Usually, there aren't any moral victories in professional sports, but we're going to allow exceptions for expansion teams who come a hair away from knocking off the defending champions. The Valkyries lost a close, hard-fought game to the Liberty 82-77, just two days after getting waxed by 28 points to the very same team (95-67).
Natalie Nakase deserves credit for pulling that performance out of this team, which hasn't been together very long. That's something she acknowledged after the game. "I think 30 days, it's been that we've been together. So for me, very, very happy, very pleased that they're trusting us with the game plan," she said in her postgame interview.
The first thing that quote says to me is that she understands the challenges facing her ballclub. She's grounded, but she's confident, and she has the trust of her team. They're buying into her system, and the result we're seeing is much better play than we could have expected so early in this team's existence.
The WNBA is in trouble when the Valkyries get elite talent
While this roster has talent on it, it's by no means the most skilled team in the W. But it's not supposed to be. Expansion teams are famously bad in the beginning. Whether it be in the NBA or the WNBA, upstart teams are supposed to take time to get going. You're pulling players from the bottom of rosters and drafting your first young player(s).
This team doesn't even have any of the players they drafted on the team. All they have are the pieces they've pulled together from wherever they could find players who fit the culture they wanted to build, and Nakase has them playing defense like they're starving for a meal. That's what they hang their hat on.
"Our goal is to be number one in defense. I do think we can get there," Nakase told the media. The Valkyries are seventh in defensive rating so far this season—right in the middle of the pack. They have some work to do to realize the first-year coach's goal, but they've gotten off to a great start.
They've won two games already in their young season off the strength of that defense. This is actually the second time Coach Nakase has had the team bounce back against the same opponent in impressive fashion.
Their first game of the season was against the Los Angeles Sparks. Kelsey Plum played her first game with her new team, and she showed out, dropping 37 points and helping her team defeat Golden State in their home opener by a wide margin (84-67). The two teams had a rematch two days later, and the Valks flipped the script, holding Plum to 16 points and defeating the Sparks 82-73.
So, the Valkyries may have lost the game tonight, but they followed a similar storyline. The fight they showed tells us that these girls trust their coach and she's pulling the right levers on and off the court to get the most out of them.
They may only be 2-4 right now, but they play hard and they play for each other. That tells us something about the coach. Golden State found the right one, and she's going to lead the Valkyries to a very successful future.