Atlanta Dream star Allisha Gray underwent a "minor" procedure on her left shooting hand to address an injury she sustained during the semifinals against the New York Liberty. It's unclear when the procedure took place, and her status for Game 1 of the 2026 WNBA Finals against the Golden State Valkyries on Saturday is still up in the air.
"Right now I'm day-to-day, I had a minor procedure," Gray said Tuesday in an interview with WSB-TV. "Progress is great, so as of right now I'm just day-to-day, and you'll see."
Gray, whose 19 points per game in the regular season led the Dream and ranked ninth in the league, was injured early in Game 1 against the Liberty when 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.
Allisha Gray left the game vs. the Liberty with an apparent hand injury. pic.twitter.com/K6KqroXsyG
— ESPN (@espn) October 4, 2026
Despite Gray's absence, the Dream swept the Liberty in three games to advance to the WNBA Finals. Gray was on the court Tuesday, taking part in shooting drills during the portion of the Dream's practice that was open to the media. She had her left ring and pinky fingers taped together.
Rhyne Howard and Allisha Gray are making their #WNBA finals debut this weekend. Gray who missed several games with a left hand injury is going through shooting drills you can see her left ring finger and pinky tapped together. #atlantadream pic.twitter.com/pTKHeEO623
— Alison Mastrangelo (@AlisonWSB) October 13, 2026
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.
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