{"id":902155,"date":"2026-09-19T22:06:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-19T22:06:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/902155\/"},"modified":"2026-09-19T22:06:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-19T22:06:11","slug":"wnba-playoff-bracket-2026-and-seeding-scenarios-for-updated-picture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/902155\/","title":{"rendered":"WNBA Playoff Bracket 2026 and Seeding Scenarios for Updated Picture"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium mui-m06sf4\">Although the eight 2026 WNBA playoff teams were already decided entering play on Saturday, there was still plenty of room for movement in terms of seeding.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium mui-m06sf4\">Three playoff teams were set to be in action Saturday with the Dallas Wings hosting the Phoenix Mercury, the Atlanta Dream hosting the Chicago Sky and the Golden State Valkyries hosting the Seattle Storm.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium mui-m06sf4\">Here is a look at where the top eight teams in the WNBA currently sit in the standings amid Saturday&#8217;s slate of games, as well as a snapshot of what the first-round playoff matchups would be if the season ended today.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium mui-m06sf4\">2. Golden State Valkyries: 30-11 (1.0 GB)<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium mui-m06sf4\">3. Las Vegas Aces: 28-13 (3.0 GB)<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium mui-m06sf4\">4. Atlanta Dream: 27-14 (4.0 GB)<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium mui-m06sf4\">5. Indiana Fever: 27-14 (4.0 GB)<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium mui-m06sf4\">6. Dallas Wings: 26-16 (5.5 GB)<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium mui-m06sf4\">7. New York Liberty: 25-16 (6.0 GB)<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium mui-m06sf4\">8. Washington Mystics: 25-16 (6.0 GB)<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium mui-m06sf4\">Current WNBA 1st-Round Matchups<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium mui-m06sf4\">1. Minnesota Lynx vs. 8. Washington Mystics<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium mui-m06sf4\">4. Atlanta Dream vs. 5. Indiana Fever<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium mui-m06sf4\">2. Golden State Valkyries vs. 7. New York Liberty<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium mui-m06sf4\">3. Las Vegas Aces vs. 6. Dallas Wings<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium mui-m06sf4\">Saturday Recap and Scenarios<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium mui-m06sf4\">Led by superstar guard Paige Bueckers, the Wings jumped from the No. 8 seed to the No. 6 seed on Saturday, at least temporarily.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium mui-m06sf4\">Dallas began the day in a three-way tie with the New York Liberty and Washington Mystics at 25-16. By beating the Mercury 87-82, the Wings are now a half-game ahead of New York and Washington at 26-16.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium mui-m06sf4\">Bueckers was excellent and efficient as usual on Saturday, scoring a game-high 26 points on 10-of-19 shooting to go along with five assists, four rebounds and three steals.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium mui-m06sf4\">When play started on Saturday, Dallas was lined up for a first-round playoff matchup against the top-seeded Lynx, but it would now take on the No. 3 Las Vegas Aces if the season ended today.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium mui-m06sf4\">Led by four-time WNBA MVP A&#8217;ja Wilson, the Aces are the reigning WNBA champions, and they have won three of the past four titles.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium mui-m06sf4\">It is far from guaranteed that the Wings and Aces will meet in the first round, though, as the Wings still have two regular-season games remaining, while the Liberty and Mystics have three each.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium mui-m06sf4\">With a win in their game against the Sky at 7 p.m. ET, the Dream will remain fourth in the standings, but they will move within a half-game of the third-place Aces.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium mui-m06sf4\">However, should Atlanta lose to Chicago, it will drop into fifth place, a half-game behind the Indiana Fever.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium mui-m06sf4\">In the 9 p.m. ET game, the Valkyries can cut the Minnesota Lynx&#8217;s lead for the No. 1 seed from one game to a half-game with a victory over the Storm.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium mui-m06sf4\">Should Golden State lose to last-place Seattle, it will remain in second, 1.5 games behind the Lynx and 1.5 games ahead of the Aces.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Although the eight 2026 WNBA playoff teams were already decided entering play on Saturday, there was still plenty&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":902156,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,82,630],"class_list":["post-902155","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/902155","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=902155"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/902155\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/902156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=902155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=902155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=902155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}