Nakase's War Sounds and 4 a.m. Texts Fuel Valkyries' Finals Run — SkimNews
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- Golden State Valkyries took a 1-0 WNBA Finals lead with a 68-64 victory over the Atlanta Dream on Saturday, heading into Game 2 Monday at Chase Center.
- Natalie Nakase played the sounds of machine guns and bombs at a September practice to acclimate players to hostile environments, an idea she borrowed from Boston Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla.
- The Valkyries, just 18 months old as a WNBA expansion franchise, posted the league's top-ranked defense and best bench production this season despite having no superstar on the roster.
- Nakase climbed from a 2012 Los Angeles Clippers video coordinator to a full-time NBA assistant under Doc Rivers and Tyronn Lue, then helped Becky Hammon's Las Vegas Aces win back-to-back WNBA titles in 2022 and 2023.
- Golden State owner Joe Lacob hired Nakase in 2024 after publicly predicting the Valkyries would win a title within five years of launch — a timeline now in play with a Finals berth in year two.
- Nakase's late father Gary coached her with tough love, rarely offering verbal affirmation and instead moving her between teams to force constant reinvention — an approach she says mirrors how she leads the Valkyries.
Why it matters: In just their second season, an expansion franchise built from unprotected castoffs is one win from fulfilling owner Joe Lacob's stated five-year title promise — and the unusual methods (4 a.m. texts, war sounds at practice, obsessive film dissection) that define Nakase's leadership are the ones driving the result.
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