The Golden State Valkyries aim to use their defensive prowess to vault them to a team-record sixth consecutive win Wednesday night when they visit the Toronto Tempo.
The Valkyries (15-7) tied their franchise-best winning streak of five after defeating the Washington Mystics 62-49 Monday in the second of five straight on the road.
The Tempo (9-11) have dropped two straight after their 89-76 home loss to the Dallas Wings on Sunday.
The 49 points scored by Washington is the lowest point total by a WNBA team this season. Golden State held the Mystics to 16 points in the second half.
“We’ve been talking a lot about our defense and how we have to rely on our defense every night, and so in the second half we locked in on the game plan,” Valkyries coach Natalie Nakase said. “We allowed 22 paint points in the first half, and then it took another step.”
Reserve Kaitlyn Chen led Golden State in scoring with 14 points. Kiah Stokes added six points, nine rebounds, three blocked shots and one steal.
“Our defense is something that’s all effort and sort of a mental thing,” Chen said. “So it’s something that you can control and we take pride in our defense. It’s something that we put all our focus into every game and if we can’t score, they can’t score.”
Said Nakase: “We created 17 total turnovers for 14 points. That’s attention to detail in terms of our defense.”
The Tempo had their top scorer, Marina Mabrey, who averages 21.1 points, back on Sunday after she was a late scratch from the previous game with neck spasms. She had 19 points, five rebounds and five assists.
The Tempo had another late scratch Sunday, however, when Julie Allemand could not play because of a left ankle injury. She leads the team with 5.1 assists and 1.6 steals per game.
Without Allemand and Kiki Rice, who has a sprained left ankle, the Tempo lacked a true point guard.
“I don’t like these surprises just before the game,” Tempo coach Sandy Brondello. “It kind of hurt us because we had no point guards, and you could tell out there.”
Nyara Sabally had 14 points, seven rebounds and five assists against the Wings, Isabelle Harrison added 13 points, reserve Kia Nurse contributed 12 points and Maria Conde had three points and 10 rebounds.
“We had to go a bit of a point guard by committee today,” Nurse said. “Ultimately, we prepare for games the same way every single day, and whoever is or isn’t out, you can’t really put too much stock into it.”
–Field Level Media
