Nakase: The Valkyries' League-Best Defense Can Still Be 'a Lot Better'

The coach says game-plan mistakes are still "carrying over" out of the All-Star break, the Aug. 2 deadline is five days out, and the second half starts tomorrow in Phoenix.

The coach of the league's stingiest defense wants more

Natalie Nakase ran the Valkyries' first practice after the All-Star break on Monday, and the reigning WNBA Coach of the Year opened with a line that does not match the record. Golden State is 19-8, second in the league, and owns the WNBA's best defense at 76.4 points allowed per game (The IX). Her message was that it is not good enough.

"We have to do better defensively. We are not where we are just in terms of the game plan mistakes that we're making. There's some that are continuing to carry over, and so we have to clean those up. So, yeah, we're solid on defense, but we want to be a lot better."

Natalie Nakase, after Monday's first post-break practice (ClutchPoints)

She paired it with an offensive note: the staff is still learning "where certain players like the ball," and the aim is "on-time sets that are really going to work throughout the game." With 17 games left and Minnesota only 2.5 games ahead, the top seed is in play, and the ceiling talk is a to-do list, not a victory lap.

The break did reset the person writing it. Nakase, who had admitted she was "battling" fatigue and was calling Ty Lue and Steve Kerr for advice after the July 20 loss that snapped the nine-game win streak, said she slept eight to nine hours a night over the six days off and spent the time with her sisters, catching the All-Star Game and the 3-point contest from her couch (ClutchPoints). The Valkyries restart Wednesday in Phoenix.

Five days to the deadline, and the math is unforgiving

The trade deadline lands at 3 p.m. ET on Sunday, Aug. 2 (WNBA), five days from now, and the question raised here yesterday, whether the league's best defense needs a closer, runs into a wall of logistics that applies league-wide.

Dallas Wings general manager Curt Miller, speaking at practice Monday, laid out why deals stay rare even when the fit is obvious. "It's much harder to make trades than people realize because of the salary cap," he said, and the post-break schedule leaves "almost no opportunity to practice. Every general manager has to think about how to integrate new players" (Dallas Hoops Journal).

Golden State faces the same crunch from the other end. It restarts Wednesday and the deadline hits Sunday, four days later, leaving little more than a game and a handful of shootarounds to install anyone new. The case for a move is the record itself: the Valkyries are 0-5 against Minnesota and Las Vegas and 19-3 against the rest of the league (SF Chronicle), the split that separates them from the two teams standing between them and a title. The case against it is the roster's team-first identity and the near-impossibility of teaching a newcomer the playbook in four days. Miller's line was that you "can't be afraid to make bold moves when you have a championship opportunity." Whether general manager Ohemaa Nyanin agrees is the next five days.

The team you're chasing plays tonight

Minnesota resumes the race before Golden State does. The 22-6 Lynx host the 10-16 Toronto Tempo at Target Center tonight at 8 p.m. ET, and they are 15.5-point favorites (ESPN). Toronto has lost seven of eight, including a 109-83 blowout by Las Vegas in its last game (CBS Sports).

The Valkyries sit 2.5 games back. A Lynx win tonight, the expected result, holds that gap into tomorrow's restart. The catch is that the Lynx are now doing it with Napheesa Collier, who debuted July 22 with 24 points and 10 rebounds in 22 minutes after offseason surgery on both ankles and plays her first home game tonight (TSN). The team Golden State has never beaten, in a year and a half of existence, just got its MVP back.

The restart is tomorrow

The second half opens Wednesday at Phoenix, 7 p.m. PT on USA and CNBC, with KPIX+44 and KMAX31 carrying it locally. The Mercury are 10-18 and 13th in the league, and Golden State beat them twice at Chase Center earlier this season, 95-79 and 87-81. A full preview of the matchup, the spread, and how to watch ran here yesterday.