The Valkyries were down at halftime. Gabby Williams brought them a title in their second season
The Golden State Valkyries beat the Atlanta Dream 68–63 in the WNBA’s first Finals Game 7, with Williams scoring 28 of her 30 points after halftime.
Gabby Williams powers Valkyries past Dream in Game 7 for historic WNBA title
Golden State Valkyries win Game 7, secure first WNBA title
Gabby Williams leads Valkyries to WNBA championship in second season, beating Dream 68-63 in Game 7
Dream end schedule nightmare with Game 6 win over Valkyries
Valkyries stop Dream to win WNBA championship in second season
A second-half takeover
The Golden State Valkyries won their first WNBA championship on Saturday, beating the Atlanta Dream 68–63 at San Francisco’s Chase Center in the league’s first winner-take-all Finals Game 7. The victory came in just the franchise’s second season.valkyries +1
Gabby Williams scored 30 points and was named Finals MVP after a dramatic reversal: she had only two points at halftime, when Atlanta led 30–24. Her 28 second-half points were the most in any half of a WNBA postseason game, according to ESPN.espn
Williams scored 15 points in the third quarter, including three consecutive 3-pointers, as Golden State took a 45–44 lead into the fourth. After Atlanta tied it at 57, she hit another 3-pointer to put the Valkyries ahead for good.theguardian +1
A tense finish
Atlanta stayed close. Allisha Gray made two free throws with 11 seconds left, and the Dream forced a jump ball. Golden State’s Veronica Burton secured it and made two free throws with 5.1 seconds remaining to finish the scoring.abcnews
Burton had 10 points and 10 rebounds, while Tiffany Hayes scored 11. Jordin Canada led Atlanta with 18 points, Gray had 16, and Angel Reese finished with eight points and 12 rebounds.theguardian
The championship was Atlanta’s fourth unsuccessful Finals appearance. For Golden State, it followed a change by coach Natalie Nakase after the team fell behind 2–1 in the series: she moved Hayes and Kaila Charles into the starting lineup.abcnews
The road to Game 7
The WNBA introduced a best-of-seven Finals in 2025, but Las Vegas swept Phoenix that year, leaving this series as the first to require a seventh game.usatoday Golden State beat Dallas in the first round and swept the defending champion Aces to reach the Finals.theguardian
Atlanta forced the decider with an 80–69 Game 6 win on Thursday. That game tipped off at 12:30 p.m. Eastern because of an arena scheduling conflict with the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks; a sellout crowd of 17,000 attended despite the weekday start.reuters