• Crucial Game 6 will take place on Thursday afternoon

• Game moved to larger State Farm Arena in Atlanta

• Hawks’ NBA game on same day could not be moved

The Atlanta Dream say their concerns about finding a suitable home venue for the WNBA finals went unheeded as they prepare to play the Golden State Valkyries in a crucial Game 6 on Thursday.

The Dream’s normal home, Gateway Center Arena, has a capacity of about 3,500 people. To accommodate the increased interest in the team during the finals, the Dream have played their two home games so far at the Atlanta Hawks’ State Farm Arena, which can seat more than 17,000 fans.

• WNBA finals Game 5: Dream 55-64 Valkyries

• Golden State lead best-of-seven series 3-2

• Valkyries could win title in second WNBA season

Kiah Stokes kept swatting shots on the interior, while Veronica Burton disrupted the Dream with her own quick hands to alter shots.

And that crazed, violet-clad “Ballhalla” home crowd roared at every chance – watching the Golden State Valkyries move one win away from a championship in their second season with a 64-55 victory against Atlanta in Game 5 of the WNBA finals on Monday night.

• Valkyries-Dream Game 6 to tip at 9.30am on west coast

• Game moved to larger State Farm Arena in Atlanta

• Hawks’ NBA game on same day could not be moved

Game 6 of the WNBA finals between the Atlanta Dream and the Golden State Valkyries will be played at State Farm Arena on Thursday at 12.30pm ET, the league has announced. That means Valkyries fans in California will be watching the game at 9.30am local time.

Dream guard Allisha Gray said it didn’t matter what time the game was played.

The Dream and Valkyries are tied at 2-2 after four absorbing games. Many in America would rather we revisited the national anthem debate

When Tyler Perry leading lady Crystal Renee took center stage at State Farm Arena to sing the national anthem before the Atlanta Dream’s WNBA finals clash with the Golden State Valkyries on Saturday afternoon, a smattering of photographers, game officials and event security took their familiar places around her as the capacity crowd stood for the flag. The teams, as is now customary, spent that time in their locker rooms. As soon as the lights went back up, the teams returned to the floor to resume their shootarounds. Anyone genuinely invested in the finals would have been unfazed by them briefly stepping away – if they remembered it at all after the Valkyries’ 67-62 win tied the series at two games apiece. But for many watching the game, basketball is beside the point.

Seven years ago, Jay-Z declared that the culture had “moved past kneeling” and similar national anthem protests, seemingly sounding the death knell for an era of sports activism that had helped raise awareness of racial disparities as a broader social movement gathered force. The line cemented his partnership with the NFL as the league bowed to political pressure to crack down on anthem protests, with other major US sports eventually following the NFL’s lead. But rightwing media and politicians never got the memo. They’re still making sports a battleground for patriotism, with basketball as the war’s chief casualty.