{"id":155220,"date":"2025-09-19T16:21:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-19T16:21:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/155220\/"},"modified":"2025-09-19T16:21:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-19T16:21:07","slug":"new-wnba-playoff-format-delivers-excitement-boosts-competitiveness-in-opening-round","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/155220\/","title":{"rendered":"New WNBA playoff format delivers excitement, boosts competitiveness in opening round"},"content":{"rendered":"

The WNBA\u2019s new 1-1-1 playoff format in the best-of-three first round is \u201cdelivering the excitement, high stakes and extra basketball the league intended by giving every team at least one home game,\u201d with three of the four series reaching Game 3, according to Cassandra Negley of YAHOO SPORTS. The switch of venues \u201cevens the tables\u201d more than keeping the first two games at the better seed\u2019s house. Previously, Game 3 went to the lower-seeded team\u2019s court, an \u201cissue in its own right.\u201d Negley noted these are not \u201cthe days of the top two seeds earning automatic byes to the semifinals.\u201d Instituting charter flights early in the 2024 season<\/a> allowed the league to switch its format from 2-1 to 1-1-1, a change Commissioner Cathy Engelbert said at her Finals address a year ago that the league had \u201cwanted to make since the COVID-19 pandemic season.\u201d As the league continues to tweak its structure, it \u201cshould look at the layout of the playoffs moving forward.\u201d That becomes \u201cespecially important\u201d with five more teams entering the league by 2030<\/a>. Moving back to a conference-based format \u201cmight help, though it could lessen the increased competitiveness gained by moving away from it in the 2010s.\u201d Negley wrote the \u201cone thing the league nailed in this was its appreciation of fans\u201d (YAHOO SPORTS, 9\/18<\/a>). <\/p>\n

ONLY UP FROM HERE: USA TODAY\u2019s Armour & Hall writes the only complaint with this \u201cfantastic first round is that it isn\u2019t long enough.\u201d The WNBA has \u201coutgrown\u201d the best-of-three format for the quarterfinals. The closely contested games and impressive individual performances are \u201call the argument you need for the league going to a best-of-five format.\u201d Aces coach Becky Hammon said, referring to the lower seed hosting the first two games in previous year, \u201cYou go best-of-five if you\u2019re not going back to the old format. This setup, I prefer a five-game series.\u201d The first round has \u201cbeen wild, it\u2019s been chaotic, it\u2019s been stressful. Most of all, it\u2019s been a whole lot of fun.\u201d The rest of the WNBA playoffs \u201chas a lot to live up to\u201d (USA TODAY, 9\/19<\/a>).<\/p>\n

CHANGING FORMAT: CBSSPORTS.com\u2019s Lindsay Gibbs noted 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. The top four seeds advanced to the semifinals all three years. It led to some \u201cvery boring first-round series that dulled the excitement of the playoffs\u201d and caused the WNBA to \u201close momentum and attention that it captured during the regular season.\u201d It is \u201cunlikely that this format change will lead to a ton of first-round upsets,\u201d but the playoffs \u201caren\u2019t just about the last team standing; they\u2019re also about the magical moments along the way.\u201d And Tuesday night was \u201cpure magic.\u201d The new format added a \u201cmuch-needed jolt of excitement to the first round,\u201d and it was not 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. Gibbs: \u201cLet\u2019s hope that in a few weeks we get to experience to full impact of that change, too\u201d (CBSSPORTS.com, 9\/17<\/a>).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The WNBA\u2019s new 1-1-1 playoff format in the best-of-three first round is \u201cdelivering the excitement, high stakes and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":155221,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,81630,82,630,4143],"class_list":["post-155220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-fan-experience","tag-sports","tag-wnba","tag-womens-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155220","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=155220"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155220\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/155221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}