Golden State Valkyries Flourishing with 'Let It Fly' Mentality

The Golden State Valkyries triumphed Monday night in the first overtime game of the 2025 WNBA season, defeating the Los Angeles Sparks 89-81. It's their second win in as many games, following a 37-point blowout victory over the Las Vegas Aces on Saturday.

The expansion Valkyries have impressed with a strong level of competition out the gate in their inaugural season, thanks in large part to an aggressive offensive style centered around a high volume of three-point shots.

"We call it 'Let It Fly' mentality," Golden State head coach Natalie Nakase told media following an 8-point win over the Sparks. "We just say, 'hey if it's wide open, those are great shots for us.'"

The Valkyries lead the WNBA with 32.1 3PA/G in their first nine games, one of three teams taking at least 30 three-pointers a night.

But let's attack the elephant in the room. Golden State ranks dead last in 3P% (27.3%), one of three teams shooting under 30% from beyond the arc.

Connecting those dots, it would seem easy to assume that the Valkyries' stubborn reliance on the three-ball is not paying dividends. Yet the latest on-court results tell a different tale.

Look no further than Golden State's most recent affair against Los Angeles.

With the game knotted at 78, the Valkyries entered overtime lugging their worst three-point shooting performance of the young season, an abysmal 4-of-30 mark through four quarters.

Few were having a worse day than their top offensive cog Kayla Thornton, who was shooting just 1-of-7 from deep.

But when Thornton received a feed on the left wing in the final 40 seconds of overtime, neither statistical trend stopped the 32-year-old from taking her eighth three-pointer of the night, a dagger that iced the game for Golden State.

Thornton would finish 2-of-8 from deep on the night and the Valkyries would shoot 5-of-32, a season-worst 15.6%. Yet the story of the game was not their three-point struggles, but rather their resiliency to continue shooting from deep despite them.

Asked postgame if she adopted a "just keep shooting and it's gonna work eventually" mindset, Thornton confirmed her thought-process.

"Oh yeah, of course. My teammates and my coaches just telling me 'next shot'. I know I can make that shot, and I just stay believing in myself. I wouldn't have made that without my teammates."

As evident by Thornton's response, it's a frame of my mind that the entire team has seemingly bought into, rain or shine.

Golden State saw the fruits of their labor on Saturday, shooting a season-best 35.7% from three as part of a dominant 37-point win over the Aces. "This was no fluke," Nakase notably told the locker room as they celebrated their largest margin of victory thus far.

On the year, the Valkyries have outshot opponents from deep in all but two games -- both of which came against the New York Liberty, who rank second behind Golden State in 3PA/G with 31.4.

After their OT win on Monday, the Valkyries are now 4-3 when they outshoot their opponent from three-point land.

To be a successful three-point shooting team takes more than mere efficiency, something Nakase has driven home to her group.

"We talk about intentional crashing. You gotta do both," the first-year head coach explained, emphasizing the need for offensive rebounds. "If we're gonna shoot those threes, most likely they're gonna be long rebounds, so we know the specific gaps and routes that we're supposed to take."

To their credit, the Valkyries have listened. Golden State ranks third in the WNBA with 10.4 Offensive Rebounds Per Game.

"I think [that's] just our motive -- crash or die," Thornton added. "If they're not boxing us out, then we gotta go in there and get it."

Some may be quick to interject that teams would grab more offensive rebounds are also missing more shots. Perhaps there is some truth to that -- the Chicago Sky and Dallas Wings are the only teams ahead of the Valkyries in OREB/G.

Nonetheless, it's a necessary component for a team built like Golden State.

Picked to finish dead last by many pundits at the beginning of the season, the Valkyries are lacking in talent on paper compared to most other teams in the league, an understandable predicament for an expansion team in their first year.

A Golden State roster with a strong contingent of foreign talent will be further impaired as players step away from the team to participate in FIBA EuroBasket 2025. That includes 29-year-old forward Cecilia Zandalasini, who's 47.1 3P% currently paces the squad.

That makes the "Let It Fly" mentality even more paramount.

The Valkyries will need the three-ball to keep up with teams that may have an advantage on paper. With Zandalasini overseas, no player, outside of rookie sensation Janelle Salaun, has proven themselves to be consistently efficient from deep.

Instead, they'll have to rely on collective effort and volume. The results are already beginning to show as the Valkyries stack wins for the first time this season.

It's remarkable enough that Golden State has four wins through their first nine games. To put it into perspective, the last two WNBA expansion teams failed to win more than five games for the entirety of their first season.

The Valkyries are already ahead of schedule.

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