitting on that bench — next woman up,” Hammon said. “We don’t have a lot of time to sulk about it. Nobody feels bad for us.” She even dipped into zone defense late, she admitted, just trying to recoup some legs.

The other side of the chessboard

The Valkyries did this on roughly 36 hours of rest. On Friday night, coach Natalie Nakase — Hammon’s former assistant — suddenly collapsed on the sideline during a timeout in the winner-take-all Game 3 at Dallas, then returned to guide a 16-point comeback and a 77-73 series-clinching win. Nakase called the episode exhaustion, said doctors cleared her, and revealed Sunday she’ll be wearing a heart monitor and her Oura ring for information going forward, per EssentiallySports. Hammon, asked about her former assistant, smiled through the concern: “She is a little mighty mouse workhorse. There’s no doubt about that. But the stress of this time of year is real.”

And the morning began with hardware in the Valkyries’ locker room: Janelle Salaün was named the WNBA Sixth Player of the Year unanimously on Sunday morning, the first unanimous winner in the award’s history, per our Game 1 preview. A day that started with a celebration ended with a Game 1 statement.

What’s next

The Aces get two days to fix the glass before returning to Chase Center for Game 2 on Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. PT (Peacock and NBCSN). The series shifts to Michelob ULTRA Arena for Game 3 on Friday at 6:30 p.m., and if it goes longer, a Game 4 would be Sunday, Oct. 11 in Las Vegas. The good news, per Hammon: they played like ass and lost by 10. The bad news: the Valkyries just showed them the blueprint, and there’s a second-year franchise that suddenly believes the champs are beatable. Our Game 2 preview breaks down what has to change — and Saturday night belonged to the other Vegas winner, as the Golden Knights edged the Canucks 3-2 for their own playoff-position push. The Previously news desk will have Game 2 coverage Wednesday night.