Getting your
Trinity Audioplayer ready...SAN FRANCISCO — Kaitlyn Chen doesn’t play for the spotlight.
She never has.
But against the Dallas Wings on Wednesday, the spotlight found her. And the Valkyries were better for it.
Chen, who went from third-round pick to roster cut to earning a spot on this year’s team, erupted for one of her best games of the season in Golden State’s 91-80 win over the Wings. The former Princeton and Connecticut standout came off the bench and scored 15 points on 7-of-10 shooting in 25 minutes.
It was the kind of night that made coach Natalie Nakase and the rest of the organization look like prophets for believing in her. And in a moment when the Valkyries needed energy, cohesion and someone willing to play with pure, unencumbered joy, Chen – who turned bright red when teammate Gabby Williams said she was fun to play with – might be exactly the spark off the bench that the team has been looking for.
“She has fun when she plays,” Williams said of Chen. “When I’m playing alongside someone who’s celebrating her teammates, who’s celebrating herself, that’s fun to celebrate too. Even when she’s not on the court, you hear her on the bench. She’s always talking during timeouts, and so it just lifts your energy up, and you just feel looser when you play.”
After the first 10 minutes of play, the Valkyries looked like a team that didn’t belong on the floor with the Wings.
Golden State played uncharacteristically, giving up open shots and turning the ball over at inopportune times. They needed anything that would give it a spark.
That spark came in Chen.
The Valkyries went on a 19-0 run in the second quarter, led by Chen’s offensive brilliance.
The 5-foot-9 ball handler got to the rim at will and finished several of her drives with a package of crafty hook shots.
Nothing encapsulated Chen’s pure joy more than her bank shot 3-pointer late in the second.
After Kayla Thornton missed a shot from the left corner, guard Kaila Charles came flying in for an offensive rebound. Charles turned and found a wide-open Chen near the top of the key and the second-year guard shot the ball over the outstretched arms of 6-foot-6 Wings center Awak Kuier.
Chen watched as the ball hit the backboard and bounced safely into the net as she ran back smiling and laughing at what she just saw.
“I feel like they put me in a position to succeed and they kept encouraging me,” Chen said.
Her seven points and two assists in the period were followed by loud cheers from the Chase Center crowd as Golden State’s momentum got bigger with each play that Chen made.
Chen eventually closed the game and was lauded by Nakase for her conditioning after she played 14 straight minutes in the second half.
But even as Chen played arguably her best game of her career on Wednesday, something extra might have been motivating the 24-year-old guard.
Dallas’ roster included two of Chen’s former UConn teammates — Paige Bueckers and Azzi Fudd — and if Chen had any extra motivation, Williams was happy to out her.
“In the locker room she had pictures with X’s on their faces,” Williams said jokingly.
Bueckers was complimentary of her former teammate, telling reporters after the game that Chen has one of the best layup packages she’s ever seen.
“Kaitlyn has always worked hard, and she’s always had it in her. When the opportunity has been given to her, she’s run with it,” Bueckers said. “She’s confident and she affects the game in so many different ways.”
Wednesday’s performance may have reshaped how Nakase deploys her bench going forward.
If Chen can sustain this level of play, she gives the Valkyries another reliable guard and scorer off the bench to complement an already deep roster. It also buys the coaching staff more time and flexibility to develop rookie Justė Jočytė, whom Golden State is converting into a point guard.
For a team with championship aspirations, having a player like Chen emerge as a dependable option is the kind of depth that wins in June and July.
Nakase didn’t need much convincing about what she saw Wednesday.
“It’s a testament to how much she puts into the game,” Nakase said. “There’s just so much behind the scenes you guys don’t see. At the end of the day she showed up tonight and she let everything she worked on flourish.”