Here's how expansion teams are supposed to work. You start with leftovers. You lose a lot. You collect high draft picks. And maybe, years later, if you're lucky, you get good.

The Golden State Valkyries apparently didn't read the manual.

The Valkyries played their first game in 2025. On Saturday, they won Game 1 of the WNBA Finals, 68-64 over the Atlanta Dream in San Francisco. "First Finals W in Valkyries history," the team posted. Now they're three wins from a championship, and both teams are chasing their first title.

Why this is not normal

Before the Valkyries, WNBA expansion teams had an average winning percentage of .306, according to ESPN's Neil Paine. In other words, they usually lose about seven of every 10 games.

Golden State went .523 in Year 1, the second-best debut in league history behind the 1998 Detroit Shock. In Year 2 it got even better: the second-best record in the league and the best net rating (how many more points you score than you allow, per 100 possessions). In the semifinals, the Valkyries swept the Las Vegas Aces, who had won three of the previous four titles, becoming the first expansion team to reach the Finals within its first two seasons, per ESPN.

One reason it worked: the WNBA hadn't added a team since the Dream in 2008. That left a backlog of good players who couldn't find roster spots, and Golden State scooped them up in the expansion draft.

The secret sauce is defence

If you only remember one thing about this team, make it this: they make scoring miserable. The Valkyries had the league's best defensive rating this season, and Paine ranks it the sixth-best defence ever relative to the league average.

You saw it Saturday. Atlanta led 56-51 after three quarters, then shot 2-for-20 in the fourth, per ESPN. Golden State had 10 blocks and seven steals as a team, according to the WNBA.

Coach Natalie Nakase, the 2025 Coach of the Year, learned this stuff as Becky Hammon's lead assistant on the 2023 Aces. Then she used those lessons to knock off her old team in the semis.

A team of second chances

This roster is full of players who had to wait for their shot. Veronica Burton barely got minutes in Dallas, was waived before the 2024 season and came off the bench in Connecticut. Left unprotected in the expansion draft, she landed in Golden State, became a starter and won Most Improved Player in 2025.

Gabby Williams was always known more for defence than scoring. This postseason she's averaging 22.7 points, and she scored 26 in Game 1, including the clinching free throws. Afterward, she said the Valkyries had the Dream "right where we wanted them," because it came down to stops. "That's our bread and butter," she said, per ESPN.

Why you should care, even if you don't live in the Bay

The Valkyries are proof that the WNBA's talent pool is deep enough to build a contender fast. And their home arena, Chase Center, a.k.a. "Ballhalla," is a fortress: Golden State has won all five home playoff games this year and had the league's best home record in the regular season, per ESPN.

Atlanta isn't going away, though. The Dream had won 10 straight before Saturday, and coach Karl Smesko blamed one bad defensive stretch and a cold fourth quarter rather than anything Golden State did.

What's next

Game 2 is Monday at 6 p.m. MT in San Francisco (USA, Peacock and CNBC). Then the series moves to Atlanta's State Farm Arena for Game 3 on Wednesday at 6 p.m. MT and Game 4 on Saturday, Oct. 24 at 11 a.m. MT.

Two years ago this team didn't exist. Now it's one win from heading to Atlanta up 2-0.