Every WNBA team’s biggest question for the stretch run

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Aug 25, 2025; Chicago, Illinois, USA; Las Vegas Aces center A’ja Wilson (22) looks to pass the ball against the Chicago Sky during the second half at Wintrust Arena. Mandatory Credit: Kamil Krzaczynski-Imagn Image

Apologies for sounding like the person who says, “can you believe summer is over already?” but the WNBA regular season only has a few more weeks remaining. Let’s have a closer look at each franchise’s biggest storyline as they head into the final games of the year…

Did Minnesota’s stretch without Phee make the team even stronger?

Over the seven games without leading MVP candidate Napheesa Collier, the Minnesota Lynx went 5-2 with two wins against the New York Liberty and the only two losses coming against New York and the second-place Atlanta Dream. How did they do it? By building a roster full of players who can step into the limelight on any given night.

In those seven games, they had four different leading scorers in Courtney Williams, Kayla McBride, Alanna Smith and Bridget Carleton. They also saw some big performances outside of those starters, including a historic triple-double by Jess Shepard in which she shot 10-for-11 from the field to go along with 10 assists and zero turnovers in a victory over the Indiana Fever. In the same win against Indiana, backup point guard Natisha Hiedeman went 6-for-10 with 17 points.

The importance of Minnesota’s trade deadline acquisition of guard DiJonai Carrington during Phee’s seven-game can’t be overstated. She is averaging 18 minutes, 8.4 points, 2.3 rebounds. 1.1 assists. 1.1 steals and shooting 46.9% since arriving in the Midwest. In Minnesota’s first non-Phee win over New York, Carrington went 6-for-10 with 15 points and picked up six rebounds, three assists and two steals.

Carrington provides added depth in the backcourt that the Lynx previously didn’t have. Diamond Miller, who was sent to Dallas in the trade, was playing less than 10 minutes per game, which put an immense strain on the Lynx’s veteran backcourt. Now, head coach Cheryl Reeve can mix and match the defensively-gifted Carrington based on certain matchups and give Williams, McBride or Carleton extra rest if needed.

There is something beyond the box score that the former Sun/Wings guard has added to the Lynx during the past seven games. Call it an extra edge. Her aggressiveness on defense makes the No. 1 defense even harder to play against, and her speed in transition forces opponents to pay attention to her at all times.

During Phee’s absence, the Lynx saw even more proof that they can lean on just about anyone on a given night. Just what the rest of the WNBA didn’t want to see: The first-place Lynx becoming even deeper and more confident.

In Collier’s first game back, she went into full MVP mode with 32 points in a win over Indiana but depth center Maria Kliundikova played an enormous role in the with by shooting 6-for-7 with 13 points and three rebounds in 14 minutes. Even with Phee back, it’s someone different every night for the Lynx.

Are the Dream the biggest threat to the Lynx?

In three games against the Dream, the Lynx lost two by less than five points and won in overtime. Why does Atlanta specifically give them problems? The first reason is size. Usually the Lynx can play Alanna Smith and Collier or Shepard against teams with bigs and find ways to slow them down, but the Dream’s frontcourt is a handful. In the Lynx’s first loss to Atlanta, Brittney Griner dominated with 22 points on 8-for-13 shooting, and in the most recent games Brionna Jones was +22 in 25 minutes and had four blocks.

The one area on the stat sheet where Minnesota does not thrive is rebounding. They are sixth in rebound rate. Atlanta? First.

Usually, the Lynx do such an incredible job of restricting their opponents’ passing with on-ball pressure that the bigs have trouble getting the ball inside. Minnesota is No. 1 in assists per game allowed and No. 2 in turnovers forced. The Dream, however, have the third-best assist-to-turnover ratio.

Atlanta also plays at the second slowest pace in the WNBA and commits the fewest fouls. Simply put: They cut down on their opponents’ opportunities to score against them. Not to mention that star guard Allisha Gray is putting together her most efficient season with a 54.0% effective field-goal percentage, a career high.

The Dream still have more questions than the Lynx. Can Rhyne Howard improve on her 34.8% field-goal percentage down the stretch? Will Griner have enough in the tank for a long playoff run? Can Naz Hillmon give them enough consistently off the bench to provide depth for Atlanta?

Minnesota is still the better team, but Atlanta’s improvement this year to a legitimate contender has been impressive.

A’ja Wilson saved the season – can she keep doing it?

It doesn’t take a microscope to find the turning point in the Aces’ season: Their 53-point loss to the Lynx on August 2 sparked something in them that has led to nine straight victories. That spark has mostly been A’ja Wilson deciding that she will not be denied. Since the blowout against the Lynx, Wilson is averaging 26.2 points per game with 12.7 rebounds along with 2.5 assists, 1.5 steals, 1.8 blocks and is shooting 49.3%.

Can they keep it going and make an argument that they belong in the discussion with Atlanta, Phoenix and New York as the top teams behind the Lynx? We can be pretty confident that Wilson isn’t going to slow down because she was already averaging 21.6 points per game during the rocky first part of the season, but if they are going to keep rolling, then some other things will need to fall into place.

Part of the turning point in Las Vegas’s season was Becky Hammon bringing Jewell Loyd off the bench. When you consider that Loyd was the WNBA’s leading scorer two years ago, it’s pretty wild to think about her as a bench player, but it has worked. Though she had a tough game against the Sky on Monday, during the first nine games of Vegas’ win streak, she posted 13.1 points per game on 43.3% shooting and averages 3.0 3-point makes per game. Before August 2, Loyd was making just 37.5% of her shots and posting 10.8 points per game.

The biggest issue the Aces have had in recent years is their lack of depth. Loyd coming off the bench doesn’t change that, but it redistributes it. Now there is less drop off when starters come off the floor. They very rarely have more than one typical bench player on the floor at once.

The acquisition of NaLyssa Smith has also been key. Smith is adding 8.1 points per game on 55.7% shooting, which is the depth scoring the Aces were missing. In 185 minutes on the floor together, Smith, Loyd, Wilson, Jackie Young and Chelsea Gray are +58.

So even though they have needed Wilson to play superwoman during this 10-game win streak, the Aces have sorted some things out in recent weeks and they are back to being a contending team. Do they have enough depth to truly compete? That’s hard to say. They will need someone else to take a step into the limelight if they are going to make it all the way through the playoffs. The most obvious candidate should be Kiersten Bell, who has been starting and getting more minutes recently but she is only shooting 33.8% as a starter and averaging 5.4 points per game. That isn’t going to be enough.

Can Kahleah Copper find her groove before the playoffs?

The Mercury have a case for being one of those teams that can threaten the mighty Lynx in the playoffs, especially since Alyssa Thomas has put together another MVP-caliber season and they added depth with DeWanna Bonner. But they aren’t likely to go far unless they get the version of Kahleah Copper that won a championship with Chicago a few years ago. Copper dealt with injuries to begin the season and didn’t play her first game until June. There was a tough stretch when she came back in July when they lost six of seven games with her in the lineup.

While they have mostly gotten back on track in terms of wins/losses, Copper is only averaging 13.1 points and shooting 37.8% from the field in her last seven games. Her scoring has ranged anywhere from 25 against Golden State to six versus Las Vegas in a 22-point loss. Her free-throw attempts are also down significantly from last year (5.6 per game to 3.2 per game).

The Mercury aren’t a high-flying, sharp-shooting team overall, ranking seventh in points per 100 possessions and eighth in team field-goal percentage. They very likely can’t play like that offensively and run through the postseason, and most of the other players on the team are maximizing their talent, particularly unproven starters like Kathryn Westbeld and Monique Akoa Makani. Copper is the player who can push them forward.

What’s going on with Sabrina’s shooting?

The New York Liberty have rarely been at full strength this season, missing Jonquel Jones for a long stretch early in the year and then recently playing without superstar Breanna Stewart. That is a pretty easy explanation for why they haven’t been as untouchable as they might have appeared after acquiring Natasha Cloud. However, another reason for their inconsistency this season has been the troublesome shooting by All-Star guard Sabrina Ionescu. She is making just 30.4% of her 3-point shots this season, a career low, and she’s made just 25.8% of threes since the beginning of August.

There is one glaring area where Ionescu has to stop shooting if her percentages are going to come back to life: The deep ball. She has taken 67 3-pointers from between 27 and 32 feet away from the basket and made just 17 of them. While everybody loves the “logo three,” these attempts haven’t gone in for Ionescu in a long time. Over the last two years, she is just 38-for-143 (26.5%).

Her regular 3-pointers haven’t been as good as usual either. You might be able to chalk that up to taking less ideal shots or shooting more off the dribble with fewer stars on the floor but her 3-point percentage on 22-27 foot threes dropped from 44.9% in 2023 to 35.1% last year and has continued to sink.

Where Ionescu has been effective shooting the ball is the mid-range jumper. She is making 48.1% of shots between 10 feet and the 3-point line on 108 attempts. Of course she shouldn’t replace all of her 3-point attempts with mid-range shots but there might be a couple opportunities per game for her to take old school jumpers if they are there.

Overall, there shouldn’t be a ton of panic about the Liberty because Stewart is expected to return to a team that just added one of the most efficient players of the last decade in Emma Meesseman, but Ionescu attempts an average of 16 shots per game and seven 3-pointers. If those aren’t going in at a high rate, it will be tough for them in the playoffs when the margins for error are small.

Do the Fever have too many injuries to contend even if Clark returns?

The Fever entered this season with hopes of the big Year 2 jump behind the 2024 No. 1 overall pick, but Caitlin Clark’s injury hasn’t allowed us to find out how high their ceiling could have been. They were getting through her absence with occasional pops from players like Aari McDonald and Sophie Cunningham, but they are also both out with injuries as well, leaving the Fever to be carried by Kelsey Mitchell, Aliyah Boston, Natasha Howard and the intermittent hot shooting night from Lexie Hull.

The results have been OK because Boston and Mitchell have both played like stars. Boston is fifth in the WNBA in win shares and Mitchell is ninth behind a career-high 20.7 points per game and 45.4% shooting. Howard is also shooting 55.4% and averaging 11.5 points per game.

But behind them, the Fever’s depth is bleak. They added veterans Shey Peddy and Odyssey Sims out of desperation to fill a backcourt spot. Both have experience but are replacement-level players at this point in their careers. The frontcourt has very little depth since DeWanna Bonner’s exit. Damiris Dantas is playing 12 minutes per game and shooting under 35% from the field, and she’s the most used backup post player.

If Clark returns and comes out firing on all cylinders, the star power of Clark, Boston and Mitchell alone could make Indiana a contender for a single playoff series, but it’s hard to believe that they would have enough to contend with teams that are much deeper. That’s the best-case scenario. It stands to reason that it would be a major challenge for Clark to fit right back into the mix seamlessly at the beginning of the playoffs after being out for such a long time. Mitchell has become the ball-dominant player, averaging 3.4 assists per game (up from 1.8 last year). Her role in the offense would have to change after months of playing this way.

Could Malonga’s emergence reshape the playoffs?

Remember when people called the 2024 draft class “historic?” It looks like they were off by a year. The 2025 draft has produced incredible results at the top, particularly considering the recent emergence of No. 2 overall pick Dominique Malonga. After being brought along slowly to start the season, she is averaging 12.7 points, 7.4 rebounds and shooting 61.3% since July 24. Those numbers don’t even tell the whole story because her best games are breathtaking. The 6-foot-6 rookie has three games with 20 or more points, 70% field-goal percentage and at least nine rebounds.

One of the impressive parts of Malonga’s game is that she doesn’t need to be right underneath the basket to score. She is shooting 28-for-65 between 5-15 feet away from the bucket, which is good enough to force opponents to play her closely away from the paint.

The Storm have been a middling team all season, hovering around .500 with some occasional spurts of excellence. But they only just began leaning on one of their most dangerous weapons. Malonga was only playing 10.1 minutes per game through the end of July. Since the start of August, she’s been on the floor for 21.0 minutes per game. In that span, they have played a bunch of tight games with contenders, falling to Minnesota by four points, losing twice to Las Vegas by a total of six points and beating Atlanta.

Even with Malonga starting to shine, Seattle still has serious offensive issues, ranking ninth in 3-point percentage and ranking last in percentage of points from the free-throw line, but if she continues to explode like she has done over the last month, the Storm could be an intriguing underdog in the postseason.

Is Golden State strong enough to hang onto a playoff spot?

The Valkyries have played grind-it-out basketball in their inaugural season. They are struggling to make shots, ranking last in the WNBA in field-goal percentage, but they rank third in offensive rebounding rate and No. 1 in opponent field-goal percentage allowed. Nearly every game is a low-scoring battle. Is that style of play going to be good enough to get them into the playoffs? From week to week that answer seems to be different.

In its last eight games, Golden State ripped off four straight wins to keep the Los Angeles Sparks at bay and then lost three straight and then won on Sunday. It’s possible that those games tell the story of the Valkyries because the wins came against Los Angeles, Connecticut, Washington, Chicago and Dallas, and the losses were against Phoenix (twice) and Atlanta. Out of the Valkyries’ 19 wins this season, two have come against the top five teams.

That doesn’t bode well for their odds if they make the postseason, but it might be OK for their playoff chances. Out of Golden State’s final eight games, only three are against the top-five teams (Minnesota twice and New York). They face Dallas twice, Washington, Indiana and Seattle.

It would be a remarkable accomplishment for the Valkyries to reach the playoffs in their first year as a franchise, though their underlying numbers suggest that they desperately need scoring, which means that it might be better long term if they end up in the draft lottery.

Will Washington’s two rookie stars finish strong?

The Mystics are very unlikely to make the postseason, but it has been a successful season overall considering top draft picks Sonia Citron and Kiki Iriafen turned out to be everything they were expected to be. Citron is averaging 15.3 points per game while shooting over 40% from deep and Iriafen has nearly averaged a double-double. The duo should form the foundation for Washington for many years to come along with No. 6 overall pick Georgia Amoore, who is missing 2025 with an ACL injury.

The rest of the roster, however, does not have many other players who we can expect to be around long term. They traded 2024 top pick Aaliyah Edwards, and Jacy Sheldon hasn’t shown in her short career that she moves the needle. Other young players like Lucy Olsen and Jade Melbourne have only shown occasional flashes. Former top pick Shakira Austin, still only 25 years old, made progress this season but still only played 23 minutes per game.

There is a lot of work to do going forward in order for the Mystics to be a true contender, but a strong finish to the season for their young stars will set the tone going into the future.

The Sparks are the most fun watch in the WNBA – can they play enough defense to make the playoffs?

The most “turn on League Pass right now” team in the W is the Los Angeles Sparks. In the last five games, either the Sparks or their opponent cleared 90 points four times. One of those was a wild 105-97 loss to New York and another was a 44-point game by Paige Bueckers that somehow Los Angeles ended up winning by one point. Overall they are second in points per game and 13th in points allowed. That’s some entertaining basketball.

The up-tempo style has worked in the last two months since the Sparks got healthier. Following their rough opening to the year, they have gone 12-6 since the beginning of July. Central to that success has been second-year forward Rickea Jackson, who is averaging 16.1 points per game and shooting 39.3% from 3-point land since July 1. Before the start of July, she was making only 27.5% from three and scoring 12.0 points per game.

With Kelsey Plum and Dearica Hamby looking like the old Vegas days and Azurá Stevens putting together her best career season (14.1 points per game on 50.3% shooting), the Sparks can score against anybody in the league.

But it’s tough to see them being able to sustain their winning ways while ranking dead last in effective field-goal percentage allowed and 12th in both steals and blocks. The Sparks face a very difficult schedule down the stretch with Atlanta twice, Phoenix twice and the Fever and Storm mixed in.

If they can improve even a little bit defensively they’ve got a shot at the playoffs. Either way, make sure you tune into those games because they are bound to total around 200 points.

The only thing good for Chicago is Reese’s efficiency improvement – will she keep it going?

The Chicago Sky’s season has gone worse than they could have ever imagined as Saturday’s lossn dropped them into a tie for the fewest wins in the WNBA. The one and only silver lining is that Angel Reese has made a significant improvement in her efficiency after an ugly start to the year. Since the beginning of June, Reese is shooting 49.6% from the field and scoring 15.6 points per game.

While that only spans 20 games due to an injury, it does appear to be sustainable as her shot selection has been vastly improved and she has scored on 50% or better of her shots in 11 of those 20 games. Reese is finishing at the basket better with a 51.1% field-goal percentage within five feet of the hoop, up from 44.5% last year. She has also taken only 12 shots between 15 feet and the 3-point line, down from 40 in her rookie season. The All-Star forward is still struggling between 5-10 feet from the hoop at just 10-for-33, but that’s way better than 4-for-36 in 2024.

If Reese can finish the season close to 50% from the field, Chicago should at least feel like she grew as a player in 2025. That’s the only silver lining they can take away.

How much more magic does Paige Bueckers have left in her rookie season?

Here are some fun stats to share at the water cooler on Monday morning: How many guards in the WNBA have a higher win shares per 40 rate than Paige Bueckers? Four. Only Allisha Gray, Jackie Young, Kayla McBride and Kelsey Mitchell are higher – and three of them are ahead of her by 0.01.

How many guards average more points per game than Bueckers? Two. Kelsey Mitchell and Kelsey Plum.

How many guards that take 10 or more shots per game have a higher shooting percentage than Bueckers? Zero.

When you consider how many of her shots have been self-created because of the lack of talent around her, it’s mind blowing to think about the future that Bueckers has in front of her. The No. 1 overall pick has already performed like a franchise player as a rookie and she proved with a 44-point performance that she’s willing to take things into her own hands to give her team a chance.

Dallas can’t fix all of its problems this season, but the franchise can sit back and watch the development of a superstar in front of its eyes for a few more weeks.

How will the young Connecticut players finish the season?

The Sun came away from last year’s draft with two quality prospects in Aneesah Morrow and Saniya Rivers. What they have in common is that both need development on the offensive side of the ball. Morrow is shooting 38.4% and is just 16-for-60 from 3-point land, and Rivers is making 41.4% of her shots overall and 32.3% from deep.

Both have looked like they could be quality starters at times during their rookie seasons, but they need more work. Down the stretch, they should be playing as many minutes as possible to give them any/all opportunities to improve.

Thanks for reading the Her Hoop Stats newsletter. We’re excited to announce a new partnership with Hudl. Hudl’s industry-leading tools – Sportscode, Instat, and Fastmodel – elevate the preparation, performance, and player development of WNBA and NCAA teams. We appreciate their support and look forward to working with them to help bring more insight about the women’s game to you.

You can find me on Bluesky and HHS on Bluesky, Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram.