The Golden State Valkyries are one win away from a WNBA championship in only their second season. In a bruising, low-scoring WNBA Finals Game 5 at Chase Center in San Francisco on Monday, October 26, 2026, Golden State beat the Atlanta Dream 64-55 to take a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven series, with centre Kiah Stokes delivering the defining performance of the night.
Stokes scored a playoff-best 13 points, grabbed eight rebounds and blocked three shots, and the Ballhalla crowd chanted her name and then “MVP!” as she spoke on court after the final buzzer. “We appreciate you,” a smiling Stokes said. “We got one more.” That is all that now stands between the expansion franchise and a first title: one more win, in Game 6 in Atlanta on Thursday, October 29.
Game 5 was ugly, gritty and physical from the opening tip, and that suited Golden State perfectly. Neither team could find any rhythm from long range in the first half: the Valkyries shot 3-for-16 from three-point range and the Dream 2-for-13, and the sides went into the break with Golden State ahead 25-22, the lowest combined first-half total ever seen in a WNBA Finals game.
The second half belonged to Stokes and Burton. Stokes hit a key three-pointer with 2:46 left in the third quarter and another with 7:21 remaining in the game, each one lifting the rally-towel-waving home crowd to its feet. Atlanta briefly threatened when Rhyne Howard’s three-point play with 4:59 left in the third pulled the Dream to within 34-31, but from there Golden State produced all the decisive plays at both ends of the floor.
Leading scorer Gabby Williams endured a difficult shooting night, starting 2-for-11 and missing all four of her three-point attempts, but she still produced the night’s most important basket for the home side. Her three-point play with 9:08 remaining put Golden State ahead 49-42, and she finished with nine points on 3-for-14 shooting and six rebounds. Tiffany Hayes, who played 10 seasons for Atlanta and came out of retirement two years ago, added 12 points after again starting in the lineup change head coach Natalie Nakase first made for the Game 4 win.
Atlanta hurt itself badly at the other end. The Dream committed 17 turnovers, and Golden State turned those mistakes into 21 points. Atlanta’s 55 points were its lowest total of the entire season, a fitting reflection of a night on which the Valkyries’ defence never let the visitors settle.
Neither of these teams has ever won a WNBA championship, so a new champion is guaranteed in 2026. Golden State, the No. 2 seed, is playing only its second season in the league, while Atlanta, the No. 4 seed, is chasing its first title after a breakthrough run to the Finals. The series has swung back and forth ever since: Golden State won Game 1 68-64, Atlanta won Game 2 79-65, Atlanta won Game 3 97-71, and Golden State levelled the series with a 67-62 win in Game 4 before Monday’s Game 5 triumph.
The Valkyries’ rise has been remarkably fast. When the expansion franchise was granted to the Bay Area three years ago, owner Joe Lacob boldly promised a championship within five years. This season has exceeded even that ambition, with Golden State reaching the Finals in year two and now standing one win from completing the job ahead of schedule.
Coach Nakase’s “strength in numbers” mantra has defined the run. Golden State does not rely on one star to carry it every night; instead, different players step forward as the matchup demands. That was the story again on Monday, when Williams struggled from the field and Stokes, Burton and Hayes carried the scoring load. Nakase changed her starting lineup for Game 4, inserting Hayes and Kaila Charles, and she kept faith with that same group on Monday night. It worked again.
Stokes, a three-time WNBA champion with the Las Vegas Aces, has now recorded three or more blocks in six straight games, tying Lisa Leslie’s 2003 mark for the longest such streak in a single WNBA postseason. She also entered Game 5 as the league’s all-time Finals blocks leader, and Atlanta shot just 1-for-7 when she contested a shot on Monday, according to ESPN Research.
The turning point of WNBA Finals Game 5 was not a scoring explosion. There was no scoring explosion to be had. Instead, it was a slow strangling of Atlanta’s offence, led by Stokes in the paint and by a team-wide commitment to making every Dream possession uncomfortable.
Reese, the 2026 Defensive Player of the Year, had opened the Finals with three consecutive double-doubles, the youngest player in WNBA history to do so, including a 30-point, 16-rebound performance in Atlanta’s Game 2 win. But Golden State has progressively taken her out of the series. After scoring eight points or fewer in back-to-back losses, Reese managed only seven points on Monday, taking just eight shots and four free throws, and she was whistled for four personal fouls, including three offensive fouls that became turnovers.
The most telling moment came with 7:43 left and Golden State ahead 49-42, when Reese was called for an offensive foul after making contact with Golden State reserve Cecilia Zandalasini on a drive. Reese threw her hands up in frustration, and Dream coach Karl Smesko shook his head on the sideline. It summed up a night on which Atlanta felt every call, and every bump, went against its star.
Stokes, by contrast, described her own game in the simplest possible terms after the win. “I’m just like head down, blue-collar hoops,” she said. “A lot of my game isn’t really pretty. I do all the dirty work: rebounds, blocking shots and defence. But that’s just what I know I can bring to the team.” On Monday, that dirty work won a Finals game.
The officiating dominated the post-game conversation, and Smesko did not hold back. “I do want to have Angel Reese’s back here,” he said. “The contact they allow on Angel compared to everybody else is just ridiculous.” He argued Atlanta should have gone to the free-throw line six to eight more times, and he was equally unhappy with missed violations. “To miss double dribbles and travels, multiple that always led to points, you can’t be at this level and make that many mistakes,” he said. “There’s things that are on us, like missing shots we should make, but at the same time, officiating needs to be a whole lot better. And I’m kind of tired of some of the excuses that I’m hearing.”
Reese backed her coach, while insisting she must play through it. “A lot of us are getting fouled and they’re not calling it,” she said. “We’re talking to the ref after and they’re saying, ‘Oh, we’ll get you next time.’ So it is a little frustrating, especially in the moment of it.” She added that she noticed the whistle changing after Atlanta went up 2-1 in the series. “It definitely shifted when we went up 2-1 and things shifted. I don’t know what happened, but it definitely took a big turn,” she said. “I’m kind of used to it because this is happening throughout the season, so I have to just continue to play through it.”
Nakase, asked about the physicality, was unbothered. “It’s a finals,” she said. “I mean, both teams really want to win this. And you guys even said from the beginning of the Finals, this is two defensive-minded teams. So what are two defensive-minded teams? They like physicality, so that’s part of it. You guys act like I’m shocked. I ain’t shocked about this. You have an Atlanta Dream team that’s well coached that has dogs. I mean, same as us.”
Reese, for her part, refused to concede the series. “Our backs are against the wall,” she said. “But when we get to go home and play in front of our home crowd again and being able to get a couple of days of rest and get back to Atlanta Dream basketball, I feel good about ourselves. And I think everybody in the locker room is dialed in to who we are. So as long as we’re all on the same page, we can do it. We still believe in the locker room that we can do it.”
This series matters far beyond the two locker rooms. A Golden State title in year two would be one of the fastest championship runs by an expansion team in modern American professional sport, and it would confirm the Bay Area as a new powerhouse of the women’s game. Ballhalla, as Chase Center is known to Valkyries fans, has become one of the loudest and most distinctive home courts in the league, with lilac-and-black merchandise selling across the country and sellout crowds becoming the norm.
For Atlanta, the stakes are just as high. The Dream have never won a title, and this was supposed to be their breakthrough year, built around Reese’s dominance and a roster that beat Golden State twice in this series already. Losing from 2-1 up, with their star held to single figures in consecutive games, would be a painful way for that dream to end.
The officiating row also matters for the league itself. Smesko’s comments are likely to draw a fine, but they have put the spotlight on how Finals games are being called at the very moment the WNBA is drawing its biggest audiences. How the league handles the next two games, and whether Reese gets a different whistle in Atlanta, could shape the rest of the series.
The series now moves to Atlanta for Game 6 on Thursday, October 29, at 12:30 p.m. ET at the 17,000-seat State Farm Arena. The early tip-off has already caused a stir: it falls in the middle of the working day on both coasts, at 9:30 a.m. PT for Bay Area fans, and Smesko has said he wishes the game could be a national holiday so everyone could watch. Golden State guard Veronica Burton had a simpler message for Valkyries fans after Game 5: “Call in sick.”
If Golden State wins Game 6, the Valkyries are champions in their second season, and the celebrations in San Francisco will begin immediately. If Atlanta wins, the series returns to Chase Center for a winner-take-all Game 7 on Saturday, October 31, where one game will decide a first championship for either franchise. Either way, the next game is the biggest in the history of both clubs.
For more basketball coverage, read about the Thunder’s 125-114 win over the Suns, Stephen Curry’s perfect shooting night against the Nuggets, and the Cavaliers’ overtime win over the Timberwolves.
Golden State beat Atlanta 64-55 in Game 5 on Monday, October 26, 2026, at Chase Center in San Francisco, giving the Valkyries a 3-2 series lead.
Kiah Stokes led Golden State with 13 points, eight rebounds and three blocks, while Veronica Burton also scored 13 points with eight rebounds. Tiffany Hayes added 12 points.
Reese was held to seven points on 2-of-8 shooting, along with 15 rebounds and five assists. She was called for four personal fouls, including three offensive fouls.
Game 6 is on Thursday, October 29, 2026, at 12:30 p.m. ET at State Farm Arena in Atlanta. A Golden State win clinches the title; an Atlanta win forces Game 7 in San Francisco on Saturday, October 31.
No. Neither Golden State nor Atlanta has won a WNBA championship, so the 2026 Finals will crown a first-time champion.
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