Valkyries' confidence in Cecilia Zandalasini set stage for Atlanta game-winner

San Francisco Chronicle​

3 days ago

WASHINGTON — Cecilia Zandalasini had seen how the Atlanta Dream wanted to defend her cuts to the basket. So when the time came to draw up a game-winning play, head coach Natalie Nakase and assistant coach Kasib Powell felt confident in giving her the ball.
Zandalasini has yet to find consistency, not playing more than four games in a row — and she missed Thursday's G olden State Valkyries game at Washington with a minor ankle sprain. But when she has had the opportunity, she's given the coaching staff every reason to feel confident in her when she has the ball.
'She knows how to read the defense in different situations, so we trust her with the ball,' Powell told the Chronicle. 'So it's just putting her in those kinds of situations and letting her read the defense. Either we get the shot or we get her going to the rim, and we know she can do both.'
The Italian forward went to the rim four times at Atlanta, but her last two shots in the paint were the most important.
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In her final two layups, Zandalasini went to her right off a pick-and-roll. The Dream hesitated to switch defenders against Valkyries' screens, leaving Allisha Gray a step behind Zandalasini as she received the pass from Tiffany Hayes and quickly drove to the hoop. That left Zandalasini the space and momentum to take the comfortable, game-winning shot with 3.9 seconds left on the clock with Gray defending in isolation.
'I need to be more aggressive than I've been in previous games,' Zandalasini said Thursday. 'When I get the space to pull off shots, though, they want me to be confident.'
Nakase has talked about the Valkyries finding the right reads to get spacing since preseason. Zandalasini used center Temi Fagbenle 's screens all game to get the space to drive to the hoop and catch Atlanta in uncomfortable defensive matchups.
'Everybody executed,' Zandalasini said of the final play. 'I was able to get space, and I took the shot I had.'
Golden State rode Zandalasini's good shooting to start the second quarter. The Valkyries haven't always gone with the hot shooter mid-game, instead often sticking to their initial gameplan and anticipated matchups.
'Our offense is always distributed pretty equally, because it's all about making the right reads, so it's not like one person has to take over,' Nakase said. 'As long as we make the right reads to stay space, then it will go into the hands of whoever's hot. That's how we kind of play our game.'
Zandalasini's game-tying layup with 2:47 to play foreshadowed her game-winner. She used a Fagbenle screen to attack to the right, but was more patient with the screen. The Dream likely anticipated a similar reaction on her last drive, but instead, she attacked with urgency.
It was a play that was a nearly full game in the making.
'Sometimes it doesn't matter who has the hot hand because of who is guarding them,' Powell said. 'There are some defenders we stay away from. What's unique about our team is other people can get hot, we were lucky Ceci did that (in Atlanta).'
Let it fly: Don't look now, but the Valkyries went into Thursday's game shooting 35.3% from 3-point range over their previous nine games.
That marks quite an improvement for Golden State, which ranks 12th (next to last) with an overall 31.3% effort behind the line. The recent success has pushed that mark up from 28.1% at the end of June.
'We had to get more high-quality shots,' said point guard Veronica Burton. 'We try to let it fly, but mostly when we get those looks. Maybe we've gotten better at identifying those. I think maybe when we get aggressive and attack the paint, it opens up more space for more high-quality (3-point) looks.'
The six best 3-point shooting games from the Valkyries have all come since June 27. Interestingly, they are 3-3 in those games, the same record as their six worst 3-point shooting games of the season.
In games where they shoot at least 33 3-pointers, the Valkyries are 0-6, though. Nakase has wanted the team to 'let it fly' all season without worrying so much about the percentages, but when the Valkyries do it willy-nilly, they've lost games.
When they've taken 28 or fewer 3-pointers they are 5-1. So the Valkyries' 3-point woes might be getting better, but the way they win games has not come from behind the arc after all.
'We knew too, the way we played at the beginning, the 3-pointers were eventually just going to fall,' Nakase said. 'It just took some time to feel very comfortable for players that haven't shot that many 3s and that lead in fly mentality.'