Gabby Williams hit a go-ahead 17-footer and the Golden State Valkyries rallied from 16 down to stun the Dallas Wings 77-73 in a wild Game 3.
Page S2From§Eachthe breakfast edition — 3 October 2026
Valkyries trail by 16, erase it, reach the WNBA semifinals anyway
Hot Mic Moment
This reporter will say what the production truck isn't supposed to hear: a franchise that didn't exist until 2025 just outlasted a Mercury roster the wire itself calls struggling, and nobody in ownership has to explain what happens to the old markets once the investment money finds a shinier one. Send this reporter to the political desk before standards and practices gets back from lunch.
Gushis side
The gals showed real grit chasing down that deficit, scrapping the way this reporter's generation expected ladies' basketball to scrap back when the league still had to prove it belonged on the same broadcast schedule as the men.
The dagger came late, Gabby Williams calmly burying the go-ahead seventeen-footer as Golden State held off Dallas for a 79-73 final that will be replayed on highlight reels for years.
This reporter notes the comeback bug is going around: Arch Manning and Texas erased a twenty-point deficit against Ohio State on September 13th in a fourth-quarter vanishing act of their own.
Trudyher side
Third season, sugar? CBS Sports has the Valkyries launching as a WNBA expansion club in 2025. This is only their second season, and it already includes their first playoff series win.
"The gals" just won a playoff series as a one-year-old franchise. CBS Sports calls it exactly what it is — a first, full stop, no ladies' auxiliary qualifier required.
Fox News has it 77-73, not 79. Williams's shot was plenty — Golden State didn't need the extra two points you just handed them.
That one you got right — 23-3 is a twenty-point hole, same as the Fox headline said. Mark the calendar, it happens.
August 27th, same Fox wire. Good memory for once. Have a seat before the postgame.
Mic's hot, genius, and nobody's reassigning you over a box score. Golden State is a 2025 expansion team that just won its first playoff series, and Fox News had the Mercury filed as struggling on August 27th — the facts clear you without the speech.
“They'll tell you a brand-new team needs years to find its footing, then hand it a roster that skips the line while a ten-year franchise in Phoenix gets stuck with the word "struggling" stapled to its name in the same week's wire copy. That's not parity, that's just where the next sponsorship dollar decided to land, and the players are the ones left guessing which city keeps the lights on.”
“Look, expansion fees fund the whole league, that's just how pro sports works, every market gets its shot — the Mercury's situation has nothing to do with where the investment's flowing, that's a totally separate— did I say "flowing"? That's not the word I meant to use.”
The receipts
This was the first playoff series win for the Valkyries, who just launched as an expansion team in 2025
· Arch Manning and Texas Longhorns erase 20-point deficit to stun Ohio State in shocking comeback for the ages from the morgue, 13 Sep 2026
· Golden State Valkyries and New York Liberty headline two WNBA picks for tonight's slate from the morgue, 27 Aug 2026
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front. The byline is a pen name for a column drafted by a machine and checked by the editor: how this is made.