SEATTLE — The Seattle Storm hosted the Golden State Valkyries at Climate Pledge Arena on Friday night, May 8, in a preseason meeting that put a rebuilt roster and a much-anticipated debut in the same spotlight. Flau’jae Johnson was expected to see plenty of playing time and make her WNBA debut against Golden State.
Seattle came in with a new-look lineup and was missing most of last season's scoring core, a reminder that the Storm are spending this stretch sorting out who carries the offense while Awa Fam remains overseas and Ezi Magbegor deals with injuries. Johnson had already flashed in preseason, scoring 12 points against Golden State and then 20 against Portland in her next game, which gave the night a little more edge than a typical exhibition.
The game also carried some familiar matchup history. Last season, the Valkyries and Storm stayed under the total in all four head-to-head meetings, and both teams entered Friday with profiles that pointed in the same direction. Golden State finished 2025 above.500 despite ranking 10th in offensive rating, 10th in points per game and last in pace, while relying on a third-ranked defensive rating to stay competitive. Seattle finished eighth in offensive rating and eighth in points scored, a figure that reflected how much of the burden had sat on its top scorers.
Johnson’s arrival adds another layer because Golden State drafted and traded her on draft night, then watched her land in a Seattle uniform for the first time under game conditions. That made the preseason debut about more than one scoreline. It was also a look at how the Valkyries would handle one of the players they moved on from, and how Seattle would use her in a rotation still being shaped by absences and uncertainty.
For Seattle, the bigger question is whether the offense can hold together long enough for the roster to settle. Dominique Malonga, a 6’6 second-year center, logged fewer than 15 minutes per game as a rookie but showed what she could do with a heavier workload, averaging 18.6 points and 9.6 boards in five games when she played at least 25 minutes. In a preseason setting, those minutes matter as much as the final score, because the Storm are trying to find reliable production while key pieces remain unavailable.
Golden State was also short-handed, with Illiana Rupert and Juste Jocyte out. The absences on both sides left Friday's game closer to a test of depth and tempo than of full-strength firepower. That is part of why the matchup drew attention before tipoff: a slow game, limited scoring depth and an under that had been sitting in plain view from the start. The only thing left was to see which team could live in that kind of game better.
