{"id":455527,"date":"2026-10-03T19:52:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-03T19:52:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/455527\/"},"modified":"2026-10-03T19:52:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-03T19:52:09","slug":"valkyries-nakase-collapses-to-floor-late-in-win-finishes-game-on-bench","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/455527\/","title":{"rendered":"Valkyries\u2019 Nakase collapses to floor late in win, finishes game on bench"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN FRANCISCO \u2014 Valkyries coach Natalie Nakase<\/a> briefly collapsed to the floor during a timeout with 1:40 left in Golden State\u2019s dramatic 77-73 comeback win<\/a> over the Dallas Wings<\/a> on Friday night at Chase Center.<\/p>\n

After being helped up by her assistant coaches and grabbing her forehead, she returned to the Valkyries\u2019 huddle and drew up the play that led to Gabby Williams\u2019 go-ahead shot that put the Valkyries up 73-72 with 1:17 left.<\/p>\n

Nakase remained on the bench to coach the remainder of the game but left shortly after the buzzer sounded under the support and supervision of a team staffer.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just tried to step up ourselves,\u201d said Williams, who led the Valkyries with 19 points. \u201cWe\u2019re just happy that she\u2019s OK.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nakase did not attend the team\u2019s postgame news conference. Assistant Kasib Powell filled in for Nakase postgame and said the coach was \u201cfine.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShe didn\u2019t miss a beat,\u201d Powell said. \u201cI mean, we were locked in as that happened. When she went to the sideline, she drew the next play up. She was in the huddle, getting on them about getting a stop. So we didn\u2019t skip a beat at all. We tried to keep our composure and just rally around each other and her.\u201d<\/p>\n

Powell added, \u201cWe just know that we saw her afterwards, and she was fine, laughing, in great spirits. So we\u2019ll figure out more as we go. But I think she\u2019s totally fine. She\u2019s talking. She\u2019s laughing in the back. So we look forward to preparing and getting ready for Sunday.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Valkyries were in the final stages of their 16-point comeback when Nakase went to the floor and finished off Dallas with four clutch free throws by Williams.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t really see it, but I\u2019m really happy she\u2019s OK,\u201d said guard Tiffany Hayes, who scored 18 points off the bench.<\/p>\n

Golden State will face the Las Vegas Aces at 1 p.m. in Game 1 of the WNBA semifinals on Sunday at Chase Center after Golden State\u2019s win in the clinching Game 3.<\/p>\n

\u201cI couldn\u2019t tell you (what happened),\u201d Powell said. \u201cI just know that she was locked in right after it happened. After the game, we talked to each other, and it was nothing. I don\u2019t know what got her to that moment or exactly what happened, but we do know that she\u2019ll be ready to go for Sunday.\u201d<\/p>\n

Subscribe to our special Valkyries newsletter<\/a> for game analysis, scores, and everything you want to know about the team from Ballhalla.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN FRANCISCO \u2014 Valkyries coach Natalie Nakase briefly collapsed to the floor during a timeout with 1:40 left…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":455528,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[150,152,151,3267,154],"class_list":["post-455527","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arlington","tag-arlington","tag-arlington-headlines","tag-arlington-news","tag-california","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455527","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=455527"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455527\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/455528"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=455527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=455527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=455527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}