recently analyzed every play<\/a>\u00a0of the 2026 WNBA regular season to find out which situations tended to yield the most points on the following play. The findings are fairly intuitive, but still useful to see: On average, WNBA teams scored the fewest points on plays after dead-ball situations, such as timeouts (0.86 points) and made free throws (0.88 points), and they scored the most points after steals (1.09). The fundamental push and pull of this Finals series makes steals an especially important tool. The Dream defense needs to poke holes in a Valkyries offense that resisted disruption for most of the year. Golden State plays at the league\u2019s slowest pace and favors the sorts of iso spells that limit turnovers; in the regular season, the Valkyries had the lowest turnover rate of any team. But the Dream know that steals and transition offense are their best counter to what the Valkyries do best: defend in the halfcourt.\u00a0<\/p>\nIf this series has seemed sloppy or chaotic, ask the players how they approach steals. Much of that chaos is premeditated. \u201cWhen my other four teammates are playing great defense, I don\u2019t want to be that slacker to ruin the defensive possession,\u201d Gray said before Game 1. To play winning basketball, a stealer can’t go rogue.<\/p>\n
Long arms help, Howard told me\u2014this series also features some of the most athletic players in the league\u2014but the actual steal is only half the work. \u201cWe watch a ton of film. We know the plays, we know the calls, we know the language,\u201d she said before the series. Though her playoff shooting struggles have continued against the Valkyries, she set a single-game Finals record with six steals in Game 2, before managing another five in Game 3. \u201cWhen you know that, it\u2019s easier for you to get those steals, especially when you\u2019re off the ball and you can read the passing lanes.\u201d Keep an eye on No. 10’s eyes before every play:<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can say you want to play defense, but to actually put the work in and do it\u2014for three of us to be at the top of the stealing sheet goes to show our IQ,\u201d Reese said. The prep ensures that any steal attempts are high-percentage ones, never at the expense of anything else. Williams, eighth on the league steals leaderboard this year, was quick to point out that a stolen ball in the box score might just be stolen valor. \u201cSometimes getting steals isn\u2019t good defense,\u201d she said. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t say I had a better defensive year last year than I did this year just because I got more steals last year. I was very undisciplined. I was just gambling all the time. For every steal I got, I probably let a backdoor cut happen.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
That\u2019s the usual knock on steals, though Dream head coach Karl Smesko did say a coach might also be contending with the opposite problem. \u201cI think sometimes with players, they had no idea there were plays out there to be made until you bring it to their attention,\u201d he said. Though he believes some players have \u201can innate ability\u201d to steal, he said the requisite vision and anticipation could be drilled over time, and that he\u2019s made missed steal opportunities a focus of some film sessions. \u201cAre we in the right position? Are you looking at the right thing? Are we moving on the flight of the ball? Those types of things.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the end, a steal is only one of a few successful defensive outcomes, and there are other ways to make an opposing offense unravel. \u201cYou just want to make the offense hard,\u201d Howard said. \u201cEven if I don\u2019t get a steal, now they\u2019re having a tough catch, they\u2019re out of position, they\u2019re going to end up taking a tough shot.\u201d<\/p>\n
But are there more fun ways to make an opposing offense unravel? That moment of surprise, the emotional shift, the sudden swell of crowd noise\u2014nothing feels so satisfying … or maybe that\u2019s just me. As defensive splash plays go, Golden State\u2019s Veronica Burton (sixth in steals this year) and Williams both admitted they were partial to blocks, which they come by a little less often at the guard and wing spots. \u201cYou can\u2019t just block\u00a0anyone,\u201d Burton explained.<\/p>\n
Reese, asked to pick a favorite, waffled a little longer.\u00a0\u201cI love a good steal,\u201d she said, hesitant. \u201cI don\u2019t know. I think \u2026 maybe a block.\u201d<\/p>\n
She paused, did the math correctly, and changed her answer.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cNo, a steal. Because that leads to another possession. Sometimes a block goes out of bounds and they get the ball back, so I\u2019d say a steal. And then going the other way.\u201d <\/p>\n
To tie up the series on Saturday, the Valkyries know they’ll have to bring the game’s pace back to the slow crawl they prefer. “They scored … 97,” Williams said, glancing at the stat sheet in the postgame presser after Game 3. “We have no chance. We have to just go back to our defense, and that will get our offense going.” Don’t expect the series to get much prettier, but know at least that there’s still some beauty in the ugliness.<\/p>\n
Recommended<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ATLANTA \u2014 The shooting gods may be weeping, but these WNBA Finals are a steal lover’s delight. Jordin…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":892185,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[99,434],"class_list":["post-892184","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/892184","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=892184"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/892184\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/892185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=892184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=892184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=892184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}