With just a month to go before the postseason, the second-place Golden State Valkyries finally defeated the first-place Minnesota Lynx on Monday night. It was the first time this season, and the first time in franchise history in 10 matchups between the two teams.
A big reason why was their starting point guard: Veronica Burton
Burton had 14 points, nine assists and tied a career-high with five steals in the 80-66 win over the Lynx.
“V was elite tonight. On top of that, she made all the calls, ” head coach Natalie Nakase said after the game. “We just kind of let V run the show.”
Burton had only started 14 games in her WNBA career prior to joining the Valkyries and certainly wasn’t the engine of an offense in her previous stops with the Dallas Wings and Connecticut Sun. She was known as a defensive specialist off the bench in Dallas and Connecticut. When she joined the Valkyries, she was assigned a new role as the team’s starting point guard and de facto leader.
“She’s always gonna play hard, whether it’s on defense, on offense,” forward Kaila Charles said of her teammate. “Seeing her step up into this more of a leadership or vocal role, it’s just amazing to see.”
That kind of leadership doesn’t always show up in the stat sheet, Charles pointed out. But Burton’s offensive success is right there in the numbers. And this season, her numbers are better than ever.
Burton is the third highest bucket-getter on the Valkyries with 12.5 points per game, up from 11.9 last year and behind just all-star Gabby Williams and the league’s leading bench scorer, Janelle Salaun. She is tied with Kiah Stokes for the team’s most consistent shooter at 43.1% from the field, also up from last year, and is their third-best 3-point shooter at 37%.
She leads the league with a 3.75 assist-to-turnover ratio. Since point guards move the ball more than any other player in the league, having a low turnover rate has a big impact on the final score.
One of the most telling stats about Burton’s contribution to the team is her net +/- rating which shows how a player’s presence on the court impacts the score. Burton leads the Valkyries with a net plus 9.1 per 100 possessions on the floor, which means the Valkyries score that many more points when she’s playing than when she is on the bench. They also hold opponents to 7.5 fewer points when she is in the game.
“I always talk to her about how proud I am of her because she always keeps going no matter what,” Tiffany Hayes said. “She is so tough to play against.”
The 26-year-old rarely takes credit for herself, though.
“I think we really have a way of just supporting one another, and on whoever’s night it is, we’re going to feed them,” Burton said. “On some teams you have to fight for the ball and fight for it to be your night. On our team, we celebrate whoever’s night it is and we find them, and I think that’s what allows us to be so dangerous.”
The Valkyries have seven games left before the playoffs and now they know, finally, that they can beat Minnesota.
“It feels good,” Burton said. “Getting any win on the road at this point in the season, feels good. Just trying to gear up for playoff basketball. I think the way we did it and the way we made adjustments, obviously just seeing them less than a week ago, it feels good.”
VB is the best