By CNN
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After a long, history-making WNBA season that featured a break for the Paris Olympics, the postseason is finally here.
Eight of the league’s 12 teams have earned the right to fight for a championship ring, with storylines emerging in all four matchups.
Here’s everything you need to know about each first round games playoff series.
How to watch
First round series are best of three games and all get underway on Sunday, September 22, with the playoffs being broadcast on ABC, ESPN and ESPN2.
Full Game 1 schedule (away @ home)
No. 8 Atlanta Dream @ No. 1 New York Liberty – 1 p.m. ET, ESPN
No. 6 Indiana Fever @ No. 3 Connecticut Sun – 3 p.m. ET, ABC
No. 7 Phoenix Mercury @ No. 2 Minnesota Lynx – 5 p.m. ET, ESPN
No. 5 Seattle Storm @ No. 4 Las Vegas Aces – 10 p.m. ET, ESPN
Top-seeded Liberty take on No. 8 Dream
Postseason action kicks off with a rematch of a game that took place on the final day of the regular season, as the New York Liberty face the Atlanta Dream.
Atlanta defeated New York in a must-win game on Thursday to sneak into the playoffs with a 15-25 record, one game ahead of the Washington Mystics, who also won on the final day.
Dream center Tina Charles became the WNBA’s all-time rebounding leader during the game, and told reporters that the result was never in doubt.
“We came here with our bags packed,” said the 35-year-old. “We knew we’d take care of business. For us, honestly, the playoffs had started maybe like a week ago just because of the situation that we had been in.”
The Liberty did not have much to play for on Thursday, given that the squad had already wrapped up the No. 1 seed for the second time in franchise history two days prior.
New York was one of the WNBA’s eight founding teams but is the only remaining franchise of those eight to have not won a championship. It has been on the losing side in the WNBA Finals on five occasions, most recently against the Las Vegas Aces last year.
Led by 2024 All-Stars Breanna Stewart, Sabrina Ionescu and Jonquel Jones, the Liberty finished with a league-best 32-8 record – the only team to finish with single-digit losses – and secured homecourt advantage for the playoffs.
With their loaded roster, the Liberty are the overwhelming favorites in this round one matchup. New York ranked second in team points per game with 85.6, while the Dream were dead last with 77.0.
Caitlin Clark set to make her playoff debut as Fever clash with the Sun
Superstar rookie Caitlin Clark has been one of the stories of the WNBA season.
She has set an abundance of records in a campaign that is likely to win her the Rookie of the Year award, including the single-game and single-season assist records. She also knocked down 122 three-pointers over the course of the year, the most by a rookie ever and only six shy of the record set by Ionescu in 2023.
After a spectacular rookie season, Clark will now be tested by the trials and tribulations of the postseason for the first time. It has been a remarkable turnaround for her Indiana Fever squad, which opened the year at 3-10 but hit form after the Olympic break to finish with a 20-20 record and the sixth seed.
“Just really proud of their growth, their resiliency,” Fever head coach Christie Sides said after the team’s final game against the Mystics. “They went to work, they got better.
We didn’t have the time early, but they just kept getting better as the season progressed.
“They deserve the opportunity to play in these playoffs.”
Indiana will take on the third-seeded Connecticut Sun, who ended the year at 28-12, the most wins in franchise history.
The Sun boast the best defensive rating in the league, while the Fever are ranked 11th in this regard.
“We wanna win so bad,” Connecticut guard Dijonai Carrington said after the team’s final regular season game against the Chicago Sky. “Offense doesn’t stop our defense, and I think that’s what we’ve hung our hat on all season … We lock down on defense, we make it difficult for other teams.”
Mercury battle Lynx in what could be Diana Taurasi’s last dance
We could be about to watch a WNBA icon take to the court for the last time.
After the Phoenix Mercury’s 89-70 loss against the Seattle Storm on Thursday, the league’s all-time leading scorer Diana Taurasi addressed the home crowd as retirement rumors continue to swirl.
The 42-year-old was drafted first overall by the Mercury in 2004 and has spent her entire WNBA career with the franchise. She is a former MVP, a three-time WNBA champion, six-time EuroLeague champion, six-time Olympic champion, an 11-time WNBA All-Star and is widely considered to be one of the best women’s basketball players ever.
“I want to thank every single coach, every single player, every single person that’s put on a WNBA jersey because it takes a village and our league is about uplifting each other,” she said in the emotional speech. “And, in return, to see where we are now, 28 years later, for the ones who played before, this league is where it is now, we’re thankful for you guys, and we’re thankful for the next generation.
“If it is the last time, it felt like the first time,” she added.
Phoenix fans will get at least one more opportunity to see Taurasi perform on home court – the seventh-seeded Mercury will clash with the No. 2 Minnesota Lynx in the first round.
The Lynx finished only two games behind the Liberty and have been on fire since the Olympic break. Minnesota has won 13 of its last 15 games, with one of the losses coming in the final game of the regular season against the LA Sparks, where head coach Cheryl Reeve opted to rest her starters.
The team is led by four-time All-Star Napheesa Collier, who averaged 20.4 points per game over the course of a stellar campaign.
Aces begin quest for a historic three-peat against Storm
The Las Vegas Aces are attempting to do what only one team in league history has done before – win three straight championships. The Houston Comets won the first four WNBA Finals from 1997 to 2000 before folding in 2008.
Despite winning it all in 2022 and 2023, Las Vegas is certainly not the favorite heading into the postseason and could only manage the fourth seed for the playoffs.
“It was so hard to win the first one and then: ‘OK, we’ve got to come back another year,’” Aces point guard Chelsea Gray told CNN last month. “And it’s even harder to win the second one. And then we come back and they don’t expect us to win the third one. It’s going to be even harder to try to achieve that.
“We try to take it one game at a time because, if you lose focus on the smaller picture, then the big picture never happens.”
Fortunately for Las Vegas, they have one of the best players in the world on the roster. A’ja Wilson is fresh off a regular season where she averaged a league-high 26.9 points per game and broke the single-season records for both scoring and rebounding. A third career MVP award is a near certainty.
Standing in the Aces’ way is the Seattle Storm. The four-time champions are led by the multiple-time All-Star duo of Nneka Ogwumike and Jewell Loyd and closed out the season with a win over the Mercury.
The Storm are part owned by franchise legend Sue Bird – the former point guard holds the record for the most WNBA All-Star selections with 13 and played her entire 20-year career with Seattle.
