Kiah Stokes goes beyond dirty work to power Valkyries to brink of WNBA title
· Yahoo Sports
SAN FRANCISCO — Head down. Blue-collar hoops.
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Kiah Stokes heard it plenty over the past week from family and friends. She’s a defensive specialist on the WNBA’s best defensive team for a head coach rooted in defensive ideology.
Defense, defense, defense. Not that she needs any chanted reminder.
“I just know what I do,” Stokes said. “A lot of my game isn’t really pretty. I do the dirty work.”
In what the Golden State Valkyries viewed as a must-win Game 5, she lifted her head up, dusted off her dormant skill and shot into Ballhalla’s more glamorous stratosphere. The 6-foot-3 center scored a postseason-high 13 points on 6 field goal attempts, shooting an eyebrow-raising 3 of 4 from 3-point range.
It was dirty work in a different way, grinding out the Valkyries’ most efficient offensive game of the Finals. For the first time in five games, they cracked 39% from the floor — that is what constitutes a solid day in this defensively fueled battle. They’re one win away from a WNBA championship in the expansion team’s second season. Earlier in the day, the league announced Game 6 will be held at State Farm Arena in downtown Atlanta on Thursday with an earlier 12:30 p.m. ET (9:30 a.m. PT) tip time. The NBA’s Hawks will host the Cavaliers at 8 p.m. ET at the arena.
For all the outside noise around when and where a potential clincher would be held, the Valkyries remained steady all day that they were focused on winning Game 5. They still hadn’t proven their return to their characteristic style predicated on defense and valuing possessions would carry into another game. They were on their heels after back-to-back losses, and though a Game 4 win evened the series, Stokes knew it didn’t win it.
Job’s not done, she told the team.
Stokes tries to stay off social media, which is probably for the best. There is no glazing of her there, despite three WNBA championship rings as a starter. No, she’s spent the majority of her career glazed over. While A’ja Wilson wanted to share her Defensive Player of the Year trophy and head coach Becky Hammon sang her praises in Las Vegas, Stokes’ defensive input went largely unappreciated.
Most often, criticism mounted that she was an offensive liability. In this era of the game, one must do both. The move to Golden State, desperate for buckets, drew ire.
“Everyone wants to talk about the defense with Kiah,” said Veronica Burton, who scored 13 on a less efficient 5-of-15. “But it’s offense too.”
It’s not that Stokes is incapable. It’s that she doesn’t need to be a putback machine or a three-level scoring threat the way Liberty forward Jonquel Jones roams or Dream forward Angel Reese is developing. The 11-year veteran made it this far doing all the rest. On the eve of Game 1, she felt validated that this Finals shaped up as the league’s best defenses in a year of historic offensive output.
She added 8 rebounds, 1 assist and 3 blocks in Game 5, an extension of the dominant defense she’s played throughout the series. Again on Monday, she limited Reese and thereby stymied the rest of a team that carries a more potent offense than her own squad. That is standard.
She’s on a run of six straight games with at least 3 blocks, tying two-time Los Angeles Sparks champion Lisa Leslie’s 2003 run. With 17 blocks, she set the WNBA Finals record. And it’s a clean mark doing it in five games, which was the previously used format that changed to seven last year. This is the first time the WNBA Finals will need a Game 6.
The first points of the game were scored by Stokes on an offensive putback. Later in the quarter, she missed a 3-point attempt. Any points were hard to come by.
Stokes makes those shots more than she misses in pregame warmups. One by one around the world they fall from the perimeter. She felt good about it in Game 4, but went 0 of 2 from 3. The Valkyries still won.
“It doesn't necessarily translate to the game because I don't shoot a lot,” Stokes said. “I'm just really trying to just lean into it.”
It helps when a teammate is honest, at least how head coach Natalie Nakase views such events.
She cussed. Tiffany Hayes cussed, angry her big gave up another open opportunity on a team that desperately needs all the offense it can acquire.
“I didn't want to make her mad again,” Stokes said.
She made her next three, finishing with a career-high three 3-pointers on 4 attempts. The three-time UConn national champion didn’t hit a 3-pointer in a WNBA game until her fifth season in the league. In six of her 11 seasons, she made three or fewer 3s. In only two, including this year, did she make at least 20 in the regular season.
“Now [she’s] just shooting that 3-ball like it’s a layup,” said Nakase, who coached Stokes as an assistant in Las Vegas. “It was beautiful.”
To win a championship requires unreal performances, and Stokes heard about it as time wound down on her home court.
“This is how we feel we can win it, and more importantly, Kiah Stokes will be our MVP,” Nakase said. “I heard chants. I heard Kiah tonight.”
The decibel-shattering crowd drowned out the broadcast interview with Stokes at center court. At every additional bellow, Stokes smiled slightly and waved it away in clear embarrassment. She’s not one who likes the attention, as Nakase pointed out hours before tipoff.
The best blue-collar workers never do.