Most of us would call in sick over a jammed finger. Allisha Gray hurt the ring finger on her shooting hand in the WNBA semifinals and, less than two weeks later, led the Atlanta Dream in scoring in the Finals.

Gray scored a team-high 19 points in Saturday's 68-64 Game 1 loss to the Golden State Valkyries, her first game back since the injury. The Dream named her their Player of the Game. "It's always good to have you back, Lish," the team posted.

How a 'hurt finger' became a big deal

It started in Game 1 of the semifinals against the New York Liberty. Gray injured her left ring finger, came back in with two fingers taped together, then tore off the tape after missing a shot and left the game soon after, ESPN's Kareem Copeland reported. She played only 11 minutes that night.

"Me coming back out was just my competitive nature of not wanting to sit out," Gray said, "but it was just to a point where I couldn't play anymore, so I knew that I wasn't able to help my team anymore. So it was best for me to sit down."

She missed Games 2 and 3. Before Game 3, she warmed up with the last two fingers of her shooting hand taped and was still ruled out "in the interest of caution," coach Karl Smesko said. Atlanta swept the series anyway and reached its first Finals since 2013.

Then came a minor procedure on her left hand, which Gray said was necessary for her to have a chance of playing in the Finals. Her own description of the injury stayed refreshingly low-key: with a smirk, she called it a "hurt finger." Her bar for playing was simple, too. "Long as I can shoot, I'm good," she said.

So how did the comeback go?

Pretty well, all things considered. Gray was declared available before tipoff, and Smesko said he didn't expect any restrictions. She got Atlanta on the board early ("Back and better," the Dream posted) and went 8 for 8 from the free-throw line, per ESPN's box score.

The shooting was rustier. Gray went 5 for 19 from the field and 1 for 8 from three, and she didn't score in the fourth quarter, when the whole team shot 2 for 20. That's no shame against the best defense in the WNBA, but in a four-point game, every miss mattered.

Why Game 2 runs through her

Gray is a four-time All-Star who averaged 19.0 points this season and played in all 44 regular-season games. She led Atlanta in scoring in the regular season and again in its first-round sweep of Washington, at 22.0 points per game.

The Dream need that version on Monday. ESPN's Kendra Andrews wrote that Game 2 "feels like a must-win" in San Francisco before the series moves to Atlanta for Games 3 and 4. Smesko, for his part, thinks Game 1 was right there. "But we had a couple what I would call good looks just didn't go down for us," he said. "We knock down either of those, we're not talking about whatever mistakes we made."

There's some good news for a road game, too: Atlanta went 15-7 away from home this season, per the AP.

Game 2 is Monday at 8 p.m. ET at Chase Center, with Golden State up 1-0 in the best-of-seven series. The finger passed its first test. Now the shots just have to fall.