SAN FRANCISCO \u2014 Late in games, Gabby Williams starts counting. She constantly computes math in her head, all while handling the pressure of being the one to regularly take big shots for the Golden State Valkyries.<\/p>\n
Better Williams than coach Natalie Nakase, that\u2019s for sure.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat\u2019s her obsession with math?\u201d Nakase inquired when told about Williams\u2019 process.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t do math. I do more like coverages and schemes and seeing people\u2019s energy and more connectivity with our group. That\u2019s all Gabby. I\u2019m not that smart. I\u2019m not doing math out there. I didn\u2019t do math since the UCLA days.\u201d<\/p>\n
Whatever it is that Williams does, it\u2019s working well during her first playoff run with the Valkyries after coming to the Bay Area for just this: a chance at a championship. Golden State leads the Atlanta Dream 1-0 in their best-of-seven WNBA Finals.<\/p>\n
Even members of Golden State\u2019s athletic training staff have noticed Williams making her mental notes down the stretch.<\/p>\n
The veteran guard scored 26 points in a 68-64 Game 1 win Saturday, missing her initial four shots before scoring 16 of her 26 points in the second quarter. She was the only Valkyries player in double figures as Golden State shot 32.1% and 7 of 33 from 3-point range.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, same thing, doing math,\u201d Williams explained of her mindset. \u201cOne of our trainers, she was like, \u2018In the fourth quarter, you always do this thing and I know you\u2019re going to start taking over, you look at the clock.\u2019 And I\u2019m like: \u2018Yeah, I\u2019m counting. I\u2019m counting possessions, I\u2019m counting points, what do we need now, what\u2019s the most timely time to go.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s just like the best way to kind of take the pressure off things, too, is just to break them down possession by possession.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Dream had been outstanding down the stretch during their first two series, both sweeps, to reach the franchise\u2019s fourth finals. Yet Atlanta is still yet to win a finals game.<\/p>\n
Coach Karl Smesko can\u2019t wait for his team to find a way to bounce back Monday night. Atlanta shot 2 for 19 in the fourth quarter.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just think we need to maintain how we want to play for a whole four quarters. We had a couple dry spells where we just weren\u2019t working together as well as you need to against this defense. They are not just going to give you easy shots,\u201d he said. \u201cSo we are going to need to work together to create these advantages.\u201d<\/p>\n
Execution is especially challenging in the hostile environment that is Golden State\u2019s deafening \u201cBallhalla\u201d sellout home crowd \u2014 with rally towels waving and thunder sticks cracking all game long.<\/p>\n
While Smesko was pleased with how the Dream handled the noise, he will challenge his players to communicate even better next time out.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought the environment was great. I thought the crowd was great. They were loud. They were cheering at all the right times,\u201d Smesko said. \u201cBut I think when we had a breakdown, it was something that we worked on and we just would have a miscommunication or something like that. \u2026 When we have an opportunity to finish a game, we\u2019ve just got to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nakase challenged her team\u2019s loyal, violet-loving fans once more to bring all their energy again Monday.<\/p>\n
\u201cGreat job but hey, level up, right? Like we\u2019ve got to go Game 2, it has to be better. We\u2019re going to ask more from our players. So I\u2019d say, check for Game 1,\u201d she said. \u201cLet\u2019s get a better Game 2. Rest and recover, Ballhalla. Careful what you drink tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN FRANCISCO \u2014 Late in games, Gabby Williams starts counting. She constantly computes math in her head, all…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":938607,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,82,630],"class_list":["post-938606","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\/938606","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=938606"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/938606\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/938607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=938606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=938606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=938606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}