Golden State Valkyries beat Atlanta Dream 68-63 in Game 7 to win first WNBA title

The Golden State Valkyries beat the Atlanta Dream 68-63 in Game 7 of the WNBA Finals on Saturday night, Oct. 31, at Chase Center in San Francisco. It was their first championship, won in just their second season. Gabby Williams scored 30 points in a back-and-forth game, the league's first Game 7 since the Finals moved from five games to seven last year. Atlanta had forced the decider with an 80-69 win Thursday that made the series 3-3, and the Dream remain winless in four Finals appearances. Golden State went 32-12 in the regular season, after going 23-21 and losing in the first round of the playoffs in its debut year. The team is owned by Joe Lacob and Peter Guber, who also own the Warriors. The WNBA said the season set an attendance record of 3.8 million fans across 330 regular-season games, up 21%, and that ESPN, ABC and CBS had their most-watched seasons. Both teams were off the court during the anthem before all seven games. San Francisco's Glide Ensemble performed it Saturday.

Left-leaning CBS News and The Guardian treat it as a sports and league-growth story. CBS leads with the title, then the attendance and viewership figures, Golden State's turnaround, the Lacob-Guber ownership and Williams' signing. The Guardian ran a live blog with play-by-play, such as Rhyne Howard's shot putting Atlanta up 11-10. Neither excerpt mentions the anthem. Right-leaning Fox News leads with the anthem. Its headline calls the teams' absence a "snub", and it says players and coaches have not explained it. It also quotes the Glide Ensemble's website and describes the choir in political terms. The New York Post matches the left's game-centered framing, with the Game 7 thriller and Williams' 30 points. All agree on the score and the second-season title. They differ over whether the records or the anthem is the story. ESPN and Yahoo Sports add a Williams focus and parade information.