{"id":947524,"date":"2026-10-27T00:22:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-27T00:22:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/947524\/"},"modified":"2026-10-27T00:22:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-27T00:22:09","slug":"wnba-finals-atlanta-gets-home-matinee-for-game-6-against-valkyries-as-nba-keeps-primetime-slot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/947524\/","title":{"rendered":"WNBA Finals: Atlanta gets home matinee for Game 6 against Valkyries as NBA keeps primetime slot"},"content":{"rendered":"

The WNBA has moved Game 6 of the Finals between the Atlanta Dream and Golden State Valkyries<\/a> to a 12:30 p.m. EDT tipoff Thursday at the home area of the Atlanta Hawks so that the NBA can keep its previously scheduled primetime contest that day.<\/p>\n

The WNBA worked with the NBA to move the game to State Farm Arena, where Games 3 and 4 of the championship series were played.<\/p>\n

The Hawks have a game against the Cleveland Cavaliers that night that couldn’t be moved to another date or place. The only way they could make it work was to play the early afternoon game. The Hawks’ game against the Cavaliers was moved back an hour.<\/p>\n

“The sellout crowds and extraordinary atmosphere at State Farm Arena for Games 3 and 4 were a tremendous success, and we’re excited to give thousands more fans the opportunity to experience Game 6 with a championship on the line,” WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert said Monday. “We thank the NBA, Dream, Valkyries, Hawks, State Farm Arena and USA Network for the collaboration and flexibility that made this move possible. We look forward to delivering another unforgettable Finals experience in Atlanta.”<\/p>\n

Game 5 was set to start at 8 p.m. EDT Monday night at Chase Center in San Francisco.<\/p>\n

Valkyries coach Natalie Nakase downplayed the difficulty of adjusting to the early tipoff for Game 6.<\/p>\n

“What’s amazing is we’re always prepped for anything,” Nakase said. “So we’ve already scheduled. Made it really intentional. Main thing, rest and recover as best we can. We’ve had six games in 10 days during the regular season. So yeah, it’s really not affecting us. It’s just more we can control what we can control and that’s rest and recovery.”<\/p>\n

Added Nakase when asked about remaining grounded through the series: “I just think we’re built for this. I think you can throw anything at our team, our organization, and we’re built for it. We like things that are hard for some reason. We love challenges.”<\/p>\n

Because the State Farm Arena court will have to be changed for Thursday night’s Hawks game, the floor may have to be cleared quickly, even though there could be a celebration for a series-clinching win.<\/p>\n

“We’re not really thinking about that right now,” Golden State guard Veronica Burton said. “Just focus on this game today and again, control what we can control. So right now it’s just Game 5 mentality.”<\/p>\n

Dream expecting another big crowd that their usual home can’t accommodate<\/p>\n

By playing Game 6 in the Hawks’ arena, the Dream can have more than 17,000 fans. Their usual home, Gateway Center Arena in suburban College Park, Georgia, seats about 3,500.<\/p>\n

Games 3 and 4 were sold out. Fans bought tickets quickly for Thursday’s game, with more than 10,000 sold in the first 90 minutes they were on sale, according to a Dream spokesperson.<\/p>\n

“Super excited that the game will be at State Farm,” Atlanta guard Jordin Canada said. “The crowd has shown up and showed out.”<\/p>\n

Dream coach Karl Smesko said that he was happy it got worked out, but he feels bad for fans who would attend if it wasn’t during working hours.<\/p>\n

“I hope everybody gets to see it somehow and I know that for some people it’s not realistic, they have jobs and won’t be able to make it,” he said. “So I’m disappointed for that but I’m really hopeful that as many people can see the game as possible.”<\/p>\n

It was the third time in the series that the WNBA made accommodations for the Dream to be able to play at the bigger arena. Game 3 was moved up a day to last Wednesday and Saturday’s contest started at 1 p.m. EDT so the Hawks could still host their home opener that night against Houston.<\/p>\n

That game was moved back 30 minutes to allow more time for the arena staff to change the building over for the Hawks contest. Now there potentially could be a champion crowned that day so there will be more time between games.<\/p>\n

“When we were done (changing the court after Game 4), I texted our CEO and I said, ‘Hey, if you need us to do it again, we’re ready to go,'” State Farm Arena chief facilities officer Amanda Mann said.<\/p>\n

NBA schedule, FIBA World Cup break and TV deals all factored into situation<\/p>\n

The NBA and WNBA explored options to keep the game in primetime. Both the Hawks and Cavaliers play Wednesday night, so they couldn’t play earlier Thursday.<\/p>\n

After the first two games of the series drew record ratings, it’s likely that viewership will take a hit with the early start time. The game will tip at 9:30 a.m. local time in San Francisco.<\/p>\n

While the league didn’t know until last Saturday that there would definitely be a Game 6 played in Atlanta, a contingency plan could have been put in place a long time ago by Engelbert and NBA Commissioner Adam Silver. The eight playoff teams were known in early September, before the WNBA paused its season for the women’s FIBA World Cup. Without the World Cup, the playoffs would have been two weeks earlier, before the NBA regular season began.<\/p>\n

Part of the issue is that unlike the Valkyries, who are controlled by Golden State Warriors owner Joe Lacob, the Dream and Hawks are owned by different groups. Also, with NBC and USA Sports broadcasting the games this year, WNBA Finals games are on different nights then they have been in previous years.<\/p>\n

In the past, games wouldn’t be played on Monday nights \u2014 like Game 5 will be \u2014 because of ESPN’s NFL contract. They also wouldn’t be scheduled on Saturdays, the day that Games 3 and a potential Game 7 would be played, because of ESPN’s college football contracts.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP Sports Writer Janie McCauley in San Francisco contributed to this report.<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2026 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The WNBA has moved Game 6 of the Finals between the Atlanta Dream and Golden State Valkyries to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":947525,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[324300,49,48,459,82],"class_list":["post-947524","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-324300","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/947524","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=947524"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/947524\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/947525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=947524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=947524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=947524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}