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ATLANTA \u2014<\/p>\nThe WNBA worked with the NBA to move the game to State Farm Arena, where Games 3 and 4 of the championship series were played.<\/p>\n
ATLANTA \u2014<\/p>\n
The WNBA has moved Game 6 of the Finals between the Atlanta Dream and Golden State Valkyries to a 12:30 p.m. EDT tipoff Thursday at the home area of the Atlanta Hawks so that the NBA can keep its previously scheduled primetime contest that day.<\/p>\n
The WNBA worked with the NBA to move the game to State Farm Arena, where Games 3 and 4 of the championship series were played.<\/p>\n
The Hawks have a game against the Cleveland Cavaliers that night that couldn\u2019t be moved to another date or place. The only way they could make it work was to play the early afternoon game. The Hawks\u2019 game against the Cavaliers was moved back an hour.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe sellout crowds and extraordinary atmosphere at State Farm Arena for Games 3 and 4 were a tremendous success, and we\u2019re excited to give thousands more fans the opportunity to experience Game 6 with a championship on the line,\u201d WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert said Monday. \u201cWe thank the NBA, Dream, Valkyries, Hawks, State Farm Arena and USA Network for the collaboration and flexibility that made this move possible. We look forward to delivering another unforgettable Finals experience in Atlanta.\u201d<\/p>\n
Game 5 was set to start at 8 p.m. EDT Monday night at Chase Center in San Francisco.<\/p>\n
Valkyries coach Natalie Nakase downplayed the difficulty of adjusting to the early tipoff for Game 6.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat\u2019s amazing is we\u2019re always prepped for anything,\u201d Nakase said. \u201cSo we\u2019ve already scheduled. Made it really intentional. Main thing, rest and recover as best we can. We\u2019ve had six games in 10 days during the regular season. So yeah, it\u2019s really not affecting us. It\u2019s just more we can control what we can control and that\u2019s rest and recovery.\u201d<\/p>\n
Added Nakase when asked about remaining grounded through the series: \u201cI just think we\u2019re built for this. I think you can throw anything at our team, our organization, and we\u2019re built for it. We like things that are hard for some reason. We love challenges.\u201d<\/p>\n
Because the State Farm Arena court will have to be changed for Thursday night\u2019s Hawks game, the floor may have to be cleared quickly, even though there could be a celebration for a series-clinching win.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not really thinking about that right now,\u201d Golden State guard Veronica Burton said. \u201cJust focus on this game today and again, control what we can control. So right now it\u2019s just Game 5 mentality.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dream expecting another big crowd that their usual home can\u2019t accommodate<\/p>\n
By playing Game 6 in the Hawks\u2019 arena, the Dream can have more than 17,000 fans. Their usual home, Gateway Center Arena in suburban College Park, Georgia, seats about 3,500.<\/p>\n
Games 3 and 4 were sold out. Fans bought tickets quickly for Thursday\u2019s game, with more than 10,000 sold in the first 90 minutes they were on sale, according to a Dream spokesperson.<\/p>\n
\u201cSuper excited that the game will be at State Farm,\u201d Atlanta guard Jordin Canada said. \u201cThe crowd has shown up and showed out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dream coach Karl Smesko said that he was happy it got worked out, but he feels bad for fans who would attend if it wasn\u2019t during working hours.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hope everybody gets to see it somehow and I know that for some people it\u2019s not realistic, they have jobs and won\u2019t be able to make it,\u201d he said. \u201cSo I\u2019m disappointed for that but I\u2019m really hopeful that as many people can see the game as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was the third time in the series that the WNBA made accommodations for the Dream to be able to play at the bigger arena. Game 3 was moved up a day to last Wednesday and Saturday\u2019s contest started at 1 p.m. EDT so the Hawks could still host their home opener that night against Houston.<\/p>\n
That game was moved back 30 minutes to allow more time for the arena staff to change the building over for the Hawks contest. Now there potentially could be a champion crowned that day so there will be more time between games.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we were done (changing the court after Game 4), I texted our CEO and I said, \u2018Hey, if you need us to do it again, we\u2019re ready to go,\u2019\u201d State Farm Arena chief facilities officer Amanda Mann said.<\/p>\n
NBA schedule, FIBA World Cup break and TV deals all factored into situation<\/p>\n
The NBA and WNBA explored options to keep the game in primetime. Both the Hawks and Cavaliers play Wednesday night, so they couldn\u2019t play earlier Thursday.<\/p>\n
After the first two games of the series drew record ratings, it\u2019s likely that viewership will take a hit with the early start time. The game will tip at 9:30 a.m. local time in San Francisco.<\/p>\n
While the league didn\u2019t know until last Saturday that there would definitely be a Game 6 played in Atlanta, a contingency plan could have been put in place a long time ago by Engelbert and NBA Commissioner Adam Silver. The eight playoff teams were known in early September, before the WNBA paused its season for the women\u2019s FIBA World Cup. Without the World Cup, the playoffs would have been two weeks earlier, before the NBA regular season began.<\/p>\n
Part of the issue is that unlike the Valkyries, who are controlled by Golden State Warriors owner Joe Lacob, the Dream and Hawks are owned by different groups. Also, with NBC and USA Sports broadcasting the games this year, WNBA Finals games are on different nights than they have been in previous years.<\/p>\n
In the past, games wouldn\u2019t be played on Monday nights \u2014 like Game 5 will be \u2014 because of ESPN\u2019s NFL contract. They also wouldn\u2019t be scheduled on Saturdays, the day that Games 3 and a potential Game 7 would be played, because of ESPN\u2019s college football contracts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The WNBA worked with the NBA to move the game to State Farm Arena, where Games 3 and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":868805,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[453,900,32234,7689,208,7,193,173,1351,101876,1501,142,2397,479,101877,6,5449,651,18550,6433,16452,8477,458,14083],"class_list":["post-868804","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-angel-reese","tag-arena","tag-atl","tag-atlanta-dream","tag-atlanta-hawks","tag-basketball","tag-cleveland-cavaliers","tag-day","tag-dream","tag-fiba-world-cup-break","tag-finals","tag-game","tag-georgia","tag-golden-state","tag-home-matinee","tag-nba","tag-night","tag-series","tag-state-farm","tag-state-farm-arena","tag-thursday-night","tag-valkyries","tag-wnba","tag-wnba-finals"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/117510903180758443","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/868804","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=868804"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/868804\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/868805"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=868804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=868804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=868804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}