With Game 6 set for Thursday afternoon, Stokes is the current frontrunner in the WNBA Finals MVP race for the Golden State Valkyries. Golden State leads the Atlanta Dream 3-2, and the award debate now turns on what each player has done in the games the Valkyries have won.
That wins-only lens is why Stokes has moved to the front. She has a per game stat score of 23.3 in Golden State wins, shot 61 percent from the field and went 3-for-7 from 3 while averaging 8.7 points. Her 16 rebounds in Game 4 were a major part of the night that kept Golden State in control.
Gabby Williams, though, has the best per game stat score among the leading candidates at 27.8 in Golden State wins. She scored 26 points in Game 1, then went 6-for-6 from the free-throw line over the final 2:15 of a four-point win. She also had 17 points in Game 4, is listed at two steals per game in wins, and remains the most productive scorer in the statistical snapshot. Even so, the case for Stokes leans on something harder to measure: the defensive work against Angel Reese that shaped the series.
Veronica Burton stays in the picture because her impact has come in the biggest moments. She scored the Valkyries’ final six points of Game 4, starting with a 3 that gave Golden State a nine-point lead with 4:23 left, then a fadeaway in the paint that pushed the margin to seven with 34 seconds remaining and a free throw that made it five with 27 seconds left. Burton finished that game with 13 points, added 13 more in Game 5 and made history with four blocks. Her numbers in wins are not as strong as Williams’, with a 25.2 stat score, 28 percent shooting from the field and 20 percent from 3, but her closing sequence and her Game 5 defense keep her near the top of the race.
Hayes is the other name in the mix after scoring 11 points before Burton’s late run in Game 4 and posting an 18.3 stat score. In a Finals that has been low-scoring and defined by defense and clutch possessions, that matters more than raw totals. The structure of the race is simple now: if Golden State finishes the job in Game 6, the award will almost certainly come from the players who swung the wins already on the board. If Atlanta forces Game 7, the final answer gets one more night to change.
