Gabby Williams drops 26 as Valkyries chase a 2-0 WNBA Finals lead over the Dream

Golden State's Cinderella run rolls into Game 2 of the WNBA Finals on Monday night, and the team carrying the franchise is an eight-year veteran who spent most of her career insisting nobody noticed her. Gabby Williams scored 26 points in Saturday's 68-64 Game 1 win over the Atlanta Dream — nearly 40% of her team's offense — and she did it in front of a Chase Center crowd that drowned out her postgame interview with MVP chants.

The Valkyries, a second-year franchise, already own their first Finals victory in history. Williams hit a game-high three 3-pointers, went 7-of-8 from the free-throw line, and added four rebounds, two assists and a steal, silencing — for one night at least — the story she told reporters a day earlier, that the media has "never respected me."

A franchise chasing its first Finals win

On the other bench, the math is grimmer and the emotion sharper. Atlanta rolled into the Finals on a 10-game winning streak and is making its fourth Finals appearance across 18 seasons — but it has never won one. Game 1's 68-64 loss left head coach Karl Smesko describing exactly how close his team came.

"We were right there. Right there," Smesko said. "So that's why it hurts a little bit, but it also motivates us. We know what we're capable of doing."

The what-ifs haunt: a Rhyne Howard 25-footer that didn't fall in a one-point game, a Naz Hillmon attempt that popped out from two feet away, and a defense that held Angel Reese in check while Williams went off. Valkyries coach Natalie Nakase called Williams "one of the best players in the world" — a line that lands differently than it might have a week ago.

A win Monday puts Golden State up 2-0 with the series shifting to Atlanta for Game 3 on Wednesday. A Dream win makes this a real fight.