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Veronica Burton Expects 'Dogfight' in Valkyries' Game 7 at Chase Center
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- Veronica Burton Expects 'Dogfight' in Valkyries' Game 7 at Chase Center
(IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect)
The Golden State Valkyries will host the first Game 7 in WNBA Finals history Saturday after losing 80-69 to the Atlanta Dream in Game 6 on Thursday at State Farm Arena.
Veronica Burton scored the first basket of the afternoon on an 18-foot step-back jumper. Atlanta answered with a 3-pointer and led the rest of the way.
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Burton finished with 8 points on 2-of-13 shooting, 6 rebounds, 4 assists, and 3 steals. She went 0-of-6 from 3-point range and did not commit a turnover. Her 35:30 led Golden State in minutes.
Burton on Game 7 at Ballhalla
Golden State has sold out every game at Chase Center across its two seasons. Burton loves playing there.
"We feel good," Burton said. "We feel great. Obviously, this is a tough one. We knew Game 6 would be tough. But at the same time, it's not just going to be handed to us just because we're at Ballhalla. We love Ballhalla. We have the best fans. But at the end of the day, it's going to be a dogfight. We understand that both teams want it."
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"And so the mindset is a sense of urgency," Burton continued. "It is do or die officially. We put ourselves in a position where we gave [ourselves] this game [to] fall back on, but that shouldn't have been the mentality. And it wasn't, but at the end of the day, now this is it. This is what we worked for. This is what we prepared for. So we feel good going into it, and we'll watch the film and clean some things up."
The Valkyries won Game 5 64-55 on Monday at Chase Center to take a 3-2 lead. Burton had 13 points, 8 rebounds, 3 assists, and 4 blocks in 37 minutes that night.
The Dream's only win at Chase Center in the series came in Game 2.
Golden State Did Not Quit, Burton Says
The Dream led 32-15 after one quarter, a start Burton called unacceptable. Golden State trailed by 25 in both the second and third quarters.
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A flagrant 1 foul on Burton with 7:19 left in the third gave Rhyne Howard two free throws and Atlanta a 53-28 lead. In the fourth, an away-from-the-play foul on Burton with 3:32 left sent Jordin Canada to the line for one free throw, and it was 75-61.
Burton made all 4 of her free-throw attempts and grabbed 3 offensive rebounds. Two of her 3 steals came on Angel Reese passes, the second with 1:53 left in the fourth quarter. Golden State had 10 steals as a team.
Golden State outscored Atlanta 43-34 after halftime. There was a lot to take from the second, third, and fourth quarters for Burton.
"I've been sitting here and I think my body language is bad," Burton explained. "At the end of the day, we feel good. Yes, we lost. It was a bad game for us. We had a terrible first quarter, but we cleaned it up. We found a way. We didn't quit. Games, what, three and four or two and three were ugly. We quit. We looked bad, and we didn't quit on this one."
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"We were still in the game, and yeah, we didn't give ourselves a good position to start out the game, but we feel good, and there's a lot to take away from the second, third, and fourth quarter," Burton added. "Our defense is a little bit more like us. And so we'll watch that, see the adjustments that they made, see where we can adjust. And I think we're in a good spot."
Golden State lost Game 2 79-65 and Game 3 97-71. It won Game 4 67-62 in Atlanta.
Late Thursday, Golden State cut a 74-55 deficit to 77-69 with 1:15 left. Gabby Williams scored 11 of the Valkyries' 14 points in that stretch and finished with 26, 22 of them after halftime.
Williams had her own blunt assessment after Game 4 .
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Laeticia Amihere and the Valkyries' Voices
Laeticia Amihere played 20 minutes off the bench and finished with 5 points, 10 rebounds, and 2 assists. Golden State was plus-14 with her on the floor.
Amihere has been ready in practice, and the energy is always there.
"LA was incredible," Burton said. "I think her energy, she was ready. And honestly, she was probably one of the only people that showed up to play the entire game today. And so we gave a big shout out to her. She's been ready. You hear her in practice. The energy is always there. And so it's not a surprise at all. But really proud of her. She met the moment, and she honestly changed the game for us. So big props to her."
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Burton and Williams both try to pour life into their teammates.
"I'd say it's collective," Burton said. "That's the beauty of our team, is we all have a voice and we all come together. And it's not for necessarily a lack of effort or a lack of awareness. But I think both me and Gabby try and speak, try and pour life into one another. But it's everyone. You hear LA, you hear Kaitlyn, you hear — it's everyone."
Kaitlyn Chen played 4:30 in the first half. Kiah Stokes started and played 20 minutes.
Saturday's tip-off is at 8 p.m. ET on USA Network and Peacock.
