Valkyries, Dream advance to WNBA Finals

If the Aces set the recent standard by winning three of the four past titles, the Valkyries are showing that not all the WNBA history making these days belongs only to Las Vegas.

Golden State last season became the first expansion franchise to make the playoffs, and now in its second year is the quickest to reach the WNBA Finals.

Kayla Thornton scored 18 points to lead the deep, defensive-minded Valkyries past the Aces 87-77 in overtime Friday night, sweeping the defending champions in three games.

"It feels special because this is a special group," said Gabby Williams, who scored 16 points for the Valkyries, including eight in overtime. "We're about to have some bandwagoners, but we ain't got no love all season. Nobody believed in us, but it made us smile because we were like, `All we need is each other."'

A'ja Wilson wins her third straight WNBA MVP and record 5th overall

The second-seeded Valkyries will have home-court advantage and will host No. 4 Atlanta beginning Oct. 17. The Dream swept New York earlier in the night, and now teams are 22-0 in playoff history when leading a series 2-0.

This was the first time a Becky Hammon-coached Aces team was swept in the playoffs. The last time Las Vegas went through that experience was in the 2020 Finals when the Bill Laimbeer-coached Aces were beaten in all three games by Seattle.

"I'm going to try to show up and uphold that (championship) standard every single opportunity I get because, hell, we created it," Aces star A'ja Wilson said. "I feel like every year for us is championship or bust. So it's a bust year for us, but at the same time, I'm never going to lose sight of what we've done to this league and how we continue to uplift it."

Angel Reese scored 22 points, Rhyne