sideline coach Brandin Podziemski<\/a>, fresh off his second season with the Warriors, probably sat in his courtside seat for 20 percent of the game. If he wasn\u2019t arguing with officials over a call against Golden State or dapping up Valkyries players after a big play, he was hyping up the crowd, encouraging them to get out of their seats and get loud.<\/p>\n“He\u2019s just a great supporter,” Thornton said postgame. “He comes and watches the games. I think he has everybody\u2019s jersey. So any given night, he\u2019s wearing somebody\u2019s jersey. But he just supports us.<\/p>\n
“When we look over, you can\u2019t miss him. So just to see him hyped up, for me, it gives me a little more energy, the way he is, the way he interacts.”<\/p>\n
Several other notable figures with Bay Area ties, such as Warriors coach Steve Kerr, Bay FC stars, 49ers players and other well-known local celebrities, to a less-loud degree than Podziemski, have shown their support for Golden State.<\/p>\n
“It just shows that they have love for us and that comes from where they come from,” Thornton added. “So, shout out to them. Shout out to all of them who come out supporting because we really do need it.”<\/p>\n
The Chase Center Jumbotron highlighted some of these figures during a pivotal stretch of the fourth quarter, strategically. The crowd erupted when it saw Kerr on the big screen. It got even louder when former Warriors forward and Bay Area native Juan Toscano-Anderson was shown. It was the perfect way to amp up the fans, and it worked. The Valkyries fed off that energy.<\/p>\n
It’s eerily similar to the home-court advantage the Warriors had at Oracle Arena, also known as Roaracle, where the NBA world witnessed the birth of a dynasty. Since the Warriors moved to Chase Center in 2019, fans often have criticized the upscale arena for its underwhelming atmosphere compared to the deafening beast that was Oracle Arena.<\/p>\n
But for the Valkyries, although playing within the same walls at 1 Warriors Way in San Francisco as the Warriors, the environment feels different.<\/p>\n
Sure, we’re not even midway through the first half of their first full season as a franchise. But some things are hard to deny.<\/p>\n
Nakase admits she took advantage of her new superpower against the Fever on Thursday, and they hope to continue to do so in what they hope continues to be a hostile environment for opponents.<\/p>\n
“When the calls didn’t go our way, they reacted,” Nakase said postgame. “Those are the type of moments we really need. Because it does affect. It does. It puts pressure on the refs, and it kind of gives us that home-court advantage that we’re looking for.<\/p>\n
“So yes, I definitely think our fans were the superpower tonight.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN FRANCISCO — Not all heroes wear capes, but all superheroes have a special superpower. For the Valkyries,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":111661,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3786],"tags":[7,860,479,4705,164,4025,4024,6,863,255,458,23299],"class_list":{"0":"post-111660","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golden-state-warriors","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-brandin-podziemski","10":"tag-golden-state","11":"tag-golden-state-valkyries","12":"tag-golden-state-warriors","13":"tag-goldenstate","14":"tag-goldenstatewarriors","15":"tag-nba","16":"tag-steve-kerr","17":"tag-warriors","18":"tag-wnba","19":"tag-wnba-golden-state"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114714783876298398","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111660","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111660"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111660\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/111661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}