The Golden State Valkyries are WNBA champions. On Saturday night, October 31, 2026, the second-year club beat the Atlanta Dream 68-63 in Game 7 of the WNBA Finals at Chase Center in San Francisco, winning the best-of-seven series 4-3 and completing the first Game 7 in WNBA Finals history.
What we know / What we don’t know
What we know:
- Final score, Game 7: Golden State Valkyries 68, Atlanta Dream 63, on October 31, 2026, at Chase Center in San Francisco.
- Series result: Golden State won the best-of-seven series 4-3. It is the franchise’s first WNBA championship, in only its second season.
- Finals MVP: Gabby Williams, who scored 30 points in Game 7, including 28 in the second half.
- Williams’ second half: She had just 2 points at halftime, then scored 15 in the third quarter and 13 more in the fourth. Her 28 second-half points set a WNBA Finals record for points in a half.
- The deciding shot: Williams hit a deep three-pointer with 2:18 left to put Golden State ahead 60-57, a lead the Valkyries never gave back.
- The finish: Veronica Burton made two free throws with 5.1 seconds left to seal the 68-63 win.
- Supporting lines: Kiah Stokes had 8 points and a game-high 13 rebounds; Burton finished with 10 points and 10 rebounds. For Atlanta, Jordin Canada scored 18 points, Allisha Gray scored 16, and Angel Reese had 8 points and 12 rebounds.
- Primary source: The WNBA’s own game recap confirms the 68-63 final, the 4-3 series win, and the championship. ESPN, NBC Sports, and The Associated Press all report the same score and the same Williams numbers.
What we don’t know:
- Details of Golden State’s championship celebration and parade plans had not been announced at the time of this writing.
- The WNBA’s 2027 schedule, including when the Valkyries will open their title defense, has not been released.
- No correction or update to the final score has been reported. The 68-63 result is confirmed by the league and by multiple outlets.
How Game 7 was won
This was not a pretty game. It was a slow, physical, defensive fight, and for most of the night it looked like Atlanta’s kind of game. Golden State jumped out to an 8-0 lead, but the Dream settled in, Atlanta led 30-24 at halftime, and early in the third quarter the Dream stretched the lead to nine points, 37-28. Golden State had scored only 24 points in the first half. Its star had scored only two of them.
Then Gabby Williams took the game over. Williams scored 15 points in the third quarter, and Golden State won the quarter 21-14 to take a 45-44 lead into the fourth. The fourth quarter stayed tight all the way. The game was tied at 53 midway through the period, and tied again at 57 after a Rhyne Howard layup with 2:41 left. Williams answered that tie with the shot that will define this series: a deep three-pointer, from well beyond the arc, with 2:18 remaining, putting Golden State up 60-57 for good.
She added two free throws, Kiah Stokes tipped in a Williams miss with 53 seconds left to make it 64-57, and although Atlanta kept fighting, Golden State closed it out at the line. Williams won a jump ball against Gray with 8.3 seconds left while Golden State clung to a 66-63 lead, and Burton’s two free throws with 5.1 seconds left made the final score 68-63. Confetti fell at Chase Center, nicknamed “Ballhalla” by Valkyries fans, in front of a sellout crowd announced at 18,064.
Two points at halftime, 30 at the buzzer
The simplest way to understand this championship is the split in Williams’ night. At halftime she had 2 points on 1-of-4 shooting. Atlanta’s defense had crowded her, and Golden State’s offense had managed only 24 points. In the second half she scored 28 points, a WNBA Finals record for a half, finishing 10-of-23 from the field with four three-pointers, six free throws without a miss, three rebounds, two assists, two steals, and four blocks.
It was not just scoring. Williams, who finished as the runner-up for the league’s Defensive Player of the Year award, set the tone on defense early, and she was still making defensive plays late, winning the jump ball in the final seconds that effectively ended Atlanta’s last chance. She was named Finals MVP, and NBC Sports reported she averaged 19.6 points per game across the seven-game series. Field Level Media reported she also set WNBA Finals records for total points in a series (137) and steals (18).
Williams was Golden State’s first marquee free-agent signing, and this was her first WNBA title after earlier stops in Chicago and Seattle and a long international career. She joined Penny Taylor as one of the only players in league history to score 30 or more points in a winner-take-all Finals game, according to The Associated Press.
The teammates who made 30 points enough
Thirty points wins a lot of games, but it did not win this one by itself. Golden State scored only 68 points and made just five of its 20 three-point attempts. The Valkyries needed every possession Stokes and Burton won for them.
Stokes, the veteran center, grabbed a game-high 13 rebounds to go with her 8 points, and her tip-in with 53 seconds left turned a two-possession game into a three-possession game at the moment Atlanta was running out of time. Burton played a game-high 39 minutes, finished with a double-double of 10 points and 10 rebounds plus five assists, and calmly made the two free throws that sealed the title. Tiffany Hayes, who came out of retirement two years ago and spent 10 seasons with Atlanta, scored 11 points against her former club.
For Atlanta, the loss is a hard one. The Dream were playing in their fourth WNBA Finals and are still chasing a first championship. Jordin Canada led them with 18 points, Gray added 16, and Reese finished with 8 points and 12 rebounds but was held in check for most of the night. Atlanta shot just 33.3 percent from the field and 6-of-30 from three-point range, and the Dream never led by double digits in a game where neither team ever did.
Why this title is historic
Three facts make this championship stand out, and all three were confirmed by the league and by ESPN’s reporting. First, this was the first Game 7 in WNBA Finals history. The league moved to a best-of-seven Finals format in 2025, and the first championship series to need all seven games went to the second-year expansion club.
Second, Golden State won a title in its second season. The Valkyries became the first expansion team in league history to reach the playoffs in their inaugural season in 2025, then won the championship a year later. ESPN, citing Elias Sports Bureau, reported the Valkyries are only the third team across the NBA, BAA, and WNBA to win a Finals within their first two seasons as a franchise. ESPN also reported Golden State became the first league team to win a championship without a single All-WNBA selection in that same season.
Third, the team was built the hard way. Head coach Natalie Nakase molded a roster put together largely from players other teams left unprotected in the expansion draft, plus international imports and one key free-agent signing in Williams, into the league’s second-best regular-season team and then into champions.
What happens next
The championship ends the WNBA season, and attention now turns to the offseason: awards announcements, free agency, and, for Golden State, a celebration that a whole fan base has waited two seasons to have. That short wait is part of what makes this story unusual. Most expansion teams take years to matter. The Valkyries mattered in year one and won it all in year two.
For Atlanta, the wait continues. The Dream reached the Finals, pushed the series to seven games, and lost the only Game 7 the Finals has ever seen. Their core — Canada, Gray, Reese, and Howard — will come back knowing how close they were: tied at 57 with 2:41 left in a winner-take-all game, one defensive stop from a different ending.
We will update this article when Golden State announces its championship celebration plans.
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Sources: WNBA, “Game Recap: Golden State Valkyries 68, Atlanta Dream 63” (primary source — league recap, November 1, 2026): https://www.wnba.com/news/team/1611661331/golden-state-valkyries — ESPN, “Golden State Valkyries win Game 7, secure first WNBA title” (November 1, 2026): https://www.espn.ph/wnba/story/_/id/50343701/golden-state-valkyries-win-game-7-secure-first-wnba-title — NBC Sports, “Golden State Valkyries win 2026 WNBA title in thrilling Game 7 victory over Atlanta Dream” (October 31, 2026): https://www.nbcsports.com/wnba/news/golden-state-valkyries-win-2026-wnba-title-in-thrilling-game-7-win-over-atlanta-dream — The Associated Press via TSN, “Valkyries’ Williams named WNBA Finals MVP” (November 1, 2026): https://www.tsn.ca/wnba/article/valkyries-williams-named-wnba-finals-mvp/
Corrections check: searched for corrections/updates to the Game 7 result and Williams’ numbers at draft time; none found beyond NBC Sports’ routine timestamp update. The 68-63 final and Williams’ 30 points agree across the league recap, ESPN, NBC Sports, and AP.
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