Golden State Valkyries (18-16) vs. Atlanta Dream (22-12) Postgame Notes
WNBA Golden State Valkyries

Golden State Valkyries (18-16) vs. Atlanta Dream (22-12) Postgame Notes

Published on August 18, 2025 under Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA)
Golden State Valkyries News Release


Golden State Valkyries (18-16) vs. Atlanta Dream (22-12)

Golden State 63, Atlanta 79

By the Numbers

The Golden State Valkyries sold out their 16th straight home game on Sunday with 18,064 fans.

Veronica Burton paced the team with 16 points, and was perfect from the line (7-7), the 14th time this season she hasn't missed a free throw in a game.

Cecilia Zandalasini had 11 points and four rebounds, and was also perfect from the line (3-3).

Temi Fágbénlé had eight points in 14 minutes of action.

Kate Martin and Laeticia Amihere each had seven points off the bench. Amihere also added five rebounds.

Golden State went 14-16 (87.5 percent) from the free throw line, and have shot 87.5 percent or better in each of its last three games.

The Valkyries held Dream guard Allisha Gray scoreless in the first half for the first time since May 20, 2023.

Quotes

HEAD COACH NATALIE NAKASE:

ON TONIGHT'S OFFENSE:

"I just give credit to Atlanta. They saw what we were doing offensively in paint-and-spray, so I thought they did a good job just crawling into our guards, not allowing them to get into the paint, because if we can't get to the paint, then we can' spray up for threes. So I thought they did a good job defensively."

ON THE SECOND-HALF DEFENSE:

"They turned it up a notch, and then if we're losing Illy (Iliana Rupert), and Temi's (Fágbénlé) in foul trouble, so if both of our bigs, one is out and one's in foul trouble. I think LA (Laeticia Amihere)is a great big, and she's active, and she brings a different presence. But now we're a little bit undersized, and so they were able to pick us apart a little bit undersized. So that's what you saw, Temi got in foul trouble, we had to take her out; Illy then went down, we had to take her out. But I love the fact that LA was fighting, and that's all I could ask for, at the end of the day is a fight. We know we didn't give our best effort tonight, and we own it."

ON KATE MARTIN:

"Kate's always ready to go, whether she's coming off the bench first or second or third. That's the best thing with Kate is she's just so open-minded with the philosophy of 'coach whatever you need, whenever you want me to come in.' She's the most coachable player, on top of I have all coachable players, but a player like that when you know is going to bring a spark, going to bring energy, going to bring toughness, going to bring fight, going to bring communication. We're just really lucky that Kate will always fight no matter what, no matter the score; and I can put her on multiple people. I can put her on a four, I can put her on a two. I can put her on a three; and then just her fearlessness to shoot the ball. Whenever she's open, we want her to obviously let it fly."

GOLDEN STATE CENTER TEMI FÁGBÉNLÉ AND FORWARD CECILIA ZANDALASINI:

ON WHAT ATLANTA WAS DOING TONIGHT:

Zandalasini: "They are a very physical team. They played a very good game, put us in trouble. But we cannot rely only on our three-point percentages. We've got to do better when teams are so physical with us."

ON THE SECOND-HALF DEFENSE:

Fágbénlé: "They were being really aggressive, and that was their game plan to score inside the paint. We just needed to make that adjustment, and we didn't do it as well as we hoped we would."

Up Next

Golden State host Phoenix on Tuesday, August 19 at 7 p.m. PT on KPIX+, KMAX, 95.7 The Game, and the Audacy App.

Check out the Golden State Valkyries Statistics

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Women's National Basketball Association Stories from August 18, 2025


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.

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