ATLANTA -- The first quarter Thursday was a disaster for the Golden State Valkyries. But Game 6 of the WNBA Finals wasn't a complete wash, point guard Veronica Burton said.
"I'm sitting here and the body language is bad," Burton said after Golden State fell 80-69 to the Atlanta Dream, tying the series at 3-all. "But at the end of the day, we feel good. Yes, we lost. Yes, 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 2 and 3 were ugly, and we quit. We looked bad. And we didn't quit on this one."
The Valkyries were able to trim an Atlanta lead that reached 25 down to eight in the fourth quarter. That's something to take back home with them for the deciding Game 7 on Saturday in San Francisco.
"It is do-or-die, officially," Burton said of the mentality both teams must have Saturday.
The Dream were in that position Thursday, too, down 3-2 in the series. The Valkyries spoke Wednesday about needing to match the sense of desperation and urgency they knew the Dream would have in Game 6. As is so often the case in best-of-seven series in any sport, the team with its back against the wall played with more ferocity.
After holding Atlanta to just 55 points Monday in Game 5's victory, the Valkyries allowed the Dream to score 32 in the first quarter Thursday.
Everything that looked so difficult offensively for the Dream in Games 1, 4 and 5 appeared much easier in Game 6, to the delight of the sold-out matinee crowd at State Farm Arena.
The game began at 12:30 p.m. local time, which was 9:30 a.m. Pacific time, but the Valkyries players and coaches dismissed fatigue and the early start time -- "They played at the same time as us, right?" Golden State's Gabby Williams said -- as factors in their slow start.
"Just frustrated," Golden State coach Natalie Nakase said. "It's unacceptable."
The Dream were sharper with their ball movement and made open shots, something they had struggled to do at times earlier in the series. Atlanta's 32-15 advantage after the first quarter was just too much for the defense-oriented Valkyries to make up.
But as Burton said, they didn't throw in the towel. The rest of the game was closer. Atlanta outscored Golden State by just three points in the second quarter. Then in the second half, the Valkyries actually "won" both quarters, by four points in the third and five in the fourth.
Burton referenced the Valkyries' 79-65 loss in Game 2 at San Francisco and their 97-71 loss in Game 3 in Atlanta as games in which the Valkyries stopped battling to win. That didn't happen Thursday, which meant the Dream still had to play all their starters at least 30 minutes.
Thursday was also just the second time in the series that the Dream shot better than 40% from the field. They finished at 44% Thursday and were at 49% in Game 3 on Oct. 21.
Williams finished with 26 points and Tiffany Hayes 15 for the Valkyries. Golden State wanted to be close in the rebounding battle and was, winning it 36-35. The Valkyries also had just 10 turnovers to the Dream's 15. Those are the good things that Burton and her team will focus on as they prepare for the last game of the 2026 season.
"We didn't give ourselves a good position at the start of the game, but we feel good, and there's a lot to take away from the second, third and fourth quarters," Burton said. "Our defense was a little more like us [in the second half], so we'll watch that, see the adjustments they made, see where we can adjust, and I think we're in a good spot."