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Valkyrie Nation · Aug 21, 2026

Game 36 preview. GSV at Chicago Sky. 4:30 PM PT

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Eric Apricot · Valkyrie Nation

Last game’s Valkyrie Valor goes to Veronica Burton!

Table of Contents

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

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

To play:

sketch by Marisa Thinkmoo

  • Gabby Williams was drafted 4th overall by Chicago and played three seasons there (2018–2020). She was traded to Los Angeles in May 2021 and sat out the entire 2021 WNBA season on the suspended list while preparing for the Tokyo Olympics with the French national team, so she was not on the 2021 Sky team that won the WNBA championship. She was, however, teammates with Courtney Vandersloot in Chicago from 2018–2020.

  • Azurá Stevens only arrived in Chicago in February 2021, after Gabby had played her last game there, so the two were never on-court teammates for the Sky — though they were UConn teammates for one season (2017–18) after Stevens transferred from Duke. They were both top-10 picks in the 2018 WNBA Draft. Stevens has called Williams “like my sister”.

  • Four current Valkyries — Gabby Williams, Kaitlyn Chen, Tiffany Hayes, and Kiah Stokes — are UConn alumni. Azurá Stevens also attended UConn (after transferring from Duke).

  • Laeticia Amihere and Kamilla Cardoso were teammates at South Carolina, part of the “Energizers” bench squad. They won the 2023 national championship together.

  • DiJonai Carrington, Ashten Prechtel, and Nadia Fingall were all Stanford teammates in 2019–20. Carrington and Fingall were seniors (both dealing with injuries), while Prechtel was a freshman.

  • The Valkyries originally selected Maria Conde from the Sky in the 2025 expansion draft before losing her to Toronto in 2026.

by Karlie, Eric and the Valkyrie Nation Collection

Pop Quiz Game 36. 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 Pop Quiz Game 35 were:

  1. Victor M

  2. Erin S

  3. Eric M

  4. Kevin Danna (verbally)

Thanks to everyone who tried. No, I’m not saying what the answer is. However, 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 109.3 (6th) | CHI 105.0 (11th)

  • DRTG: GSV 101.2 (1st) | CHI 107.3 (9th)

  • NET RTG: GSV +8.1 (2nd) | CHI -2.3 (9th)

  • 2P%: GSV .485 (14th) | CHI .504 (11th)

  • 3P%: GSV .347 (7th) | CHI .321 (12th)

Golden State Valkyries (25-10)

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

  • PTS: Gabby Williams (14.8) | Janelle Salaün (13.1) | Veronica Burton (12.5)

  • AST: Veronica Burton (5.6) | Tiffany Hayes (2.4) | Kaitlyn Chen (1.9)

  • REB: Kiah Stokes (5.4) | Kayla Thornton (4.8) | Kaila Charles (4.3)

  • STL: Gabby Williams (1.7) | Veronica Burton (1.5) | Cecilia Zandalasini (0.9)

  • BLK: Kiah Stokes (1.8) | Laeticia Amihere (0.8) | Veronica Burton (0.4)

  • 2P%: Kaitlyn Chen (.605) | Tiffany Hayes (.545) | Kiah Stokes (.540)

  • 3P% (min 1.0 3PM): Janelle Salaün (.396) | Veronica Burton (.367) | Kayla Thornton (.350)

  • FT%: Kayla Thornton (.920) | Janelle Salaün (.828) | Tiffany Hayes (.827)

  • PER: Veronica Burton (19.8) | Janelle Salaün (19.5) | Tiffany Hayes (18.8)

Chicago Sky (14-22)

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

  • PTS: Rickea Jackson (18.0) | Kamilla Cardoso (14.8) | Sydney Taylor (14.5)

  • AST: Natasha Cloud (5.0) | Skylar Diggins (4.9) | Courtney Vandersloot (4.9)

  • REB: Kamilla Cardoso (8.8) | Azurá Stevens (6.6) | Rickea Jackson (4.8)

  • STL: Courtney Vandersloot (1.3) | Natasha Cloud (1.1) | Skylar Diggins (0.9)

  • BLK: Rickea Jackson (1.8) | Kamilla Cardoso (1.5) | Elizabeth Williams (0.8)

  • 2P%: Kamilla Cardoso (.562) | Jacy Sheldon (.547) | Aicha Coulibaly (.522)

  • 3P% (min 1.0 3PM): Courtney Vandersloot (.400) | Skylar Diggins (.382) | Sydney Taylor (.349)

  • FT%: Aicha Coulibaly (.880) | Natasha Cloud (.862) | Jacy Sheldon (.857)

  • PER: Kamilla Cardoso (22.9) | Sydney Taylor (17.8) | Courtney Vandersloot (17.0)

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)

  • No injuries reported.

Chicago Sky

  • Carrington, DiJonai — OUT — Injury/Illness: Left Foot

  • Coulibaly, Aicha — QUESTIONABLE — Injury/Illness: Right Knee

  • Diggins, Skylar — OUT — Injury/Illness: Right Knee

  • Jackson, Rickea — OUT FOR SEASON — Torn left ACL (ESPN)

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!

Chicago Sky

  • 0 Jacy Sheldon, Jay-cee

  • 1 Elizabeth Williams

  • 4 Skylar Diggins, SKIE-lur

  • 5 Rickea Jackson, Rih-KEY-uh

  • 6 Saylor Poffenbarger, poff-ENN-bar-gurr

  • 7 DiJonai Carrington, DEE-juh-nay

  • 9 Natasha Cloud, Nuh-Tah-Shah

  • 10 Kamilla Cardoso, kuh-ME-luh car-DOE-zo

  • 11 Gabriela Jaquez, HAH-kez

  • 12 Sydney Taylor

  • 15 Morgan Maly

  • 22 Courtney Vandersloot, VAN-der-SLEWT

  • 24 Rachel Banham, BAN-um

  • 30 Azurá Stevens, AZZ-er-ray

  • 35 Aicha Coulibaly, aye-EE-sha coo-li-BALL-ee

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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