ATLANTA — Maybe it was kind of simple, in the end. In the postgame press conference, Gabby Williams made it seem like there was one true reason the Valkyries got blown out in Game 6.

“Ball pressure, especially,” Williams said. “Also, you set the tone with the physicality when you punch first. When you are aggressive at the beginning and you try to be later, that's when fouls start getting called. That's when you're out of position.”

The Dream went off for a 32-point first quarter and though the Valkyries got within 8 points in the fourth, they were never truly back in the game.

The Dream were shooting 24.8% from 3-point range in the Finals before Thursday. It’s unlikely they go on a run quite like that again, especially on the road, but it also has to be concerning for the Valkyries that they started so poorly.

“Just more frustrated me really,” head coach Natalie Nakase said. “Unacceptable, our poor start. It was just more frustration.”

Golden State forced a ton of turnovers in their wins in Games 4 and 5, and will likely come out of the gate aggressive looking to do that again in Game 7. The Dream hadn’t done much even with open shots before Game 6, but suddenly were hitting even contested ones on Thursday.

Is that sustainable? Maybe, maybe not. But not being aggressive on defense is a recipe to give the series away.

“We didn't quit,” said point guard Veronica Burton. “Games 2 and 3 were ugly, we quit and we looked bad. We didn't quit on this one. We were still in the game. Yeah, we didn't give ourselves a good position to start out the game but we feel good.”