Golden State Postgame Notes: Valkyries 87, Mercury 81
WNBA Golden State Valkyries

Golden State Postgame Notes: Valkyries 87, Mercury 81

Published on June 10, 2026 under Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA)
Golden State Valkyries News Release


By the Numbers

The Valkyries drew their 30th consecutive sellout crowd of 18,064 on Tuesday. Golden State has sold out 29-straight regular season games.

Veronica Burton scored a season-high 19 points in the first half and tied her season high with 25 points in the contest. Burton also added eight assists.

Gabby Williams added 25 points, marking the first time she has scored 20+ points in back-to-back games in her career.

It's the first time in Golden State history the Valkyries have had multiple players score 25 points in the same game.

Kayla Thornton scored 12 points with four rebounds, and went 4-5 from the free throw line.

Kiah Stokes tied her season high with three assists while adding four rebounds and three points.

Janelle Salaün added 11 points and five rebounds.

Kaila Charles had six rebounds, including a big defensive board with six seconds left in the game to seal the win.

Tiffany Hayes scored seven points, and is three points away from 5,000 in her career.

The Valkyries only had nine turnovers, the fourth-straight game they've had single-digit turnovers.

Commissioner's Cup total donation to Youth UpRising: $8,000

Quotes

HEAD COACH NATALIE NAKASE:

ON TONIGHT'S EFFORT:

"It was better. Visually, it was better. The fight was better, I thought, especially with Kai [Kaila Charles]. I don't know if you guys remember Kai's second offensive rebound, and she put it back in first. She checked over her shoulder, once you put it back in, that crowd just erupted. So I think individually, definitely there was a lot of growth, we did lose a rebounding battle, but they did shoot a lot of threes, which were hard to grab."

ON GABBY WILLIAMS AND THE TEAM'S OFFENSIVE PERFORMANCE:

"She's [Gabby Williams] so fast, she's so fast with the ball, and so for her, it's about getting the angles. I thought her, V [Veronica Burton], Tip [Tiffany Hayes], I thought they did a great job of navigating the angles that they wanted...So that's what I'm talking about, is we're building that synergy, that chemistry between that rotation of both the first unit and the second unit."

ON SOLIDIFYING THE TEAM'S IDENTITY:

"I think we do have an identity of toughness, grittiness, connectivity. Those words kind of come to mind. I would say ultra competitive too. They're there, that's who they are. It's really about now, can I bring them together in terms of execution? I think for us, time and score is going to be something that I'm going to be looking at from this game...But the culture and our identity, it's already set in them, it's me now as their head coach, I got to just bring out, bring it out every single game, that's my job, and so whatever buttons I have to push, whatever clear messages I have to deliver...That's my job I have to do."

GOLDEN STATE GUARD VERONICA BURTON AND FORWARD GABBY WILLIAMS:

ON TONIGHT'S WIN:

Burton: "[This game was] really big. Obviously we would have preferred for it not to be that close, and to be able to sustain our lead, but we've lost a couple close ones. So I think just being able to figure it out, even when things go wrong, when they hit tough shots, just staying together. I thought our composure took a really big leap tonight. We just made winning plays, honestly. So it was a good one."

ON VERONICA BURTON AS A TEAMMATE:

Williams: "Without knowing each other for a long time...We can relate to one another by the way we've both come up through this league and had to kind of find our way through. So I feel like it's very easy for us to know what to say to the other one, because we understand that. Even though it's been a short amount of time, I think I know how to get to her and she knows what to say to me to help motivate me, and I think that's just helped our relationship and has allowed us to play confidently."

ON PLAYING ALONGSIDE GABBY WILLIAMS:

Burton: "I mean, you see it on a night in, night out basis. I think her ability to score within our offense, she's able to create her own shot when need be, and then she's able to really fit into how we run our offense. She's just a really dynamic scorer, and in big moments, she gets a steal; and at the most important time of the game, then she's also getting clutch buckets down the stretch. I think there's a steadiness to her, and she's super reliable. I suppose it's more than that too. I think her composure, her ability to keep us together, we really feel it, and so it really has elevated us as a whole."

Up Next: The Valkyries visit Seattle this Friday, June 12, to face the Storm at 7 p.m. exclusively on ION and the Audacy App.

Check out the Golden State Valkyries Statistics

Share: Facebook | Twitter/X | LinkedIn | Reddit | Email



Women's National Basketball Association Stories from June 10, 2026


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

OurSports Central