Golden State beat Toronto 96-79 on Sunday, and the two teams are back on the floor Tuesday night for the third and final meeting of the WNBA regular season. The Valkyries did it with scoring across the roster, led by Janelle Salaun’s 24 points, while Tiffany Hayes and Gabby Williams added 15 each and Veronica Burton finished with 17 points and six assists.
That win snapped a two-game skid for Golden State and kept it in the mix for the No. 1 seed, while Toronto arrives in the rematch having lost six straight and nine of its last 10. The Tempo have also dropped to the No. 13 seed, so the game carries weight for both sides even before the ball goes up.
Marina Mabrey is the name to watch. She missed Sunday with a neck injury and is listed as questionable for Tuesday, which matters because Toronto has been short on answers already and needs every reliable scorer it can get in a matchup that has tilted early toward Golden State.
There is also a smaller battle inside the bigger one. Burton is averaging 5.5 assists per game this season, but Toronto has limited her distribution in both head-to-head meetings, including Sunday, when she had six assists. Since July 1, she has averaged 5.8 assists over nine games, yet she has topped seven assists in only two of them. The Valkyries have already won the first meeting in a rout, and now they get one more chance to show that the edge was not a one-night result.
If Mabrey cannot go, Toronto will be trying to solve Golden State again with less room for error and no time to ease into the response. If she plays, the rematch becomes a sharper test of whether the Tempo can turn one heavy loss into a cleaner finish before the teams close their season series Tuesday night.
