On paper, the WNBA playoffs began on Sunday, when all eight teams took to the court for a quadruple-header of Game 1s. But, in spirit, the postseason really began on Tuesday night, when the No. 6 Indiana Fever and No. 7 Seattle Storm pulled off big upsets over the No. 3 Atlanta Dream and No. 2 Las Vegas Aces, respectively, to push both first-round series to a deciding Game 3. 

It was an absolutely electric night of basketball that saw shorthanded Fever — who lost two-time All-Star Caitlin Clark and four other players to season-ending injuries this year — win their first playoff game since 2015 by absolutely dismantling the Dream in front of 16,682 raucous fans at Gainbridge Fieldhouse. The Storm, meanwhile, pulled off a stunning fourth-quarter comeback to snap the Aces’ 17-game winning streak in front of 12,500 Storm Crazies at Climate Pledge Arena.

And it was all made possible by a format change in the offseason.

In 2022, when the WNBA switched the first round of the playoffs back to best-of-three series, the league implemented a 2-1 format, meaning the top seed hosted the first two games, and the lower seed hosted the deciding Game 3, if it came to that.

That meant that only the top four seeds in the playoffs were guaranteed a home playoff game. The result? The top four seeds advanced to the semifinals all three years, and the underdogs were only able to force three Game 3s out of twelve series — two in 2022, one in 2023 and none last year. That’s nine teams that made the postseason and didn’t get to celebrate the achievement in front of their home fans. 

And worse than that, it’s led to some very boring first-round series that dulled the excitement of the playoffs and caused the WNBA to lose momentum and attention that it captured during the regular season.

But this offseason the WNBA changed the first round to a 1-1-1 format, meaning the top seed would host Games 1 and 3, and the lower seed would be guaranteed a home Game 2. This change was made possible in large part by the league’s new charter flight program, which made travel between games much easier.

To be clear, it’s unlikely that this format change will lead to a ton of first-round upsets, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing; the latter rounds of the playoffs are more compelling and competitive if the most talented teams advance. But the playoffs aren’t just about the last team standing; they’re also about the magical moments along the way. And Tuesday night was pure magic.

Just listen to the atmosphere in Indianapolis when Fever guard Shey Peddy deflected Naz Hillmon’s inbound pass, Kelsey Mitchell secured the turnover and swung it to Aliyah Boston who found a wide open Lexie Hull who nailed a 26-foot three-pointer to beat the buzzer and give the Fever a 15-point lead heading into the fourth quarter.

And soak in the roar in Seattle as 19-year-old rookie Dominique Malonga hit the and-1 to cap off a 20-8 run that improbably tied the game at 83 with just 31 seconds remaining.

After Malonga hit the free throw to put the Storm ahead for the first time since the second quarter, Skylar Diggins iced the win with a jump shot with 4.2 seconds left in the game. The electricity in the arena was palpable through the television screen.

“It was so loud in here I couldn’t hear myself, and that’s the atmosphere that they’ve had all year for us regardless of how we play,” Diggins said postgame. “This city has always been very supportive and they have been very supportive of us this year. That’s why we were very concentrated on the type of effort that we wanted to come out with tonight. And obviously our goal is to come back here for another home game. But definitely the Storm Crazies have been very supportive of us all year. In the biggest moment when we needed them to be, they were the loudest. We appreciate everybody that supported us. We wish we could bottle that up and take some of that on the road with us.”

There are two more Game 2s on Wednesday night — the No. 8 Golden State Valkyries will host the No. 1 Minnesota Lynx, and the No. 5 New York Liberty will host the No. 4 Phoenix Mercury. The Lynx won Game 1, and will have a chance to get the sweep, while the Liberty, who beat the Mercury on the road in Game 1, will have a chance to become the first team to knock a top-four seed out of the playoffs in the first round since the 2022 change. 

Even if we don’t get a repeat of Tuesday night’s heroics, this change to a 1-1-1 format will still be worth celebrating. Because yes, every team that makes the playoffs deserves a chance to play in front of their fans. But also, the playoffs are all about overcoming adversity, so we want to see top seeds deal with hostile environments.

“They packed the house. They were really loud,” Dream head coach Karl Smesko said after Tuesday’s loss. “It gives them a home-court advantage but that’s going to be wherever we go. It’s the playoffs — it’s going to be packed, it’s going to be loud. We gotta play through anything that happens in the game.”

The good news for the Dream and the Aces? On Thursday night, they’ll have the crowds back on their side. 

“I think it is a confidence boost having your home fans backing you, but I just think there is an excitement about going into an elimination game knowing how poorly we played (Tuesday),” Dream forward Naz Hillmon said. “And like coach said, I’m not just going to say Indy didn’t do anything to make us play poorly, but I think we are going to be able to make some adjustments and it’s nice when those 3s finally do fall and we are getting a lot of cheers from our home crowd.”

The new format added a much-needed jolt of excitement to the first round, and it wasn’t the only playoff format change in the offseason. The WNBA Finals went from being a best-of-five series to a best-of-seven series for the first time in league history. Let’s hope that in a few weeks we get to experience to full impact of that change, too.Â