The WNBA Finals MVP race should be a simple enough conversation, but of course it never is. The easiest way to judge it is also the only sensible way: look at what players did in games their team actually won. In a 3-2 series with Golden State leading the Atlanta Dream ahead of Game 6, that standard matters more than ever.
And under that rule, Gabby Williams is still very much in the frame. Her 26-point burst in Game 1 was the loudest individual statement of the series so far, and it came in a four-point win. Better still, she closed it with the sort of nerve that wins awards: 6-for-6 from the line over the final 2:15. That is not just production. That is control.
Why Gabby Williams still matters
The WNBA Finals MVP debate does not belong to empty numbers piled up in losses or padded stats in doomed stretches. It belongs to the players who actually swung results. Williams has done that twice in Golden State wins. She added 17 points in Game 4, another important contribution in a tight series where every possession has started to feel expensive.
That makes her case straightforward: she has been the biggest scoring punch Golden State has had in its wins, and she has done it when the pressure has been high. In a Finals where momentum can change in a single quarter, that matters. A 26-point opener and a 17-point follow-up are not accidental. They are the kind of performances that keep a player in the award race when the series gets messy.
The supporting cast is forcing the discussion
Of course, this is not a one-player story. Veronica Burton has made her own case by doing the ugly, winning work. In Game 4, she scored the Valkyries’ final six points. In Game 5, she had 13 points and four blocks. Those are the kind of numbers that do not always dominate headlines but absolutely change outcomes.
Hayes also had a role in that Game 4 win, scoring 11 points before Burton’s late run took over. That is the point: Golden State’s wins have not been built on one superstar monologue. They have been built on different players taking turns carrying the load. But if the question is who has delivered the most obvious Finals MVP statement in the biggest scoring sense, Williams’ opening-night explosion still stands above the rest.
That is why Game 6 feels so heavy. With Golden State up 3-2, the award race is still open, but it is narrowing fast. If Williams adds another decisive performance, the argument only gets stronger. If Burton keeps making the game-ending plays, the balance shifts. Either way, the only performances that should matter now are the ones that come in wins. That is how Finals MVP should be judged, and that is why this race is still alive.
