Gabby Williams Scored 18 in Her First All-Star Start

Team Coop fell to Team Spoon 129-122 as Jonquel Jones won MVP, but the Valkyries' lone All-Star went for 18, 5 and 6 in her first All-Star start. Golden State's season resumes Wednesday in Phoenix.

Williams was Team Coop's third-leading scorer in a losing effort

The first Golden State Valkyrie ever to start an All-Star Game played like she belonged in the first five. Gabby Williams started for Team Coop on Saturday night at the United Center and finished with 18 points, 5 rebounds and 6 assists on 7-of-18 shooting, going 4-of-13 from three with 1 steal and 0 turnovers in 23 minutes (CBS Sports, ESPN).

It was a full-circle night for Williams, who began her WNBA career in Chicago and spent three seasons with the Sky before becoming a Valkyrie (Valkyries official). She came out firing, nailing a three off one foot in the opening minutes (Yahoo Sports) and burying a 27-footer off a Kelsey Mitchell assist, with an AP photo catching her celebrating a first-half three alongside Paige Bueckers (Sportsnet).

It wasn't enough. Team Coop lost to Team Spoon 129-122 after trailing 81-64 at halftime and 105-93 after three quarters (ABC News). Kelsey Mitchell led all scorers with 28 for Team Coop, and Marina Mabrey added 23, all in the first half. Williams was the third-leading scorer on the squad and the second-highest among its starters.

Film room: Williams finally got the greenest of green lights

The most telling number in Williams' box score is not the 18 points. It is the 13 three-point attempts. That was the highest total on Team Coop, more than Mitchell's 11 and nearly twice Bueckers' or Natasha Howard's 7 (CBS Sports).

In the regular season, Williams averages 5.1 three-point attempts per game, a career-high volume that has turned a defense-first wing into Golden State's highest-usage perimeter threat, and she is shooting a career-best from deep (Valkyries official). The All-Star Game, where defense is optional and the unguarded three is the whole point, handed her roughly two-and-a-half times her usual launch rate. She made four of them and committed zero turnovers in 23 minutes.

The pattern is the same one the Valkyries' league-best offense has ridden all season: pace, space, and a willingness to let Williams fire from anywhere, including off one foot. The exhibition just stripped away the defense and let the role show in pure form.

The showcase around her

Jonquel Jones won MVP with 22 points, 13 rebounds and 8 assists for Team Spoon, becoming the first player to win the league MVP, WNBA Finals MVP, Commissioner's Cup MVP and All-Star Game MVP (ESPN). Jones played the night hours after her aunt's memorial. "No matter what mood I'm in, basketball can pick me back up," she said, "and so just leaning into that."

To be able to have tonight, have 19,000 people in the highest attendance ever in the All-Star Game just really shows that our league is growing, and people want to be around us and want to be a part of this and understand how special it is.

Jonquel Jones, on the record crowd of 19,783 at the United Center, the first All-Star Game in Chicago since 2022 (ESPN)

Eight Team Spoon players scored in double figures, led by Allisha Gray's 19 and Caitlin Clark's 17. Clark, back in the All-Star Game after missing last year's with a groin injury, hit from 33 and 37 feet in the first two and a half minutes and finished 5-of-15 from deep. Olivia Miles, the only rookie selected, went for 11 points, 12 rebounds and 8 assists. The teams combined for 127 three-point attempts (AP via TSN).

The biggest roar belonged to Dominique Malonga, who caught an Angel Reese feed and threw down a right-handed dunk with 6:24 left in the first half, the first dunk in an All-Star Game since Sylvia Fowles in 2022. Mabrey had all 23 of her points by halftime, going 5-of-6 from three in the first quarter before going 0-of-8 from deep in the third. "I got to see a few go down early," Mabrey said. "That's kind of like my thing. Get them up when they're going in." Nneka Ogwumike passed Maya Moore for the most career points in All-Star Game history (ESPN).

The second half starts Wednesday in Phoenix

The All-Star Game is an exhibition, so the standings are exactly where the break left them on July 22: Minnesota 22-6 in first, Golden State 19-8 in second at 2.5 games back, Las Vegas 18-8 in third, and Dallas 18-9 in fourth. The Valkyries are 9-1 over their last 10 (WNBA.com).

The part that matters for Golden State: the team it is chasing just got its best player back. Minnesota's Napheesa Collier made her season debut on July 22 after offseason surgery on both ankles, putting up 24 points and 10 rebounds in 22 minutes of a win over Seattle, and the Lynx have now won seven straight. A first-place team that was winning without its MVP is now winning with her, on a minutes restriction that will ease (TSN).

Golden State returns to action Wednesday at Phoenix, tipping at 7 p.m. PT (10 p.m. ET) on USA Network and CNBC, with KPIX+ 44 and KMAX 31 in the Bay Area, at the Mortgage Matchup Center (Valkyries official, ESPN). The Mercury are 10-18 and 13th in the league, but they rode into the break on a two-game winning streak behind Alyssa Thomas' 20th career regular-season triple-double (19 points, 15 assists, 11 rebounds) and Kahleah Copper's 20.5 points per game, seventh in the WNBA (ESPN, Arizona Republic). After Phoenix, the schedule turns brutal and home-heavy: Toronto, Dallas, Las Vegas, a trip to Chicago, then Dallas again and Minnesota at Chase Center in August.