{"id":858309,"date":"2026-09-23T23:30:19","date_gmt":"2026-09-23T23:30:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/858309\/"},"modified":"2026-09-23T23:30:19","modified_gmt":"2026-09-23T23:30:19","slug":"make-no-mistake-kayla-thornton-remains-invaluable-for-valkyries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/858309\/","title":{"rendered":"Make no mistake, Kayla Thornton remains invaluable for Valkyries"},"content":{"rendered":"

PORTLAND \u2013 Kayla Thornton had five fouls<\/a>. It still wasn\u2019t much of a question to Valkyries coach Natalie Nakase<\/a> that Thornton would be on the floor in the fourth quarter and overtime.<\/p>\n

The Valkyries lost in Portland<\/a> on Tuesday, surrendering a 17-point lead and struggling offensively and with turnovers. Thornton, who had four fouls by the third quarter, made the only shot of 11 attempts in overtime.<\/p>\n

A year ago, the Valkyries couldn\u2019t lean on the veteran forward after she missed the entire second half of the year, including the playoffs.<\/p>\n

Now as they go into the postseason, her presence on the court is invaluable because Thornton understands what it takes to succeed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the playoffs start, it\u2019s a whole different season,\u201d Thornton told Bay Area News Group. \u201cIt\u2019s like, sure, kudos to what you did in the (regular) season, but now it\u2019s postseason. It\u2019s about really studying the film, knowing the details, and really knowing the personnel. Because that\u2019s what it comes down to: knowing your opponent\u2019s personnel.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thornton was a lockdown defender in New York\u2019s championship run in 2024. She is one of three Valkyries players to win a WNBA title, along with Kiah Stokes in 2023 (alongside Natalie Nakase, who was an assistant with Las Vegas that season) and Cecilia Zandalasini, who won with Minnesota in 2017 and appeared in another Finals in 2024.<\/p>\n

But the Valkyries didn\u2019t have two thirds of that experience last season, with Stokes still in Vegas and Thornton out after tearing her meniscus at the end of July right after making her first All-Star team.<\/p>\n

\u201cKT is one of our leaders,\u201d said Valkyries guard Kaila Charles. \u201cShe was our first All-Star for a reason. She\u2019s a great player. So to have her this year is obviously going to make us stronger on both ends of the court.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nakase has seen Thornton\u2019s veteran presence make a difference during the end of the regular season.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a game where KT took what I said was a business-like approach,\u201d she said. \u201cIt started with warmups, and it was kind of like a no BS type of mentality in warmups, and that\u2019s what I think. She understood the assignment of like now we got to take another step because she\u2019s been there. She\u2019s won a championship, and so she gets the fact that we have to lock into all details.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thornton\u2019s numbers are not what they were a year ago when she made the All-Star team. She led Golden State in scoring and rebounding before that injury, and this year she trails Kiah Stokes and Charles \u2013 a bench player \u2013 in rebounding and is scoring 7.8 points per game, more in line with the kind of player she was in Dallas four seasons ago.<\/p>\n

But the Valkyries are also asking Thornton to play the five when Stokes is off the floor, something she has rarely done in her 14-year WNBA career, and relying on her to do a lot more than shoot.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast season was last season, but her being able to come back, being able to play the position that she\u2019s been, especially at the four, and being able to guard multiple positions as well,\u201d said assistant coach Landon Tatum. \u201cLike, I think it\u2019s just again like versatility for us, and just being able to have that personality that\u2019s like very bubbly, happy, like competitive spirit as well, and like it\u2019s something I think our whole team just continues to like embody.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Valkyries were generally banged up at the end of last season, with Thornton out while Tiffany Hayes (knee) and Temi Fagbenle (ankle) also missed Game 2 of the first round against Minnesota.<\/p>\n

Golden State has gotten lucky with health this season, and that\u2019s included all 43 games from Thornton in her return after an offseason of rehabbing.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust from everything from a veteran experience, her having won a championship, you know that\u2019s huge coming down to this part of the year,\u201d said Valkyries point guard Veronica Burton. \u201cJust her as a teammate, the way she brings the energy to every single practice, every single game. Just have fun with her. She pours on other people. Her leadership holds people accountable.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Valkyries go into the playoffs this year with more experience because of making the postseason in their first year of existence, but also just in having Thornton available.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s like, \u2018We\u2019re done making mistakes, we\u2019re done just playing with energy,\u2019\u201d Nakase said. \u201cWe\u2019re a team that understands execution now, and we\u2019re a team that understands all four quarters. And I think KT behind closed doors, she\u2019s been operating that way in the locker room for us, and I can\u2019t thank her enough because when I\u2019m not around, I\u2019m just hoping the message is also being delivered constantly.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PORTLAND \u2013 Kayla Thornton had five fouls. It still wasn\u2019t much of a question to Valkyries coach Natalie…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":858310,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[402,3805,2356,4804,10831,2558,99,434],"class_list":["post-858309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-basketball","tag-bay-area","tag-california","tag-golden-state-valkyries","tag-inside-sports","tag-latest-headlines","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/858309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=858309"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/858309\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/858310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=858309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=858309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=858309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}