The Golden State Valkyries allow just 31.4 points per game in the paint, the fewest of any defense in the WNBA.

With only one true center and a bunch of forwards and wings in a trench coat playing the five, that is a remarkable feat. On paper, the Valkyries do not have the kind of frontcourt that should dominate the paint defensively. They regularly give up size, have asked players to defend outside their natural positions and have relied on a rotation that can look different from one night to the next.

Yet it has worked. More than that, it has become one of the strengths of one of the WNBA’s best defenses.

So how have they pulled it off?

It starts with Kiah Stokes.

Stokes is having a career-best season defensively with a league-best 96.1 defensive rating, according to Basketball Reference, while playing more minutes than she has since she started every game for New York in 2020. She has given the Valkyries the traditional rim protector they otherwise lack and has provided cover for a defense built around aggression everywhere else on the floor.

Kayla Thornton, meanwhile, is coming off an All-Star season in which she missed the entire second half with a knee injury and has returned as one of Golden State’s most important defenders. Playing primarily at the four, Thornton has been excellent defensively, even if some of that work has come at the expense of her offense.