{"id":907001,"date":"2026-09-23T20:28:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-23T20:28:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/907001\/"},"modified":"2026-09-23T20:28:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-23T20:28:12","slug":"game-preview-valkyries-at-los-angeles-sparks-9-24-26","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/907001\/","title":{"rendered":"Game Preview: Valkyries at Los Angeles Sparks \u2013 9\/24\/26"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Golden State Valkyries enter Thursday\u2019s regular-season final against the Los Angeles Sparks at Crypto.com Arena needing a win to secure the second seed in the 2026 WNBA playoffs. The Valkyries are 2-0 against the Sparks this season, beating them by 20 points on June 15 and by six points on Aug. 9. The Sparks have already been eliminated from postseason contention, but their 11-time All-Star, Nneka Ogwumike, will play her final WNBA game as she announced that she will retire at the end of this season. <\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Valkyries at Sparks<br \/>Thursday, Sept. 24 | Tipoff: 7 p.m.<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/valkyries.wnba.com\/schedule\/broadcast-schedule\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">WATCH:<\/a>\u00a0KPIX+ (Bay Area), KMAX (Sacramento)<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/valkyries.wnba.com\/schedule\/broadcast-schedule\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">LISTEN:<\/a>\u00a095.7 The Game, ESPN 1320,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.audacy.com\/stations\/valkyries\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">The Audacy App<\/a><\/p>\n<p>LAST TIME OUT<br \/>The Valkyries scored the game&#8217;s first 17 points but were unable to hold on, falling to the Portland Fire in overtime 90-82 at Moda Center on Tuesday. Former Valkyries guard Carla Leite had the dagger 3-point play in overtime as Golden State was outscored 13-5 in the bonus period. The Valkyries had their five-game winning streak snapped and lost out on a chance at the first seed in the 2026 WNBA playoffs. They will be either the second or third seed depending on the results of Thursday&#8217;s regular season finale.\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/valkyries.wnba.com\/news\/gameday-recap-20260822\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/valkyries.wnba.com\/news\/gameday-recap-20260822\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">\u00bb Full Game Recap\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Audio postgame recap, courtesy of Valkyries\u2019 Post-Up Show streams live on 95.7 The Game and the Audacy App.\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/show\/5KxpcRkfsEB0njeFKupdGy\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">\u00bb Full Episode<\/a><\/p>\n<p>PLAYOFF SCENARIOS<br \/>IF\u00a0the Valkyries\u00a0BEAT\u00a0the Sparks, they are the\u00a02ND SEED\u00a0and will play\u00a0EITHER\u00a0the Washington Mystics, New York Liberty\u00a0OR\u00a0the Dallas Wings.<\/p>\n<p>IF\u00a0the Valkyries\u00a0LOSE\u00a0to the Sparks, they are the\u00a02ND SEED IF\u00a0the Las Vegas Aces\u00a0ALSO LOSE\u00a0to the Phoenix Mercury and will play\u00a0EITHER\u00a0the Washington Mystics, New York Liberty,\u00a0OR\u00a0the Dallas Wings.<\/p>\n<p>IF\u00a0the VALKYRIES\u00a0LOSE\u00a0to the Sparks, they are the\u00a03RD SEED IF\u00a0the Las Vegas Aces\u00a0BEAT\u00a0the Phoenix Mercury and will play\u00a0EITHER\u00a0the Indiana Fever, Washington Mystics,\u00a0OR\u00a0the New York Liberty.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>COMPELLING NOTE:<br \/>VALKYRIES:\u00a0Veronica Burton ranks sixth in the league in total assists (247) and has the league\u2019s best assist-to-turnover ratio among qualifiers, dishing out 3.92 assists for every turnover.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>SPARKS:\u00a0Nneka Ogwumike has been remarkably productive in her final WNBA season as she joins A\u2019ja Wilson as the only players in the league averaging at least 17 points, eight rebounds, and shooting over 39 percent from three.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Golden State Valkyries enter Thursday\u2019s regular-season final against the Los Angeles Sparks at Crypto.com Arena needing a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":907002,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,82,630],"class_list":["post-907001","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\/907001","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=907001"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/907001\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/907002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=907001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=907001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=907001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}