ARLINGTON, Texas — The Dallas Wings will face the Golden State Valkyries in the first round of the 2026 WNBA Playoffs, with Game 1 of the best-of-three series set for Sunday at Chase Center in San Francisco. Golden State locked in the matchup Thursday night by rallying past the Los Angeles Sparks 76-75 on the road, clinching the No. 2 seed with a 32-12 record.
Dallas wrapped up the No. 7 seed on Wednesday night when New York lost at home to Atlanta, shortly before the Wings tipped off in Seattle. They went on to beat the Seattle Storm 103-91 in the regular-season finale and finished 27-17.
Tip time and broadcast information for Game 1 had not been announced as of Thursday night. Under the first round’s 1-1-1 format, the Wings will host Game 2 at College Park Center on either Sept. 29 or Sept. 30, and a Game 3, if the series needs one, would be played back at Chase Center on either Oct. 1 or Oct. 2.
Sunday will be the first postseason meeting between the two franchises. Golden State went 3-0 against Dallas this season and holds a 6-1 lead in the all-time regular-season series, with the Wings’ only win coming on June 17, 2025.
Dallas Wings Back In Postseason As Golden State Valkyries Return For Second Straight Year
The Wings are in the playoffs for the first time since 2023, one year after going 10-34 with Paige Bueckers as a rookie. According to the team, the 17-win jump is the largest single-season turnaround in WNBA history, and Wings coach Jose Fernandez holds the league record for the best turnaround by a first-year head coach.
Dallas also set franchise regular-season records this year for total wins, winning percentage, points per game, assists per game, assist-to-turnover ratio, field goal percentage, and total three-pointers made. Bueckers finished with 878 points, breaking Arike Ogunbowale’s franchise single-season mark of 849 from 2023. In Wednesday’s finale, Jessica Shepard had 20 points, 11 rebounds, and 12 assists for her sixth triple-double of the season.
Bueckers scored 25 points in that win and spoke afterward in a postgame interview with USA Sports. She said she loves to win and hates losing with a passion, and that she has not yet stopped to look back at the regular season.
“So we’re hungry. We’re not satisfied and we’re not complacent with what we’ve accomplished,” Bueckers said. “We want to continue to keep getting better for right now and for the future. But I’m sure I’ll do more reflecting after the season.”
Fernandez coached South Florida from 2000 to 2025 before Dallas hired him on Oct. 28, 2025. After Wednesday’s finale, he went back to his mid-major days when talking about what a lower seed runs into after winning once.
“Us as a mid-major, we were always an 8-9 seed or a 7-10,” Fernandez said. “You’ve got to play that, you win that first game, that you’re playing a No. 1 or a No. 2 seed, which sometimes it’s very, very difficult.”
Golden State is the first WNBA expansion team to reach the postseason in each of its first two seasons, according to The San Francisco Standard. The Valkyries went 17-5 at Chase Center this year. As the No. 8 seed last September, they lost their first-round series to top-seeded Minnesota, dropping Game 2 by one point.
On Thursday in Los Angeles, Golden State trailed by as many as 16 points and was down 13 with about seven minutes left. Gabby Williams then scored 8 points in a 90-second span, The Standard reported, and the win went down as the largest comeback in Valkyries history.
Valkyries coach Natalie Nakase, speaking with The Standard on Tuesday in Portland, said her second team has taken lessons from the mistakes of the first.
“It doesn’t feel the same [as last year],” Nakase said. “In our second year, we’ve learned a lot from our mistakes last year. That was possibly overpracticing. We were injured a lot, and it wasn’t just at the end.”
Golden State allowed a league-low 75.1 points per game this season. Nakase said her staff spent the week working through several schemes, with an eye on what it might revise once an opponent was set.
“Our language and our verbiage inside is constantly about bettering our defense,” Nakase explained. “Our coaches have been working extremely hard, meeting about other things that we could do. So we’re just excited to implement them if necessary.”
Golden State Valkyries Swept 2026 Season Series Against Dallas Wings
The first meeting came June 17 at Chase Center, where Golden State won 91-80 despite 14 points and 10 rebounds from Shepard, her 10th double-double of the season.
Golden State won the second meeting 94-76 on Aug. 7 at American Airlines Center in Dallas. Veronica Burton led the Valkyries with 22 points, 4 rebounds, and 7 assists on 8-of-13 shooting. Williams added 19 points, and Kayla Thornton had 11 points and 10 rebounds. For Dallas, Bueckers scored 17, Aziaha James added 13, and Alanna Smith finished with 11, while Azzi Fudd missed the game with knee soreness.
The Wings shot 21-of-62 from the field that night and finished with 8 assists in what was their fourth loss in five games. Fernandez said afterward that he wanted the accountability to come from inside the locker room.
“I think confidence, confidence is great,” Fernandez explained. “But we also got to take individual accountability along with that confidence.”
Ten days later at Chase Center, Golden State clinched its playoff berth with a 78-70 win. Williams scored 23 points with 7 rebounds, and Burton added 16 points and 5 assists. Tiffany Hayes hit a three-pointer from just inside half-court at the first-quarter buzzer to put the Valkyries ahead 20-19. Bueckers led Dallas with 21 points, Ogunbowale scored 17, and Smith had 13 points and 5 rebounds.
Over the three meetings, the Wings scored 75.3 points per game after averaging 89.4 across the full season. Their assist total fell to 14.0 per game in the series, compared with 22.3 for the year, and they shot 41.8% from the field and 30.4% from three-point range while turning it over 13.0 times a game. On the other end, the Valkyries put up 87.7 points, 36.3 rebounds, and 21.3 assists per game against Dallas, shooting 43.2% from the field and 37.9% from deep.
Bueckers averaged 17.7 points, 2.0 rebounds, and 4.0 assists in the series on 44.2% shooting and went 91.7% at the free-throw line. Ogunbowale was at 14.3 points per game with 3.3 rebounds, 2.3 assists, and 1.7 steals, and she made every free throw she attempted against Golden State. Shepard’s line came to 8.0 points, 9.3 rebounds, and 2.3 assists. Maddy Siegrist averaged 4.3 points and 4.0 rebounds, Awak Kuier posted 3.3 points, 3.3 rebounds, and 1.7 blocks, and James averaged 7.5 points and 3.0 rebounds in her two appearances.
Fernandez started Bueckers, Ogunbowale, Kuier, Siegrist, and Shepard for the fourth straight game in Wednesday’s finale at Seattle.
