Golden State Valkyries make long-awaited WNBA debut

SAN FRANCISCO — Monique Billings caught the ball just over half court on the Golden State Valkyries’ third offensive possession of their preseason game against the Los Angeles Sparks.

She dropped the ball off to Tiffany Hayes, and then immediately cut toward the hoop, losing her defender and finding herself wide open in the midrange. Hayes got the ball back to her, and Billings took — and made — the shot.

That was a moment 19 months in the making: The first bucket in Golden State history.

Tuesday’s 83-82 home loss to the Sparks was the first game in Valkyries franchise history and provided the an initial glimpse of what the first WNBA expansion team since 2008 looks like.

“They’ve been working on this since 2016, so to see it come to life is amazing,” Kayla Thornton said. “For us to be the first ones to wear this jersey and then go out and see this crowd, it was amazing. Being able to have our fans give us that energy, to be a sixth man out there, especially for the first game, they never wavered. It’s huge.”

Tuesday morning’s shootaround was the first time the team had convened at Chase Center. For the past several months, head coach Natalie Nakase has been using a clipboard with the same purple sidelines and baselines as the features on the real court. But until shootaround, that’s as close as she had gotten.

So as Nakase stepped foot onto the Chase court for morning practice, the scale of it all sank in. She took a lap around the arena to familiarize herself with her new surroundings.

At the game, the 17,428 fans made it clear they’d been hungry for a WNBA team. The arena was lined with fans wearing Valkyries Violet, chanting and cheering from when Golden State was down 14, to when it climbed back in the third quarter.

With under a minute left in the period, Kate Martin was fouled on a 3-pointer, and before making all three free throws, she took a moment to turn to the crowd and pump her arms up and down, inciting a monstrous roar.

After the Valkyries got a defensive stop, Laeticia Amihere hit a corner 3 to give Golden State its first lead and the crowd erupted.

“Our crowd showed up,” Nakase said. “I’m very lucky for all of these fans that showed up on a preseason game. But not only did they show up, they were loud. It felt like a playoff game. That’s what it felt like and you could see our players feeding off their passion. Every time there was a dive on the floor or a block or a tough foul, that crowd responded.”

The third quarter is when the Valkyries showed the “killer” identity they are trying to take on this season, outscoring the Sparks 31-18.

After going 1-for-14 on 3s in the first half, the Valkyries finished the game 42.4% shooting from the field, including 21.4% from 3.

“I told them when we went into the locker room, please don’t be discouraged. This is the first time we are all playing together and we are learning a new system,” Thornton said. “We have exceeded our expectations of how this first game was going to go.”

Their run was spearheaded by a bench unit of Martin, Carla Leite, Julie Vanloo, Kyara Linskens and Amihere, who led the team with 20 points on 7-of-11 shooting.

“It’s the pace — they found their pace in that unit,” Nakase said.

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Playing with pace is something Nakase has repeatedly touched on when discussing her team’s offensive identity.

“It all depends on the stops they get but also running to the right spots,” she said. “They flowed into it a little better than the other units.”

Nakase plans to try different combinations through the rest of the preseason but said she felt that with their style they can plug and play anyone.

As the Valkyries build their foundation, they are stressing a “process over results” mindset. And despite the loss, Tuesday was the next step in that process.

“My first words to my coaches when we got all together is how proud I am,” Nakase said, a tear welling in her eye. “I feel like a parent, but we’ve been working so hard. We’ve had a couple of double days and we really got after it. So to see everything unfold on a preseason game in front of that crowd, I’m just really proud.”