Valkyries, Dream Set First-Ever WNBA Finals Game 7 Saturday

The score that forced this: Atlanta 80, Golden State 69. The Dream's win Thursday at State Farm Arena squared the WNBA Finals at 3-3 and sent the series back to San Francisco for a decisive Game 7 — the first in the league's history — at Chase Center on Saturday at 8 p.m. ET, according to ESPN.

The stakes are binary. One team ends the season a first-time champion. Thursday's result was decided late when Allisha Gray hit a corner three that sent a "Dream in seven!" chant through State Farm Arena, ESPN reported.

Why is this the first Game 7 in WNBA history?

The league moved to a best-of-seven Finals format starting last season, replacing the best-of-five standard used since 2005, per ESPN. Last year's test case never reached a seventh game — the Las Vegas Aces swept the Phoenix Mercury in four. This year's series, which opened Oct. 17 and will close exactly two weeks later, is the first to use the extra games as designed.

Who has the home-court edge?

History points to Golden State. Of the eight best-of-five championship series since 2005 that went the full distance, the home team won six of the decisive games, ESPN reported. Golden State also hosted Games 1, 2 and 5 this series, meaning Saturday marks the fourth trip to Chase Center and the series' fifth cross-country flight overall for the two clubs.

What does each roster bring in title experience?

Both benches carry prior championship pedigree, according to ESPN:

• Golden State center Kiah Stokes has three titles with the Las Vegas Aces; guard Tiffany Hayes shares one of those rings.
• Valkyries forward Kayla Thornton won a championship with the New York Liberty, and Cecilia Zandalasini won one with the Minnesota Lynx.
• Atlanta's DeWanna Bonner has two titles, won with the Phoenix Mercury and the Seattle Storm.
• Dream guard Jordin Canada also has two championships, from the same two franchises as Bonner.
• Atlanta's Shatori Walker-Kimbrough won a title with the Washington Mystics.

Four of those past championships were themselves decided in winner-take-all games, ESPN noted — meaning several players on both sides have been here before, just never in a league-mandated Game 7.

"Winning a championship is not easy, and it's never going to be easy," Dream forward Angel Reese said, according to ESPN. "So we're expected to continue to have to fight. None of us thought it was over."

What is the data box on this series?

• Series score: 3-3 after six games; Game 6 final was Atlanta 80, Golden State 69.
• Format history: Best-of-seven used for the first time last season; the Aces closed that Finals in four games, leaving this year's matchup as the format's first to reach a seventh game.
• Home-team Game 7 record: 6-2 in prior best-of-five decisive games since 2005, per ESPN's count.
• Travel: Five cross-country trips completed by the two teams across the series, with Golden State hosting three of the first six games.

How did the series get to this point?

• Oct. 17: WNBA Finals open with Golden State hosting Game 1.
• Games 2 and 5: Also played at Chase Center, giving the Valkyries three home dates before Saturday.
• Oct. 29 (Game 6): Atlanta wins 80-69 at State Farm Arena behind Allisha Gray's late three, forcing a Game 7 and evening the series 3-3.
• Saturday: Game 7 tips at 8 p.m. ET at Chase Center, closing the Finals roughly two weeks after they began.

What to watch in Game 7

• Whether Golden State's home-crowd advantage holds against the historical 6-2 trend in decisive games.
• How Atlanta's first-quarter execution — the stretch ESPN described as forcing this series to seven games — carries into a road environment.
• Which of the title-tested veterans named above — Stokes, Bonner, Canada, Thornton among them — produces in a single-elimination setting none of them has faced in this exact format.
• Whether the Dream can close out the all-time franchise's or Valkyries' first-ever championship with a result that ESPN analyst Nneka Ogwumike previously described, regarding Atlanta's Game 6 performance, as a "smackdown."

Full coverage, including game analysis and reaction, is available at ESPN.

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