Game 6 of WNBA Finals set for State Farm Arena at 12:30 p.m. EDT Thursday

Game 5 is scheduled for 8 p.m. EDT on Monday night in San Francisco.

Valkyries coach Natalie Nakase downplayed the difficulty of adjusting to the early tipoff for Game 6.

“What’s amazing is we’re always prepped for anything,” Nakase said. “So we’ve already scheduled. Made it really intentional. Main thing, rest and recover as best we can. We’ve had six games in 10 days during the regular season. So yeah, it’s really not affecting us. It’s just more we can control what we can control and that’s rest and recovery.”

Added Nakase when asked about remaining grounded through the series: “I just think we’re built for this. I think you can throw anything at our team, our organization, and we’re built for it. We like things that are hard for some reason. We love challenges.”

Because the State Farm Arena court will have to be changed for Thursday night’s Hawks game, the floor may have to be cleared quickly even though it could be a celebration for a series clinching win.

“We’re not really thinking about that right now,” Golden State guard Veronica Burton said. “Just focus on this game today and again, control what we can control. So right now it’s just Game 5 mentality.”

By playing Game 6 in State Farm Arena, the Dream can have more than 17,000 fans as opposed to their normal home of Gateway Center Arena, which seats about 3,500. Games 3 and 4 were sold out.

“Super excited that the game will be at State Farm,” Atlanta guard Jordin Canada said. “The crowd has shown up and showed out.”

Dream coach Karl Smesko said the only thing that would change with the early tip was that neither team would have a shootaround.

“I don’t care if we’re playing at 8 a.m., 10 p.m., midnight, we got a championship to win,” Dream guard Allisha Gray said.

It was the third time in the series that the WNBA made accommodations for the Dream to be able to play at the bigger arena. Game 3 was moved up a day to last Wednesday and Saturday’s contest started at 1 p.m. EDT so the Hawks could still host their home opener that night against Houston.

That game was moved back 30 minutes to allow more time for the arena staff to change the building over for the Hawks contest. Now there potentially could be a champion crowned that day so there will be more time between games.

“When we were done (changing the court after Game 4), I texted our CEO and I said ‘Hey, if you need us to do it again, we’re ready to go,’” State Farm Arena chief facilities officer Amanda Mann said.

The NBA and WNBA explored options to keep the game in primetime. Both the Hawks and Cavaliers play Wednesday night, so they couldn’t play their game in the earlier time slot Thursday.

Playing the game with the afternoon start time isn’t ideal for anybody. It will be tough to sell out the arena and ratings will most likely be lower with the early start. The game will tip at 9:30 a.m. local time in San Francisco.

While the league didn’t know until last Saturday that there would definitely be a Game 6 played in Atlanta, a contingency plan could have been put in place a long time ago by Engelbert and NBA Commissioner Adam Silver. The eight playoff teams were known in early September, before the women’s FIBA World Cup break.

Part of the issue is that unlike the Valkyries, who are controlled by Golden State Warriors owner Joe Lacob, the Dream and Hawks are owned by different groups. Also with NBC and USA Sports broadcasting the games this year, WNBA Finals games are on different nights.

In the past, games wouldn’t be played on a Monday night — like Game 5 will be — because of the NFL contract that ESPN has. They also wouldn’t be played on a Saturday, the day that Games 3 and 7 would be played, because of ESPN’s college football contracts.

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See AP’s full WNBA coverage here

Doug Feinberg, The Associated Press

by The Canadian Press

Game 6 of WNBA Finals set for State Farm Arena at 12:30 p.m. EDT Thursday

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