Valkyries answer Natalie Nakase’s ‘effort’ challenge in tight win over Mercury

SAN FRANCISCO– In the days since the Golden State Valkyries suffered back-to-back losses to the Las Vegas Aces and Minnesota Lynx, their first losing streak of the season, Natalie Nakase has challenged her players, both publicly and privately, to play harder. To play with more effort.

She even had the video coordinator stitch together a reel of plays to demonstrate the kind of hustle she wants and needs the Valkyries to play with.

And after a tight 87-81 win over the Phoenix Mercury, a game in which they nearly surrendered an 18-point third-quarter lead, they appear to be back on the right track in that regard. And the efforts of Gabby Williams and Veronica Burton were the key to answering Nakase’s challenge as the duo poured in 25 points apiece as they nailed clutch shots down the stretch to keep Phoenix at bay.

After the game, Williams spoke about how she and the rest of the team internalizes Nakase challenging them to play harder and to play with more effort.

“For me, I’m the most disappointed in myself if she has to tell me that,” Williams said with Burton next to her nodding in agreement. “That’s one thing that I never want a coach to coach– my effort. So [it’s] making sure it’s not something that she has to repeat. I think we all feel that way.”

For Nakase, she thought her team answered her challenge. To an extent.

“Visually, it was better. The fight was better,” Nakase said of the effort, pointing to Kaila Charles’ big offensive rebound and putback in the fourth as an example of that hustle she craves for her team.

“I think individually, definitely, there was a lot of growth. We did lose the rebounding battle, but they did shoot a lot of threes, which are hard to grab. So I’m going to ask Kenny [Wolfe] to give me a stat and see, but I thought overall it was better.”

Avoiding an 18-point comeback from the Mercury

Nakase wouldn’t characterize Phoenix’s comeback as the Valkyries “blowing” their lead. But it definitely looked and felt that way when Golden State was outscored 29-17 in the third quarter.

So, for as good as the Valkyries looked when Williams and Burton closed out the Mercury in the clutch, this game highlighted real concerns offensively, concerns that have plagued them throughout the early part of this season.

Namely, how Golden State is very vulnerable to scoring droughts. They have stretches when they’ll string together empty possessions that end in either a bad shot or a bad turnover. And while that can happen to any team in the WNBA, the Valkyries are particularly prone to these droughts because of how stagnant their offense can get.

Part of that stems from Golden State not running that much off-ball action, especially on the weak side. That allows the help defenders to load up on the on-ball actions because they only have to worry about recovering to a stationary shooter rather than a back-pick or a flare screen, for example.

But it really comes down to the fact that the Valkyries are the second-worst in the league in shot quality. They haven’t been able to make it easy for themselves. And while the poor shot quality is offset by some top-tier shotmaking, it ultimately means everything they create on offense is difficult. And it’s hard to overcome all throughout the season.

It all comes down to effort

Nakase believes their poor shot quality stems from her not giving them proper solutions.

“That’s on me. I have to build a game plan offensively. We’ve been thrown a couple of different coverages, so I have to make sure I give them solutions,” Nakase explained regarding their shot quality. “[It’s] having accountability conversations again, holding each other accountable. But more for me, I have to be a lot more clear. I think if I’m a lot more clear, then the shot quality goes up.”

Regardless, it begins with the challenge Nakase issued to her team over the last couple of days. They have to play harder. Especially given their willingness to go deep into their bench. Nakase emphasized that if everyone is getting run, it should be even easier to play with heart and energy since the stints are shorter.

Against Phoenix, the Valkyries answered the call. Moving forward, it’s about making sure Nakase never has to bring that up again.

“We can’t even focus on executing our game plan if the effort’s not there,” Williams said. “No matter what we draw up on the board, no matter what kind of schemes we say we’re going to do. None of it matters if we’re not getting 100% effort. And we just hope that we don’t have to learn that the hard way.”

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