SAN FRANCISCO \u2013 If the Valkyries look up in the rafters of their Chase Center home arena, four bright gold and blue Golden State Warriors championship banners hang loudly and proudly.<\/p>\n
The first one won in 2015, five years after Joe Lacob purchased the Warriors and the first in 40 years for the franchise. When Lacob officially bought the Valkyries in 2023, before they even had a name or roster assembled, the executive declared the Valkyries would win a WNBA championship<\/a> within the first five years of the team\u2019s existence.<\/p>\n It would be a bold claim if made by anyone other than Lacob. But his message, although mocked at by the general sports world, was heard loud and clear by the Valkyries<\/a>. And with just a few words, the standard was set and the expectation is clear.\u00a0<\/p>\n While expansion teams historically don\u2019t have a high success rate, Lacob and the Valkyries are hoping to rewrite history. That probably won\u2019t happen in Year 1, but Golden State is off to a promising start.<\/p>\n That became increasingly clear against the defending champions Wednesday night. The Valkyries hung with the New York Liberty until the final dying seconds of a down-to-the-wire 81-78 loss<\/a> at Chase Center.<\/p>\n But despite taking Liberty star Sabrina Ionescu<\/a> out of her game and going neck-to-neck with the reigning champs, there are no moral victories for the Valkyries.<\/p>\n \u201cYeah, we\u2019re close. We don\u2019t really care about being close,\u201d Valkyries guard Kate Martin said postgame. \u201cWe want to win. That\u2019s our goal every night. We don\u2019t care if it\u2019s the defending champs. We don\u2019t care who you are. Our goal is to win.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cOur goal is to control what we can control and go out there and give our best effort every single night.\u201d<\/p>\n Martin had an explosive fourth quarter, knocking down four 3-pointers and scoring 14 points in 10 minutes of the final frame to keep her team alive and Valkyries fans out of their seats and on their feet for the last few minutes of game action.<\/p>\n But even after pouring in a season-high 21 points Wednesday, her performance was the last thing on her mind as the loss still rubbed her the wrong way. As did they for Valkyries coach Natalie Nakase.<\/p>\n \u201cI agree with Kate,\u201d Nakase said after the loss. \u201cWe don\u2019t care what the score ended up being \u2013 we want to win. And you could see it. You could feel it with our players. But no, we let them score 46 in the first half. [Breanna Stewart] had 21. That wasn\u2019t part of the game plan.\u201d<\/p>\n Golden State made the necessary adjustments in the second half, as Stewart scored just two points in the final two quarters. It was too late for the Valkyries, however, who had two chances to nail a game-tying three with seven seconds remaining in the game.<\/p>\n The Valkyries\u2019 mindset after a close-knit loss to one of the best teams in the league only reflected their pregame mentality.<\/p>\n As Nakase spoke to reporters during her routine pregame media availability, she was asked if there is anything more special or marquee about playing a New York team, especially given Ionescu\u2019s highly anticipated Bay Area homecoming.<\/p>\n \u201cNo, it\u2019s about us,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s always going to be about us when we play. We can\u2019t control anything outside of how we play, how we prepare, how we lock into the game plan. I can\u2019t control what Sabrina\u2019s going to do. I just want to focus on our game plan execution and being locked in.\u201d<\/p>\n The reporter followed up, hoping to clarify his question and re-emphasize any added uniqueness to playing the defending WNBA champions, who happen to be a big-market team.<\/p>\n \u201cNo. We\u2019re in the Bay. Yeah, they\u2019re from the Big Apple, but we\u2019re in the Bay,\u201d Nakase said. \u201cI think what\u2019s special about us is our 18,000 fans that show up for us. So we just want to focus on, again, what we can control. We want to win every game. That\u2019s the important thing for us. No matter who we\u2019re playing. We\u2019re going to bring that same energy we bring from Connecticut, from Indiana, from Dallas. We are bringing that same energy every single night.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cAnd I think that\u2019s the difficulty and the challenge of winning is trying to be consistent, and that\u2019s what I\u2019m trying to make sure I get our players to do every single day.\u201d<\/p>\n After being blown out by New York in their first meeting of the season on May 27, Golden State since has gone toe-to-toe with the defending champs twice, given the Minnesota Lynx, who currently have the best record in the league, a hard time and gave the Phoenix Mercury a run for their money in a narrow loss.<\/p>\n Just last week, reigning WNBA Rookie of the Year and rising superstar Caitlin Clark was in town as her Indiana Fever took on the Valkyries for the first time. Just like Ionescu, a large crowd arrived early to watch Clark warm up and cheer her on during the duration of the game. But Clark also struggled in her Bay Area debut<\/a>, finishing with just 11 points and missing all of her seven 3-point attempts in the Valkyries’ 88-77 win.<\/p>\n