Tiffany Hayes had a visit to Alcatraz, a historic landmark and federal penitentiary in San Francisco, on her bucket list since she arrived in the Bay Area in 2025. In August, Hayes finally made that trip to Alcatraz with her Valkyries teammates. She was able to observe how the island once held prisoners captive and the difficulty it posed to break free from the isolated isle. In a similar vein, the Valkyries have imposed their will on WNBA opponents with suffocating defense, making them the toughest team in the league to score on. The Valkyries are allowing just 75.4 points per game, the fewest of any opponent, and have a league-best defensive rating of 99.8. They have held their opponent below 70 points a league-high 14 times this season. Opponents are shooting a league-worst 41.8% from the field against Golden State. After her trip to Alcatraz and upon noting the parallels, Hayes gave her team\u2019s defensive prowess a new nickname: \u201cValkatraz.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIf anyone starts using the term \u2018Valkatraz,\u2019 know where it came from,\u201d Hayes said via Threads.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Valkatraz has contained the WNBA\u2019s most prominent stars, holding the league\u2019s top scorers well below their averages and significantly reducing their efficiency. Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark is the only player in the WNBA this season to rank top-three in both points and assists per game. Against the Valkyries, however, she shot 3-for-12 from the field on May 28 and 4-for-14 on July 5. Clark averaged five turnovers per game over three matchups against Golden State. Minnesota Lynx guard Olivia Miles is amidst a historic rookie season but had her two lowest-scoring games of the season against the Valkyries, with seven points on 1-for-10 shooting on June 4 and eight points on 3-for-12 shooting on Aug. 24. Toronto Tempo guard Marina Mabrey tied a WNBA record with 53 points in a game this season, but against the Valkyries, she has combined for just 23 points on 6-for-20 shooting and eight turnovers over two matchups.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Valkyries have four starters in the top 10 among qualifiers in defensive win shares: Veronica Burton, Kayla Thornton, Gabby Williams, and Kiah Stokes. Burton leads the league in defensive win shares (0.202), often drawing the primary assignment of the lead perimeter guards. She is one of the league\u2019s top ball thieves, ranking ninth in total steals (60) and tied for 11th in steals per game (1.5 SPG). Facing the first-place Lynx twice in a week, Burton had four-plus steals in both games.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, V [Veronica Burton] is our leader,\u201d Head Coach Natalie Nakase said. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of responsibility on her shoulders. She understands that when this team goes low, she\u2019s got to pick them up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thornton is fourth in the league in defensive win shares (0.169). Thornton was the first All-Star in franchise history in 2025, but that season was cut short due to a torn ACL. Returning from a season-ending injury, and with the addition of All-Star forward Gabby Williams, she has embraced a more complementary role, leaning further into defense.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes with injury, you can play a little reserved or with a bit of fear, but that\u2019s not KT,\u201d Burton said. \u201cAs a leader, her voice and energy \u2014 we all feed off of it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
When the Valkyries added Williams in free agency, they were acquiring the league leader in steals and a First Team All-Defensive player. Williams has continued to be a defensive star this season, ranking seventh in total steals (61) and tied for ninth in steals per game (1.6 SPG). She has eight games with at least three steals this season and ranks eighth in defensive win shares (0.161).\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cNumber one, she loves defense,\u201d Nakase said about Williams. \u201cThat’s huge for us, because that’s our identity as defense first. To have her take on the challenge of matchups, using her length and speed \u2014 she goes above and beyond with that, and when you see that, then everyone else picks up even a little bit higher. So credit to Gabby and her fight \u2014 I think everyone feeds off of Gabby’s energy.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cShe’s very smart,\u201d Kaila Charles said about her teammate, Williams. \u201cShe’s athletic and long, but you have to be smart on defense to read where they’re going to pass it to, when to have high hands, when to go for the ball. That’s something that I’ve watched and learned from in her time being here, and that’s something that we’ve really benefited from.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kiah Stokes serves as the backline of the Valkyries\u2019 defense, the final deterrent protecting the basket.\u00a0Stokes ranks second in the league in total blocks (66) and is tied for third in blocks per game (1.7 BPG). She has 10 games with at least three blocks this season, including a career-high seven rejections against the Atlanta Dream on June 26.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cKiah Stokes is our anchor \u2014 she is always there,\u201d Nakase said. \u201cWhen she\u2019s communicating or last-minute shows for a block, we are always relying on Kiah, and she loves it. She loves not to let anyone score on her. To have that passion on defense, that\u2019s different. Kiah Stokes is different.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Valkyries are deserving of having several players on the All-Defensive Team this season. Williams and Burton both made a team last season, and Stokes seeks her first career selection. Collectively, they form the nucleus of the WNBA\u2019s most dominant defensive unit: \u201cValkatraz.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tiffany Hayes had a visit to Alcatraz, a historic landmark and federal penitentiary in San Francisco, on her…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":891043,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,82,630],"class_list":["post-891042","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/891042","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=891042"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/891042\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/891043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=891042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=891042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=891042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}