The matchup is set. The Atlanta Dream and the Golden State Valkyries are headed to the 2026 WNBA Finals, with Game 1 tipping Saturday, October 17. One thing is already certain: the league will crown a first-time champion.<\/p>\n
Atlanta punched its ticket Friday night in Brooklyn, closing out a 3-0 sweep of the New York Liberty with an 85-83 win in Game 3. Angel Reese scored 22 points, Rhyne Howard added 21, and Jordin Canada finished with 19 points and 11 assists as the Dream survived a late Liberty rally.<\/p>\n
The finish was as tense as it gets. With Atlanta clinging to an 83-81 lead and 17.7 seconds left, a turnover gave New York one last chance. But Breanna Stewart missed a contested layup with nine seconds to play, and DeWanna Bonner sank two free throws with 6.2 seconds remaining to seal it.<\/p>\n
It was a dominant series from start to finish for the fourth-seeded Dream: a 92-82 win in Game 1, a 101-98 overtime thriller in Game 2 at State Farm Arena, and Friday’s grind-it-out closeout. Atlanta hasn’t lost a game this postseason and hasn’t made the Finals since 2013 \u2014 or even reached the semifinals since 2018. Notably, the Dream did it all without Allisha Gray, who missed her second straight game with a left-hand injury but could be ready for the Finals.<\/p>\n
On the other side, Golden State took down the defending champions. The second-year Valkyries swept the Las Vegas Aces 3-0 with an 87-77 overtime win in Game 3 on Friday night at Michelob Ultra Arena.<\/p>\n
Gabby Williams was the overtime hero, scoring eight of her 16 points in the extra period. Kayla Thornton led Golden State with 18 points and nine rebounds, while Kiah Stokes added 11 points, 10 rebounds and rugged defense that held five-time MVP A’ja Wilson to 21 points on 6-of-19 shooting.<\/p>\n
Golden State has been one of the league’s best stories all season. In just their second year of existence, the Valkyries led the league in attendance and posted the best home record. They are the quickest expansion franchise to reach the Finals since the league’s earliest days. Williams, signed in free agency this offseason, raised her scoring from 14.4 points per game in the regular season to 22.7 in the playoffs.<\/p>\n
The Finals are a best-of-seven series:<\/p>\n
Game 1: Saturday, Oct. 17, 3:30 p.m. ET \u2014 at Golden State
Game 2: Monday, Oct. 19, 8 p.m. ET \u2014 at Golden State
Game 3: Thursday, Oct. 22, 8 p.m. ET \u2014 at Atlanta
Game 4: Saturday, Oct. 24, 3:30 p.m. ET \u2014 at Atlanta
Game 5*: Monday, Oct. 26, 8 p.m. ET \u2014 at Golden State
Game 6*: Thursday, Oct. 29, 8 p.m. ET \u2014 at Atlanta
Game 7*: Saturday, Oct. 31, 8 p.m. ET \u2014 at Golden State<\/p>\n
(* if necessary)<\/p>\n
Atlanta is chasing the first championship in franchise history. Golden State is one step away from fulfilling owner Joe Lacob’s famous proclamation \u2014 a title within five years \u2014 in just Year 2. Four wins, one new champion. It all starts Saturday.<\/p>\n
\u2014 Sources: AP via Fox 5 Atlanta (Oct. 10, 2026); USA Today (Oct. 9, 2026); Scripps News\/AP (Oct. 10, 2026); KB Sports Media (Oct. 10, 2026). Game results and schedule as reported Oct. 9\u201310, 2026.<\/small><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The matchup is set. The Atlanta Dream and the Golden State Valkyries are headed to the 2026 WNBA Finals, with Game 1 tipping Saturday, October…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":137,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-136","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vacancyatmeta.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vacancyatmeta.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vacancyatmeta.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vacancyatmeta.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vacancyatmeta.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=136"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/vacancyatmeta.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":138,"href":"https:\/\/vacancyatmeta.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136\/revisions\/138"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vacancyatmeta.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vacancyatmeta.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vacancyatmeta.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vacancyatmeta.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}