NEW 📝📝📝: Valkyries’ Natalie Nakase continues to break barriers as she became the 2nd Asian-American coach across the major American sports to win Coach of the Year. More on this landmark moment in Asian-American representation in sports: clutchpoints.com/wnba/golden-...

NEW 📝📝📝: What comes next for the Valkyries after an unprecedentedly successful inaugural season in the WNBA? With uncertainty surrounding the CBA and free agency, everything is up in the air. Here are the takeaways from the Valks’ exit interviews: clutchpoints.com/wnba/golden-...

NEW📝📝📝: Golden State Valkyries’ Veronica Burton has officially won the 2025 WNBA’s Most Improved Player of the Year “Honestly, just grateful think our team is full of most improved players… I'm grateful to play on a team like this.” More here: clutchpoints.com/wnba/golden-...

NEW 📝📝📝: The Valkyries understand the juggernaut that stands in their way. “For sure, they are a tough team to beat. They are the top team in the league. But we don't have to be afraid about that.” More on GSV’s mindset headed into Game 1: clutchpoints.com/wnba/golden-...

NEW 📝📝📝: The Valkyries will be heavy underdogs in their first round matchup with the juggernaut Minnesota Lynx. But that doesn’t mean there’s no hope because the Valks believe. Here are my 3 bold predictions for Golden State this series: clutchpoints.com/wnba/golden-...

NEW 📝📝📝: After a lot of Veronica Burton high PnR and some inconsistency on both ends. Valkyries’ HC Natalie Nakase took the blame for the narrow loss to Seattle last night. “I can't make any errors down the stretch.” More here on the puzzling loss👇👇👇 clutchpoints.com/wnba/golden-...

@ericapricot.bsky.social at a certain point Close Enough to Hurt becomes, It Just Hurts All The Time 😂

Golden State Valkyries have waived center Elizabeth Kitley (who was an 7-day injury hardship replacement). Cecilia Zandalasini listed as questionable for tomorrow’s game at Seattle and is day to day.

NEW 📝📝📝: The Valkyries fought Napheesa Collier and the StudBudz down to the final minute, but fell just short due to a couple specific issues. “I think that our lack of communication in transition was super poor.” Here are my 3 takeaways from the loss: clutchpoints.com/wnba/golden-...

NEW📝📝📝: Lynx, Aces, Dream, Mercury. None of the Valkyries' possible playoff opponents will be easy to play. But with how Golden State’s been humming, anything is possible. I dove deep into the Valkyries potential playoff matchups here: clutchpoints.com/wnba/golden-...

Good piece on Coach Nakase and her father. Also, Nakase at her intro press conference talked extensively and emotionally about her dad and how grateful she was to Becky Hammon for helping her deal with her dad’s passing.

NEW 📝📝📝: Before clinching the playoffs, Valkyries’ first-year head coach Natalie Nakase’s thoughts were on her father who passed in 2021. “I wish my dad was here. Especially with my first job being a head coach, and this was part of my dream, with him.” More👇👇👇: clutchpoints.com/wnba/golden-...

NEW 📝📝📝: It took a wild comeback but the Valkyries have CLINCHED a spot in the WNBA playoffs. “It's a testament to all the work we put in, it's a testament to the belief our coaching staff had in us. More on the historic achievement here: clutchpoints.com/wnba/golden-...

Asked Kate Martin and Temi Fagbenle about the crowd being especially loud tonight: “The fact our crowd stayed with us like they always do, it really helps us, it gives us a boost of energy.” But Fagbenle had a different tangent about cheering for opposing teams in walk-outs.

EXCLUSIVE 📝📝📝: “Her leadership style is she's a winner. She's the type of person where you either get on board… or you get left behind.” I talked to Natalie Nakase’s assistant coaches about her historic first-year as the architect of the Valkyries. clutchpoints.com/wnba/golden-...

NEW📝📝📝: As the Valkyries inch closer to the playoffs, Natalie Nakase reflected on what she learned from Celtics’ Joe Mazzulla. “Everyone has a voice, everyone is empowered, and that's what I got to take. Along with a lot of other things.” More here: clutchpoints.com/wnba/golden-...

NEW 📝📝📝: The Valkyries’ exorcised their demons with a hard-fought 66-58 win over the Liberty. From a hot Kate Martin shooting night to Temi Fagbenle and the bigs shutting Breanna Stewart down, here are my 3 takeaways from the game 👇👇👇: clutchpoints.com/wnba/golden-...

@ericapricot.bsky.social asked Valkyries’ Natalie Nakase on taking out Carla Leite after a TO and then immediately subbing her back in: “I told her I don’t care about the turnovers… I told her I don’t care, I’m gonna put you back in and you’re going to go kick some ass. And that’s what she did.”

EXCLUSIVE 📝📝📝: Valkyries’ Natalie Nakase and Kaitlyn Chen are intertwined. By firsts. By basketball. But also by North-South. I talked to them about their 30-year connection to one of the oldest Asian American HS tournaments in California. clutchpoints.com/wnba/golden-...

NEW 📝📝📝 “This was for KT.” The Valkyries got a much needed win in the wake of Kayla Thornton’s season-ending knee injury. Here are my 3 takeaways from their win over the Dallas Wings (hint: one of them is about The French Connection 🇫🇷) clutchpoints.com/wnba/golden-...

Valkyries trail 21-10 to the Wings after the 1st QTR. Dallas closed the quarter on a 16-1 run over the last 4:26. Golden State is shooting 3/17 FGs (17.6%) and 2/10 3FGs (20%), along with 6 TOs. Defense hasn't been much better as the Wings are just walking into transition 3s.

Natalie Nakase was visibly emotionally talking about the loss of Kayla Thornton for the season: “Again, I’m gonna keep it private and wait for her so she can speak on it… But again, it wasn’t the same. We’re missing our leader. We’re missing the energy and the enthusiasm.”

Valkyries Natalie Nakase’s official statement on Kayla Thornton’s season ending knee injury: “I’m really devastated. KT is a huge part of who we are, what we stand for and where we are today… what we’re going to try to do tonight is come together and play our hearts our for her.”

BREAKING: Golden State Valkyries forward Kayla Thornton will be out for the remainder of the season. She suffered an injury to her right knee earlier this week in practice, underwent a successful surgery earlier today in San Francisco.

Earlier today Natalie Nakase was asked if Kayla Thornton was okay because she hadn’t been at practice this week. She stated that Thornton was “just resting” at the time.

Golden State Valkyries forward Kayla Thornton is undergoing evaluation for a lower leg injury. She will not play in tomorrow’s contest against the Dallas Wings.

Veronica Burton described Iliana Rupert’s reintegration with the Valkyries as “very smooth.” “She picks up quickly. She's a great person, so it's been really nice to get to know her. And then on the court, honestly a seamless transition.”

Valkyries’ Natalie Nakase on Iliana Rupert: “She fits into the element of who we are, as a person. She's very selfless... Like you said, she has a high IQ. And to me, she always wants to put the team first. It's really easy to implement players like that because they want to put the team first.”

New words! What’s up with the Valkyries? Heading into the All-Star break, the Valkyries lost 5 of their last 6 games, a majority of them in the fourth quarter. Is that cause for concern? More on that here👇👇👇: clutchpoints.com/wnba/golden-...

The WNBPA’s Statement regarding CBA negotiations with the WNBA. Seems like the two sides remain far apart in terms of an agreement.

Iliana Rupert and her NBA brother Rayan wear #12 to honor their father Thierry, a French pro, who died young in 2013 at the age of 35.

Valkyries officially activate Iliana Rupert. She will join the team after the all-star break, dawning No. 12. Rupert was teammates with Janelle Salaün during France’s EuroBasket run this summer. She averaged 8.7 points and 4.2 rebounds in six games in the tournament.

Valkyries drop a 3rd game in a row with the 67-58 loss to the Seattle Storm. Couldn’t catch the entire game but it was another rough outing on offense. 19/60 FGs (31.7%) 7/31 3FGs (22.6%) 14 TOs (4 in the 4th) Hard to win on the road in hostile environments that way. Golden State is 1-5 in July.

@ericapricot.bsky.social Haliburton hitting crazy game winners is a guaranteed when the Valkyries play 😂

Quintin Post is a crazy crazy guy, I love it lmao

Based on what Steve Kerr talked about in his zoom press conference, I feel like the Buddy Hield thing (aside from his great Game 3) is a tactical chess move to get the Rockets out of their 36 hours of prep. Again. It’s worked so far. Really brilliant stuff, Kerr’s on a whole other level.

🚨NEW WORDS🚨 On the micro and macro adjustments that led Steph Curry and the Warriors to a Game 3 win over the Rockets. www.goldenstateofmind.com/2025/4/27/24...

Adjustment that’s flown under the radar but IMO was key was putting Post on Amen. Allowed him to be closer to the rim to contest and grab boards. Rockets were forced to have Amen set screens for Jalen, but that’s a lot better than having Sengun set them.

I think it’s kinda cool that me and Jalen Green have the same exact birthday down to the year because this year is his first time in the NBA playoffs and this is year is my first time covering the NBA playoffs.

Feels like Kerr’s decision to not light up the refs at these press conferences has been the right way to go about it. I don’t have the numbers but yhe officials have been calling the off-ball fouls tonight. clutchpoints.com/nba/golden-s...

Can’t say its been a good Kuminga game and I hope he proves me wrong in the second half.

If CMC and Juice can wear the shirts SO CAN YOU🫵

The offense is an absolute slog right now…

Warriors defensive assignments on the Rockets to monitor so far: Quentin Post on Amen Thompson Jonathan Kuminga on Alperen Sengun This allows Draymond Green to roam (which is where he’s deadliest). Also, the Post assignment is a callback to 2015 when Kerr put Andrew Bogut on non-shooter Tony Allen

The Quentin Post start is unironically where the game theory starts in this series.

This is the most, “We need you” game we’ll ever see. It’s certainly a make or break moment for the Kuminga-Warriors era.

Jonathan Kuminga will start in place of Jimmy Butler, who is officially ruled out of Game 3. Per @clutchpoints.bsky.social, the Warriors have prepped for Game 3 as if they weren’t going to have Butler. Per the Athletic, Butler did not get the green light from Rick Celebrini.

I going to be way more committed to posting on Bluesky now, there’s a lot of room for positive basketball discourse here and I want help grow it.

Had a chance to ask Steve Kerr about the recent trend of F-U chants and this is the quote that stood out to me: “More and more things are accepted… it's probably something we should think about before we just launch into it.” More on that here👇👇👇 clutchpoints.com/nba/golden-s...

✍️How Steve Kerr foresees Jonathan Kuminga contributing with the new-look Warriors: clutchpoints.com/nba/golden-s...