Dream Force the First Game 7 in WNBA Finals History: Atlanta Beats Golden State 80-69 in Game 6 Behind Gray's 23
Atlanta led by 25, watched Golden State cut it to eight, and closed it with a dagger three. Saturday night in San Francisco, one game decides a championship for two teams that have never won one.
ATLANTA - The WNBA Finals will have a Game 7 for the first time in the league's history. The Atlanta Dream defeated the Golden State Valkyries 80-69 in Game 6 on Thursday at State Farm Arena, tying the series and sending it back to San Francisco for a winner-take-all finale on Saturday. Allisha Gray led Atlanta with 23 points, including five 3-pointers, and Rhyne Howard, who had been in a shooting slump, scored 21 with four 3-pointers. Atlanta made 13 threes as a team, shooting 43.3 percent from deep - tied for the most 3-pointers by a team facing elimination in Finals history.
The game was nearly decided in its first ten minutes. Atlanta outscored Golden State 32-15 in the first quarter and took a 20-point lead into halftime - tied for the fourth-largest halftime lead in Finals history - and pushed the margin to 25 in the second half. Angel Reese recorded 15 points, 14 rebounds and six assists for the Dream. Golden State, which arrived one win from a championship in just its second season, shot 22 of 70 from the field and spent three quarters digging out.
The dig almost worked. Gabby Williams, who scored 26 points with 22 of them in the second half and 10 straight in the fourth quarter, led a 14-3 run that cut the lead to eight with 1:15 remaining. Tiffany Hayes added 15 for the Valkyries. Then Gray hit a 22-foot shot with 56 seconds left that ended the run and the game. The noon-hour start - a 12:30 p.m. ET tip moved up because of an Atlanta Hawks scheduling conflict in the same building - produced a sellout anyway, and an atmosphere that never sounded like a weekday matinee.
Game 7 is Saturday, October 31, at 8 p.m. ET at the Chase Center in San Francisco, on USA and Peacock. The best-of-seven Finals format, adopted in 2025, has now produced its first deciding game, and it pairs two franchises seeking their first championship - Golden State in its second season of existence, Atlanta in its first Finals breakthrough. One game, on Halloween night, for the title.
