WNBA Finals Game 7 predictions: Will the Dream or Valkyries win their first title on Saturday?

It's the first Game 7 in WNBA history on Saturday night in San Francisco ... so who will capture the crown?

Oct 30, 2026 at 4:23 pm ET • 4 min read

It all comes down to Saturday in the 2026 WNBA Finals. It's Game 7 for the Golden State Valkyries and Atlanta Dream, and one franchise will win its first championship on Saturday night.

The Dream forced this winner-take-all game -- the first Game 7 in WNBA history -- on Thursday. In a matinee at State Farm Arena, the Dream jumped out to a 25-point lead in the first half and held on for an 11-point win. 

Can Angel Reese and Atlanta finish the job on Saturday? Or will the Valkyries, Gabby Williams and a raucous home crowd propel Golden State to the title? We're making our picks below.

WNBA Finals Game 7 picks

	Lindsay Gibbs	Jack Maloney
Valkyries vs. Dream	Dream	Valkyries

Gibbs: It feels fitting that this historic 30th WNBA season, that began with a hard-fought CBA that elevated player compensation into a new echelon, is ending in the league's first-ever Game 7.

But let's face it: This has not been a series of beautiful basketball. The Valkyries are shooting 34.5% from the field and 26.4% from 3 in the Finals, while the Dream are faring only marginally better, averaging 37.2% and 28.5%, respectively. However, it has been an incredibly compelling showcase of defense and mental fortitude, two aspects of the game that often get the short shrift. Both teams have had to pull themselves off the mat after punches that were potential knockouts; both teams have gained momentum just to have it halted; both teams have relied on their unity and self belief and confidence and grit to make it to this final do-or-die game.

And now that we're here, it truly does feel like a toss-up. While the Dream's sensational first quarter on Thursday made the Game 7 possible, the way the Valkyries kept fighting in the game — winning the second half by nine points and whittling down a 25-point Dream lead to nine with just over a minute to play — set that Game 7 up to be a true prize fight. I keep thinking about what Veronica Burton said in the press conference after the Valkyries lost Game 6 in Atlanta by a score of 80-69.

"My body language is bad. But at the end of the day, we feel good. Yes, we lost. It was a bad game for us. We had a terrible first quarter. We cleaned it up. We found a way. We didn't quit," Burton said. "Games ... 2 and 3 were ugly. We quit. We looked bad, and we didn't quit on this one."

The Valkyries were unable to match the Dream's sense of urgency in Game 6, but on Saturday, both teams will be facing elimination. Urgency should permeate every pass, every possession, every heart palpitation. Given the Valkyries are playing in front of their home crowd at Ballhalla, it is tempting to give them the edge.

And yet, I'm still backing Atlanta. Earlier in this series, it was Angel Reese alone willing the Dream to wins in Game 2 and 3. But after a lackluster start to the series – and playoffs as a whole, truly – Rhyne Howard has found her stroke and averaged 19 points per game in the last four games of the Finals. And on Thursday, Allisha Gray – who has been playing the series with only eight healthy fingers after an injury in the semifinal series – came alive with 23 points. Essentially, there are three Dream players that I trust more than any Valkyries player to generate offense and make a basket when it matters the most.

When we had to make our picks before the series, I picked Dream in 7 and wrote this:

"In the spirit of Angel Reese and Joe Lacob, I am manifesting an epic seven-game series full of twists and turns. And, at the end, it will be a big defensive play by Reese that will seal the title for the Dream on the road in front of a raucous Ballhalla crowd on Halloween night."

I've been wrong about so many things this postseason, but I'm still feeling good about that one. Dream in 7.

Maloney: I picked the Valkyries in six before the series. That, obviously, can no longer happen, but I'm sticking with the Valkyries to win Game 7.

The Dream have far more offensive upside, as we've seen at various points throughout this series, including the first quarter of Game 6, when they hit six 3-pointers and scored 32 points en route to a season-saving victory. But the Valkyries are one of the best defensive teams we've ever seen, and have spent much of the series dragging the Dream into the mud for a low-efficiency scrap. We saw that too in Game 6, when the Valkyries held the Dream to 48 points on 16-of-47 shooting (34%) with 15 turnovers.

We've never had a Game 7 in the WNBA before, but we've seen the Finals go the distance plenty of times. And the winner-take-all contests to decide the title are often exactly the type of game the Valkyries want to play: slow-paced, low-scoring and extremely physical. In the last five winner-take-all games in the Finals, only one team -- the 2019 Washington Mystics -- has reached 80 points.

Last five winner-take-all games in WNBA Finals

• 2024: Liberty 67, Lynx 62
• 2019: Mystics 89, Sun 78
• 2017: Lynx 70, Sparks 68
• 2016: Sparks 77, Lynx 76
• 2015: Lynx 69, Fever 52

For whatever reason, be it the weird start time, fatigue or a sense of comfort after going up 3-2, the Valkyries didn't throw the first punch in Game 6, and the action got away from them.

"This is win or die. This is do or die. This is it," Valkyries coach Natalie Nakase said after Game 6. "You want to have that physicality. You want to have that fight. You want to lay it all out there. That's what the Finals is about is just an empty-the-tank mentality, and shoot, we didn't do that [Thursday]."

Back in Ballhalla Boohalla, in front of a sold-out crowd on Halloween, the Valkyries will empty the tank in Game 7 and win the first championship in franchise history.