The race for WNBA postseason seeding remains tight.<\/p>\n
The No. 4 seed Phoenix Mercury suffered a surprising 87-84 loss to the already-eliminated Connecticut Sun on Saturday, dropping them half a game behind the surging Las Vegas Aces for third place. The Mercury, who had been neck and neck with the 13-game-win-streak Aces, fell to 27-15.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the Golden State Valkyries \u2014 who clinched a playoff berth Thursday in their historic inaugural season \u2014 lost ground after falling to the top-seeded Minnesota Lynx. The red-hot Lynx extended their lead to XX games over the second-place Atlanta Dream, while the Valkyries dropped XX games back in the standings.<\/p>\n
Updated WNBA Playoff Picture<\/p>\n
Standings After Saturday’s Games:<\/p>\n
Minnesota (33-9)Atlanta (28-14)Las Vegas (27-14)Phoenix (27-15)New York (25-17)Golden State (23-19)Indiana (22-20)Seattle (22-21)<\/p>\n
Projected First-Round Matchups (If Season Ended Today):<\/p>\n
No. 1 Minnesota vs. No. 8 SeattleNo. 2 Atlanta vs. No. 7 IndianaNo. 3 Las Vegas vs. No. 6 Golden StateNo. 4 Phoenix vs. No. 5 New York<\/p>\n
Clinched Seeds<\/p>\n
Minnesota Lynx
With just two regular-season games remaining, the Lynx have clinched the No. 1 seed and are now focused on staying healthy heading into the postseason.
If the playoffs began today, Minnesota would face the No. 8 seed Seattle Storm in the opening round. The teams split their season series 2-2, with the Lynx dropping the most recent meeting \u2014 a 93-79 loss at home.<\/p>\n
Remaining schedule: at Indiana (Sept. 9), vs. Golden State (Sept. 11)<\/p>\n
Atlanta Dream
Atlanta holds a slim half-game lead over Las Vegas for the No. 2 seed. With only two games left \u2014 both against the struggling Connecticut Sun \u2014 the Dream are in a strong position to maintain their seeding.<\/p>\n
Remaining schedule: vs. Connecticut (Sept. 8), at Connecticut (Sept. 10)<\/p>\n
Las Vegas Aces
Winners of 13 straight, the Aces sit just half a game behind Atlanta and have three remaining games. Led by reigning MVP A’ja Wilson, Las Vegas holds the tiebreaker over both Atlanta and Phoenix.<\/p>\n
Remaining schedule: vs. Chicago (Sept. 7), vs. Chicago (Sept. 9), at Los Angeles (Sept. 11)<\/p>\n
Phoenix Mercury
In a three-way battle for the No. 2\u20134 seeds, Phoenix slipped to fourth after a surprising loss to Connecticut. Without the tiebreaker advantage over either Las Vegas or Atlanta, the Mercury will need to win out and hope for help.<\/p>\n
Remaining schedule: vs. Los Angeles (Sept. 9), at Dallas (Sept. 11)<\/p>\n
New York Liberty
The defending champions are locked into fifth place for now, sitting 1.5 games ahead of the sixth-place Valkyries. With two games remaining against already-eliminated teams, the Liberty are looking to finish strong after a rocky stretch.<\/p>\n
Remaining schedule: vs. Washington (Sept. 9), at Chicago (Sept. 11)<\/p>\n
Golden State Valkyries
Golden State clinched a playoff berth in its inaugural season but face a tough finish aiming to hold on to the sixth seed, with two of its final three games against top-seeded Minnesota. The Valkyries will have to keep an eye out for the Fever who could be gunning for their sixth place position.<\/p>\n
Remaining schedule: vs. Seattle (Sept. 9), at Minnesota (Sept. 11)<\/p>\n
Elimination Scenarios<\/p>\n
Indiana Fever
The Fever sit seventh and are close to clinching a playoff spot despite losing star rookie Caitlin Clark for the season. At 22-20, they’re just half a game ahead of Seattle.<\/p>\n
If Indiana wins both: They finish 24-20 and clinch the No. 7 seed.If they split: A 23-21 finish would still secure the seventh spot.If they lose both: At 22-22, they risk being passed by Seattle if they win their remaining game and Los Angeles (19-22) if the Sparks finish 3-0.<\/p>\n
Remaining schedule: at Washington (Sept. 7), vs. Minnesota (Sept. 9)<\/p>\n
Seattle Storm
Seattle is currently eighth and needs a win in its final game to solidify a playoff spot. The Storm are half a game behind Indiana but hold only one more opportunity to impact their fate.<\/p>\n
If Seattle wins and Indiana loses both, the Storm would claim the No. 7 seed.If Seattle loses, Indiana retains its position, and the door opens for Los Angeles who would need to win all three remaining games and have the tiebreaker advantage.<\/p>\n
Remaining schedule: vs. Golden State (Sept. 9)<\/p>\n
Los Angeles Sparks
The Sparks must win all three remaining games to finish 22-22 and have a shot at sneaking into the playoffs. They hold the head-to-head tiebreaker over both Seattle (3-1) and Indiana (3-1), making a clean sweep their only path forward.<\/p>\n
Remaining schedule: vs. Dallas (Sept. 7), at Phoenix (Sept. 9), vs. Las Vegas (Sept. 11)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The race for WNBA postseason seeding remains tight. The No. 4 seed Phoenix Mercury suffered a surprising 87-84…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":124013,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,82,630],"class_list":{"0":"post-125649","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-wnba"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125649","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=125649"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125649\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/124013"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=125649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=125649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=125649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}