Golden State Valkyries vs Toronto Tempo went the way sixth-man games usually go when the sixth man is the best player on the floor: Janelle Salaun came off the bench for 24 points, Veronica Burton ran the thing for 17 and six assists, and the Valkyries pulled away from the Tempo 96-79 on Sunday night at home.
Salaun did most of her damage in one twelve-minute stretch. Eleven of her 24 landed in the third quarter, she finished with four made threes, and the signature possession was a cut off a Tiffany Hayes feed for an and-1 and a flex. When a reserve comes out of a halftime and immediately decides the game is going to be about her, everything downstream gets easier. The defense got stingy late, the lead got fat, and the fourth quarter turned into a formality.
Why the third quarter decided Valkyries vs Tempo
This is the part of the box score that tells you the most. Toronto had shooting in this game. Laura Juskaite and Julie Allemand hit threes back to back, Maria Conde buried a fadeaway falling away from the rim that had no business going in, Kiki Rice was strong on the glass and finished through contact for an and-1 of her own. None of that is the problem. The problem is that Golden State answered a third-quarter run with a bigger one and then guarded for six straight minutes, and expansion-year rosters do not always have the second wind for that conversation.
| Valkyries top performers | PTS | 3PM | REB | AST |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Janelle Salaun (off bench) | 24 | 4 | 3 | 2 |
| Veronica Burton | 17 | 3 | 2 | 6 |
Burton's night is the quieter half of this and probably the more repeatable one. Seventeen and six with three from deep out of a lead guard is a team playing in order, not a team taking turns. Golden State's whole identity in its short life has been organization plus defense, and Sunday was a clean rendering of it.
What comes next for the Toronto Tempo
The schedule shows no mercy: these two run it back Tuesday at 10:00 PM ET, same building, Tempo as the visitor again. That is a genuinely interesting basketball problem for Toronto. You just watched 24 points come off the opponent's bench, you have 48 hours, and you have to decide whether to change your rotation for Salaun or trust that the third quarter was an outlier. First-year franchises do not usually get a second look at the exact team that just embarrassed them, and this one does.
From the almanac: Toronto is the league's first franchise based outside the United States, and this is the Tempo's first season existing at all. Growing pains in year one are a tuition payment, not a verdict. Golden State was the new kid a season ago and reached the postseason out of the gate, which is the fastest anybody has done that in this league. Whatever Toronto is building, Sunday is a data point, not an obituary.
Elsewhere on a loaded Sunday, Minnesota won its tenth straight with Olivia Miles controlling the floor for 28 points on 11-of-14 shooting, which is the kind of efficiency that makes you check the line twice. Season 30 has a runaway train in it, and it is not in the Bay yet.
What I am watching Tuesday: whether Salaun stays a reserve. Because if a coach has found a player who can pour in 24 without starting and it keeps the second unit from ever sagging, that is not a rotation quirk. That is a weapon, and you do not unwrap a weapon just to make a starting lineup look tidier.
