Record-setting Angel Reese makes her first appearance in San Francisco as a WNBA player on Friday night when the Chicago Sky try to build upon one of their best efforts of the season against the expansion Golden State Valkyries.
Reese posted 18 points, 17 rebounds, six assists and four steals while fellow 2024 draftee Kamilla Cardoso poured in a career-high 27 points as the Sky rebounded from three consecutive losses to beat the visiting Los Angeles Sparks 97-86 on Tuesday.
The Sparks will get a rematch Sunday in LA, but not before the Sky open a four-game trip against the Valkyries, whose ongoing five-game homestand already has featured visits from Caitlin Clark and Sabrina Ionescu.
Golden State has done a good job limiting the production of its marquee visitors, having held Clark to 11 points in an 88-77 win June 19 and Ionescu to 11 in the New York Liberty’s 81-78 triumph on Wednesday night.
With seven wins in their first 14 games, the Valkyries already have surpassed the season total of the 2008 Atlanta Dream (4-30), the WNBA’s most recent expansion franchise still active today.
Coach Natalie Nakase insisted she wants more scoreboard wins — as opposed to moral victories — after Wednesday’s narrow loss to the defending champs.
“We don’t care what the score ended up being, we want to win,” Nakase said. “You can feel it with our players, and that’s what I love about our players.”
The Valkyries had to deal with the Liberty’s Breanna Stewart without starting center Temi Fagbenle, one of four players who left the team mid-season to play in EuroBasket 2025. While the other three were still competing for their countries, Fagbenle returned to San Francisco in time for Wednesday’s game, but was given the night off to rest.
She’s expected to play against the Sky, who dominated the interior in their win over the Sparks. Chicago outrebounded LA 36-27.
Reese, the second-year standout who posted a triple-double earlier this season while also becoming the fastest in WNBA history to accumulate 500 points and 500 rebounds, added to her lore against the Sparks when she became the first WNBA player to post 150 rebounds and 50 assists in the first 14 games of a season.
The former LSU standout noted a more spirited effort from her team than the ones that produced 10 losses in their first 13 games.
“We got to set the tone every single night,” Reese said. “We’ve let a lot of games slip away from us.”
The Sky will have to do it Friday without Cardoso, who has joined Brazil’s FIBA AmeriCup team. She will miss up to three Chicago games.
— Field Level Media
