OAKLAND, Calif. -- When the doors at the Sephora Performance Center opened on Friday morning, and media were allowed into the gym to watch the end of the Atlanta Dream's last practice ahead of the 2026 WNBA Finals, star guard Allisha Gray was running through a full-court drill with the starters.
While that was a positive sign, Gray's status for Game 1 against the Golden State Valkyries on Saturday remains uncertain due to a hand injury she suffered in the semifinals. Gray, whose 19 points per game led the Dream in scoring and ranked ninth in the league, said after practice that she's still "day-to-day." Dream coach Karl Smesko said a decision on whether Gray will suit up will be made close to tip-off, which is set for 3:30 p.m. ET at Chase Center.
"My hand feels good. Today in practice was really my first day of actually being able to have a full practice, go through contact and stuff like that," Gray said. "Right now I'm still day-to-day and then we're gonna see how my finger reacts to how practice went today and we'll see tomorrow."
Gray, who still had the pinky and ring fingers on her left shooting hand taped together, said she doesn't think about her finger when she's on the court, and was "just so happy" to be able to "run up and down the court and be able to shoot." She added that the medical staff will ultimately make the final call on whether she'll play.
"I think she's looking good, making progress," Smesko said. "I don't need to see anything from her. If she's able to go, we'd love for her to go."
Gray recently underwent a "minor" procedure on her left hand after she injured it during Game 1 of the semifinals against the New York Liberty. Specifics regarding her injury and the timing and extent of the procedure remain unclear.
Early in that contest in Brooklyn, she deflected a pass from Sabrina Ionescu. After a short trip to the locker room, Gray returned to the game with tape on her fingers. Her first shot was a bad miss from 3-point range, so she removed the tape. In the second quarter, she made another nice defensive play on Ionescu, but aggravated the injury in the process and has not played since.
Despite Gray's absence, the Dream swept the Liberty in three games to advance to the WNBA Finals for the first time since 2013.
Dream's title chances may hinge on Gray's availability
"Allisha's one of the best players in the W," Dream coach Karl Smesko said Tuesday. "To advance and beat a great New York team basically without her, except for 10 minutes of one game, is a testament to everybody else raising their game. But it would be great to have her back for the Finals. She's just somebody that, offensively, is really hard to stop, and then she makes defensive plays. She's just an all-around great player."
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The Dream's ability to beat the Valkyries and win the first championship in franchise history may hinge on Gray's availability. Jordin Canada, DeWanna Bonner and Isobel Borlase were spectacular in the semifinals against the Liberty, but it's a big ask for them to repeat these performances:
Canada had three of the five-highest playoff scoring performances of her career against the Liberty, and averaged 22.3 points on 62.2/61.5/100 shooting splits -- up from 11.6 points on 43.1/29.2/78.2 shooting in the regular season.
Bonner went for 15.3 points and 8.3 rebounds on 50/46.7/80 shooting splits, up from 10.4 points and six rebounds on 40.2/27.9/84.3 shooting between the Phoenix Mercury and Dream in the regular season.
And Borlase, who only had six double-digit scoring games in the regular season, came off the bench to chip in 11 points in Game 2 and 10 points in Game 3 while shooting 9 of 15, including 3 of 6 from 3-point range.
The Valkyries have the best defense in the league by a wide margin, and just shut down A'ja Wilson and Jackie Young in a sweep of the Las Vegas Aces. Even acknowledging the Valkyries' own issues on offense, it's hard to imagine how the Dream would be able to score enough points to beat them without Gray.
While Gray will clearly not be 100% if she suits up, having an All-WNBA-caliber talent on the floor that the Valkyries have to respect would make life far easier for the Dream.
