Allisha Gray Hits Five 3s as the Dream Beat the Valkyries and Force the First Game 7 in WNBA Finals History

By The Arena Staff

ATLANTA, Oct. 29, 2026 — Allisha Gray has spent the WNBA Finals playing through a banged-up shooting hand. With her season on the line Thursday, the shots finally fell, and the last one sent the series to a place it has never been.

Gray scored 23 points, hit five of her seven 3-point attempts and buried a corner 3 with just under a minute left to seal the Atlanta Dream's 80-69 win over the Golden State Valkyries in Game 6. The series is tied 3-3, and Saturday's Game 7 in San Francisco will be the first in WNBA Finals history, ESPN reported. Neither franchise has won a WNBA title, so somebody's first championship is one game away.

"I am just locked in. It's Game 6 -- win or go home," Gray told ESPN. "I didn't want to go home. ... We have a championship to win."

Gray injured multiple fingers on her left hand in Game 1 of the semifinals and needed what she called a "minor procedure," ESPN reported, and it had affected her shot through the first five games of this series. On Thursday she went 8 of 12 from the field, added two steals and three blocks, and held the Valkyries to 2-of-17 shooting as the primary defender. ESPN noted she is the second player in league history to make at least five 3s in a Finals game while facing elimination.

Atlanta settled this one early. After scoring just 22 points in the first half of a 65-55 loss in Game 5, the Dream matched that total in the first six and a half minutes, the AP reported. A 13-0 run that included two 3s from Jordin Canada broke open a 6-5 game, and Atlanta made six of its eight 3-point tries in the first quarter on the way to a 32-15 lead. ESPN said it was the first time the Valkyries had ever allowed 30 points in a first quarter.

It was 46-26 at halftime. Golden State made just 9 of 34 shots in the first half against Atlanta's defense, and the Dream's lead eventually reached 25. Atlanta finished with 13 3-pointers, tied for the most by a team facing elimination in the Finals.

Rhyne Howard scored 21 and hit four 3s, flexing after nearly every one. Angel Reese had a double-double with 15 points, made a 3 from the corner and turned to the Golden State bench after it went in. ESPN reported the Dream held a players-only meeting before the game about getting back to the swagger and trash talk that carried them to their first two wins of the series.

Golden State did not go quietly. Gabby Williams led the Valkyries with 26 points and Tiffany Hayes added 15, and a late push cut the lead to 77-69 on a Williams three-point play before Gray's dagger from the corner. Valkyries guard Veronica Burton was called for a flagrant foul in the third quarter after a review found she made unnecessary contact with Howard's face on a drive, and Hayes left the floor slowly after picking up her fifth foul in a collision with 5:01 to play.

All of it happened in an afternoon game. Game 6 tipped off at 12:30 p.m. on a workday, a start time the AP said was widely criticized, but the Dream had announced a sellout and there were only scattered empty seats in the upper level.

"It was the first thing we said in the locker room: how proud we are of Allisha," Dream coach Karl Smesko said.

Game 7 is Saturday at 8 p.m. Eastern at Golden State. "Our job is not done," Reese said. "We have another level that we can get to."

Sources: ESPN and the AP recap on WNBA.com.