At the end of her postgame press conference after the Valkyries’ 90-88 revenge win over the Indiana Fever, Natalie Nakase’s eyes quickly scanned the room.

“You guys, that was a little different tonight, right?” she asked. 

That’s probably the closest the serious, tunnel-vision head coach will get to acknowledging something special might be brewing. 

Because Thursday night at Chase Center felt different from the opening tip through clutch time, when a new closing lineup emerged. It felt louder — which is hard to top because Ballhalla is always roaring — and meaner. The boos rained down on Caitlin Clark (16 points on 3-for-12 shooting and five turnovers) every single time she held the rock and hunted for contact. The chirps on the court carried over from last week’s 90-82 loss in Indiana. And this time around, according to Nakase, her team executed its adjusted game plan “to a T.”

When the game tightened late, when Indiana even took the lead, the Valkyries didn’t splinter.

Veronica Burton made sure of that. She reminded everyone exactly who she is in the process. 

The Valkyries point guard delivered her best performance of the season, finishing with 25 points, six rebounds, three assists, and five blocks. She served as the primary defensive assignment on Clark in the first half before switching her attention to Kelsey Mitchell. Burton dictated the game from the opening minutes, setting the Valkyries’ pace in transition and attacking Clark downhill. 

“We were super intentional about how we were coming out and not waiting for them to punch first,” Burton said. “I think we went out and made things happen on both sides.”

That tone-setting was night-and-day from last Friday’s loss at Gainbridge Fieldhouse, when Clark, Mitchell, and Aliyah Boston each got to their spots and combined for 61 points. The Valkyries did nothing to help their case that night in sending the Fever to the free-throw line for 29 free throws that evening while slipping into bad habits on the offensive end.

Thursday looked entirely different, and Burton was at the center of it all.

The point guard repeatedly broke down Indiana’s guards off the bounce, scored through contact, got to the foul line, and knocked down daggers with a hand in her face — over Clark, too, reminiscent of their old Northwestern-Iowa matchups. Defensively, it wasn’t just her ball pressure up top, but a career-high five blocks and trust in Kiah Stokes to clean up messes behind her. Stokes added four timely blocks. 

“I think V’s leadership really took a big leap today,” Nakase said. “I felt she really controlled the tempo … She was poised and fearless every moment.”

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The Valkyries needed every bit of her fearlessness for the win over a relentless Indiana attack. Mitchell, one of the quickest, shiftiest players in the league, burst into the lane time and time again, while Clark weaponized her ability to pull up from deep by drawing 3-point fouls.

But every time Indiana threatened to seize control with a swing, the Valkyries willed an answer. That answer often came from Janelle Salaün. 

The second-year French forward looked fully revived after a string of four difficult shooting games, scoring 19 points on 7-of-12 shooting while drilling three triples in 24 minutes. Her energy completely changed the second unit and she took second-half minutes from Kayla Thornton.

Gabby Williams added 19 points, six assists, and three steals while going at Clark whenever the defensively challenged star switched onto her.

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But the most intriguing development of the night arrived midway through the third quarter, when Justė Jocytė checked into a tie game after sitting the entire first half. 

She’d been sent to pedal on the stationary bike off to the right of the bench to stay loose, without knowing exactly if, when, or for how long her number would be called. 

Then, Nakase called it with 6:37 to go in the third. The Valkyries needed more ball-handling. Matchup-wise, there was a place in the lineup for her fluidity and vision in the pick-and-roll.

The rookie, who joined the team for the first time in New York last week but has only practiced four times since and doesn’t yet know the full playbook, immediately justified Nakase’s decision.

Within a minute of entering, Jocytė took one dribble, stepped back, and buried a 3-pointer in Clark’s face. She later  forced a deep shot from Clark that missed the rim completely on the other end and threaded a pick-and-roll pass to Stokes for a layup. And overall, Jocytė looked comfortable. Unnervingly comfortable, really, for a 20-year-old completely new to this team and league, playing as high-leverage minutes as you can find in the fourth quarter inside what sounded like the loudest environment in the WNBA. 

“It says a lot,” Burton said. “It’s not easy — one, being a rookie in this league, two, coming off the bench in this league, three, not playing a ton in the first half then finding a way to immediately impact the game.”

“Her composure is something I’ve noticed from the moment she came in.”

That composure may be the answer to some lineup questions early in the season. Because by the end of the game, Nakase found something fascinating with her closing group in the squad’s first clutch scenario of the season.

It was Burton, Williams, Salaün, Stokes, and Jocytė. Then in the final minute, Kaila Charles in for defense and Jocytė for offense. 

But that main group has the size to switch, plenty of ball-handling weapons to survive pressure, and the unselfish playmaking to avoid turning to isolation-heavy possessions. These closers could be what the Valkyries might look like at their highest level: long guards, defensive versatility, playmaking, physicality, and grit.

At 6-foot-2, Jocytė has the potential to change the geometry of the halfcourt offense. She’ll pull defenders out to the corner in a way that Charles doesn’t always, although she can hit, too. The newcomer also sees angles off the pick-and-roll that other guards just cannot. 

Even though Nakase wasn’t sure about Jocytė’s conditioning, she trusted her anyway. 

“I really appreciate the trust,” said Jocytė (3 points, 2 assists in 16 minutes).

The Valkyries spent nearly the entire first third of their inaugural season last year experimenting with lineup combinations. Early on, the rotation changed from a game-to-game basis. Roles evolved constantly. Nakase tends to empower whoever has the hot hand and the group that is most synced up and efficient defensively. 

Thursday night’s win offered the clearest evidence yet that exploring this team’s depth, that goes 1-11 when fully healthy (as it is right now) is producing something meaningful. 

“We’ll just do whatever it takes to win,” Nakase said. “The best thing about our team is nobody cares who gets the minutes, nobody cares who gets the shots, nobody cares who gets the shine.” 

The collective buy-in showed up everywhere in a game that would easily take the podium as a top-three victory in the Valkyries’ short history. 

It showed up in a team-defensive effort on Clark. It showed up in Burton sending out the reminder that she can get big buckets, too, not just facilitate the offense. In Jocytė staying ready after going into the night unsure if she’d even play. And in Nakase’s conviction in a new, potent closing lineup.

It was a different feeling, indeed.