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Valkyrie Nation · Aug 24, 2026

EARLY Game 37 preview. GSV at Minnesota Lynx. 5:00 PM PT

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Eric Apricot · Valkyrie Nation

Last game’s Valkyrie Valor goes to Laeticia Amihere!

  • I’ll write some notes from home. I probably have zoom access to the GSV pressers but not sure I’ll have MIN access.

  • I’ll post the raw discombobulated notes (if any) as I write them to the Discord server (see bottom) and quarter by quarter in the comments of this article.

  • Feel free to write your game reactions in either Discord or the article comments. Be respectful to each other. (Most of the live game chat seems to be happening in the Discord server. )

The TV channel finding experience is truly miserable in 2026.

  • USA
    I don’t even know what to tell you. I think this is part of typical cable packages and TV networks.

  • KPIX (Bay Area), KMAX (Sacramento)
    KPIX (channel 5) is the home of Valkyries basketball. KMAX is channel 31 in Sacramento.

  • WNBA League Pass if you are out of the blackout region. Even if blacked out, in theory the game is available right after the conclusion.

VN reader jesswondering developed this bingo game with the help of the Valkyrie Nation Collective. You can read the backstory here.

To play:

by Eric, Marisa Thinkmoo, and the Valkyrie Nation collective

  • Gabby Williams spurned free agency offers from the Minnesota Lynx (and Las Vegas Aces) to come to GSV.

  • The Valkyries nabbed sharpshooter Cecilia Zandalasini from the Lynx in the 2025 expansion draft, and she has been a key floor-spacer ever since. Zandalasini and MIN’s Natasha Howard were actually teammates on the 2017 Lynx championship team — Zandalasini was a rookie on that squad.

  • Tiffany Hayes (GSV) and Courtney Williams (MIN) were teammates on the Atlanta Dream in 2021, forming a potent scoring backcourt.

  • Kiah Stokes (GSV) and Natasha Howard (MIN) were teammates on the New York Liberty in 2021, when Howard arrived via a sign-and-trade from Seattle.

  • Chloe Bibby was a Valkyrie — signed in February 2025, played 5 games for GSV (averaging 6.4 points and 2.8 rebounds), and was waived on June 30. She finished the 2025 season with the Indiana Fever before landing with the Sky as a developmental player. On August 1, 2026, the Minnesota Lynx signed Bibby to a standard contract after the Sky couldn’t match due to salary cap constraints.

  • I limit myself to complaining only once a game that MIN got Olivia Miles, but this is that time of the day. It is freaking unfair that the Lynx ended up getting the 2026 #2 pick and Olivia Miles. That is some real trash trading from Chicago to put the league in this position.

    • 2024: CHI moves up one measly spot to swap from #8 to #7 to grab Angel Reese. They give up a 2026 1st round trade swap, which is a great deal for MIN. Also, CHI gave up 2025 2nd and Sika Koné for Nikolina Milić (whom they later traded away).

    • 2025: CHI wants #11 to grab Hailey Van Lith, so they convert the swap to giving MIN their 2026 1st.

    • So in the end, MIN gets Miles, CHI waives HVL and trades Reese for 2027, 2028 ATL.

    • I know a Valkyries fan is hardly in position to complain about another team’s bad draft trades, but come on.

  • And finally, the Valkyries have never managed to beat the Minnesota Lynx despite four attempts in the 2025 regular season and two attempts in the playoffs, followed by three attempts this season (Games 10, 16, and 35). Not only that, but in 2025, the Lynx specifically targeted the Valkyries as having a bad matchup against the Lynx, and so Minnesota intentionally tanked a game down the stretch vs IND to maneuver the Valkyries into the number eight seed. The Lynx proved themselves right in their strategy by winning the first round series 2-0 (although the Valkyries led most of game two and had a shot to win at the end). The upshot is, it’s going to be really sweet when (if?) the Valkyries finally beat the Lynx.

Pop Quiz Game 37. Can you guess the reason for the team order? First few correct solutions sent to apricotan@gmail.com will be acknowledged in VN.

The first readers with the correct answer to VN Quiz Game 36 were

  1. Erin S

  2. Vynce M

  3. Noah C.

Thanks to everyone who tried. No, I’m not saying what the answer is. When I have time, I will collect all the puzzles and give some hints.

Previous meetings this season:

Team stats (via stats.wnba.com and Basketball Reference, rank out of 15 teams):

  • ORTG: GSV 110.4 (7th) | MIN 116.4 (2nd)

  • DRTG: GSV 102.5 (1st) | MIN 105.2 (2nd)

  • NET RTG: GSV +7.9 (2nd) | MIN +11.2 (1st)

  • 2P%: GSV .483 (14th) | MIN .532 (5th)

  • 3P%: GSV .345 (7th) | MIN .394 (1st)

Golden State Valkyries (25-11)

Top 3 by stat (per game, via Basketball Reference, min 10 MPG):

  • PTS: Gabby Williams (14.4) | Janelle Salaün (13.1) | Veronica Burton (12.4)

  • AST: Veronica Burton (5.5) | Tiffany Hayes (2.5) | Kaitlyn Chen (2.0)

  • REB: Kiah Stokes (5.3) | Kayla Thornton (4.7) | Kaila Charles (4.3)

  • STL: Gabby Williams (1.6) | Veronica Burton (1.4) | Kaila Charles (0.8)

  • BLK: Kiah Stokes (1.7) | Laeticia Amihere (0.7) | Veronica Burton (0.4)

  • 2P%: Kaitlyn Chen (.584) | Kiah Stokes (.540) | Tiffany Hayes (.535)

  • 3P% (min 1.0 3PM): Janelle Salaün (.390) | Veronica Burton (.366) | Kayla Thornton (.350)

  • FT%: Kayla Thornton (.920) | Janelle Salaün (.827) | Veronica Burton (.818)

  • PER: Veronica Burton (19.8) | Janelle Salaün (19.5) | Tiffany Hayes (18.3)

Minnesota Lynx (31-7)

Top 3 by stat (per game, via Basketball Reference, min 10 MPG):

  • PTS: Olivia Miles (20.0) | Napheesa Collier (19.0) | Kayla McBride (18.3)

  • AST: Olivia Miles (6.2) | Courtney Williams (4.3) | Natasha Howard (3.3)

  • REB: Natasha Howard (7.8) | Napheesa Collier (7.4) | Courtney Williams (5.1)

  • STL: Kayla McBride (1.7) | Natasha Howard (1.7) | Napheesa Collier (1.5)

  • BLK: Nia Coffey (1.1) | Napheesa Collier (1.1) | Natasha Howard (0.9)

  • 2P%: Natasha Howard (.609) | Olivia Miles (.541) | Napheesa Collier (.531)

  • 3P% (min 1.0 3PM): Napheesa Collier (.474) | Antonia Delaere (.439) | Kayla McBride (.426)

  • FT%: Kayla McBride (.920) | Olivia Miles (.873) | Napheesa Collier (.865)

  • PER: Napheesa Collier (24.9) | Olivia Miles (23.5) | Natasha Howard (23.2)

The WNBA makes all injury reports available and updates the site absurdly often (every 15 minutes).

Golden State Valkyries

  • Rupert, Iliana — OUT FOR SEASON — Pregnancy (sigh). We discussed Rupert’s pregnancy in extensive detail before

No other GSV players listed in the Aug. 23, 9:15 PM ET report.

Minnesota Lynx

  • Williams, Courtney — OUT — Right Foot

I’ve been asked often what Probable, Available, Questionable, Doubtful mean. They are meant to not have specific probabilities attached to them, partly because how could you even hope to estimate such probabilities to any precision?

However, just for your information, I did do a quick study of all 501 injury reports from the WNBA from 2026-05-16 to 2026-07-05 and found:

  • 300+ players listed as Out, played < 1% of the time. (That 1% comprises development players listed as Out who were activated last-minute.)

  • 5 Players listed as Doubtful played 0% of the time.

  • 82 Players listed as Questionable played 45% of the time.

  • 12 Players listed as Available played 67% of the time.

  • 38 Players listed as Probable played 84% of the time.

Golden State Valkyries

Honorary Valkyries

Want to know more about a player? Check out Valkyries Say Less, who have a series of podcasts that profiles every Valkyrie!

Minnesota Lynx

  • 1 Natasha Howard, nuh-TASH-a

  • 2 Liatu King, LEE-uh-too

  • 3 Maya Caldwell

  • 5 Olivia Miles

  • 7 Anastasiia Olairi Kosu, oh-LAR-ee

  • 8 Antonia Delaere, dah-LAIR

  • 10 Courtney Williams

  • 11 Eliška Hamzová, eh-LEESH-kah HAHM-zoh-vah

  • 12 Nia Coffey, NEE-uh

  • 14 Dorka Juhász, YOO-hahs

  • 15 Teaira McCowan, tee-AIR-uh

  • 21 Kayla McBride

  • 22 Emma Čechová, CHEH-koh-vah

  • 24 Napheesa Collier, nuh-FEE-suh

  • 55 Chloe Bibby

Also, for more name pronunciations, including many players saying their own names, check out Her Hoop Stats.

  • Ash = Ashten Prechtel

  • Ceci (cheh-chee) = Cecilia Zandalasini

  • illy, ili = Iliana Rupert

  • Ja = Janelle Salaün

  • Jak = Ndjakalenga Mwenentanda

  • J.J. = Juste Jocyte

  • Kai = Kaila Charles

  • K.T. = Kayla Thornton

  • L.A. = Laeticia Amihere

  • Mr. Joe = owner Joe Lacob

    • (I’m not endorsing this; I’m just reporting that the GM and players use this all the time)

  • Nat = Natalie Nakase

  • Tip = Tiffany Hayes

  • V, V.B. = Veronica Burton

  • The Backcourt Burglar = Veronica Burton (college)

  • The Black Queen = Laeticia Amihere (from childhood)

  • KFC = Kaitlyn Chen (VN discord). Too many others to list…

    • I personally use Here Comes The Cheneral and Bringing the Chenergy.

  • Spooky G = Gabby Williams (uses herself, don’t know origin)

  • V12 = Veronica Burton (college probably)

By the way, I’ve started a new YouTube channel called Eric Apricot Jam. It would really help if you subscribed to it (for free!). This would tell YouTube that there is an audience for women’s basketball and that YT should share out my videos about the WNBA to more people.

These videos are meant to be friendly to beginners but have interesting observations for observers of all backgrounds. All the parts can be viewed independently, but the vocabulary does build up with each Part. The whole series can be found on YouTube here.

Here are the series in reverse posting order.

  • No Silly Questions with H: Valkyries at Toronto. (I discuss many important and random issues with my daughter H, such as isolation plays, coach adjustments, in the bonus / penalty, intentionally fouling, and the exact color shade of the Tempo)

Here’s a new video about the Chicago game on Aug 12 2026!

And here are the older videos which are still good to watch…

Part 4 terms defined include:

  • 00:38 Switching defense

  • 00:56 Mismatches

  • 02:15 Bad switches

  • 03:25 Show and recover defense (hedge and recover)

  • 04:54 Drop defense

  • 06:17 Valkyries 325 = Warriors 55

  • 06:54 Blitz / Trap / Double team defense, surprise

  • 07:41 Countering the blitz with isolation

  • 08:45 Drop vs blitz defense

Part 3 terms defined include:

  • 00:33 Go Over the screen, Go Under the screen, High side, Low side

  • 02:19 HORNS formation

  • 02:33 Dive or Roll

  • 03:23 HORNS 5

  • 04:14 Dribble handoff, DHO

  • 05:07 Pindown screen, Down screen

  • 05:15 Using the screen, Coming off the screen

  • 06:37 Jamming the cut, Bumping the cut, Denying the cut

  • 07:35 Slip a screen, Roll vs Pop

Part 2 terms defined include:

  • 00:38 Recover

  • 00:46 Bigs and Smalls

  • 00:54 Mismatch

  • 01:53 Rotating on defense

  • 02:42 Slipping the screen, ghosting the screen

  • 03:03 Double team, trap, blitz

  • 04:02 Rejecting the screen

  • 04:26 Helping at the nail

  • 06:21 Slide cut, Passing angle

Part 1 terms include:

  • 00:34 Dribbling and shooting, big vs small

  • 02:00 Screens

  • 02:10 Off ball

  • 02:32 Cut, Flare Cut, Flare Screen

  • 03:39 Ball Fake

  • 03:53 Geography of the Court

  • 03:57 Baseline, sideline, up, down, top

  • 04:10 Corners, elbows, HORNS

  • 05:29 Pick and roll, screen and roll

  • 05:49 Dribble handoff

  • 06:17 Rebounding, boxing out

  • 06:18 Roll

  • 07:18 Backdoor cut

  • 07:46 ICE defense

  • 07:51 take / accept / use the screen

If you don’t know what Discord is, you can ignore this. If you like how the site is now, then don’t worry. This site will still work the same and I’ll still post game previews and wraps over email and the web, etc.

However, if you are wondering where everyone is during game day, it’s the Discord server. For instance, for the 7/15 IND live game chat, there were 880 messages (that’s a lot, even if 150 of them were Kaitlyn Chen puns).

Basically Discord is a group chat where you can engage with me and other readers. It’s good for conversation that’s a bit more casual than leaving a web site comment. You can also respond with emojis and multimedia.

I have been posting my live game notes in the Discord chat as I write them. I even live-commented the media-coaches game over Discord and answered questions. Questions and comments sometimes turn into things I write about for the newsletter.

For now, I’ll keep it open to everyone, but I reserve the right in the future to restrict it to paying subscribers.

Many thanks to Marisa Emi and Tac0maAr0ma for volunteering to moderate the Discord and generally reorganizing it intelligently.

The invitation link for August: https://discord.gg/3P5XTuwAd

Read the original on valkyrienation.substack.com ↗

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