{"id":152542,"date":"2025-09-12T23:06:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-12T23:06:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/152542\/"},"modified":"2025-09-12T23:06:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-12T23:06:09","slug":"wnba-playoffs-tip-off-sunday-with-possible-work-stoppage-looming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/152542\/","title":{"rendered":"WNBA playoffs tip off Sunday with possible work stoppage looming"},"content":{"rendered":"

The longest regular season in WNBA history leads right into Sunday\u2019s first playoff games with all eight teams in action. The league is still riding a wave of record viewership and attendance<\/a>, but some dark labor clouds are on the horizon.\u00a0<\/p>\n

There is nothing but sunshine lately in San Francisco, where the expansion Golden State Valkyries are in the tournament. The team sold out all 22 home games this season, establishing a new benchmark for attendance and total fans. They have become the latest symbol of the league\u2019s growth and popularity.<\/p>\n

What are the 2025 playoff matchups?<\/p>\n

The Valkyries face an uphill climb in the first round. The Minnesota Lynx, the top seed with MVP candidate Napheesa Collier, await. They beat Golden State in the regular season finale<\/a> on Thursday by 19 points. The rematch is a best-of-three series, and coach Natalie Nakase has that underdog vibe.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI think all of our players have that type of mentality, you know? I think they like to be doubted,\u201d Nakase said. \u201cThey like to prove people wrong. And I think that\u2019s what\u2019s connected us, too. I think that\u2019s kind of the beauty of our season is that we\u2019ve kind of been connecting on all different levels of past experiences, past trauma, past everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Lynx-Valkyries matchup is the first game of an ABC\/ESPN quadruple header Sunday, featuring all eight playoff teams. The Indiana Fever, without superstar Caitlin Clark<\/a> after a season-ending injury, will take on the Atlanta Dream at 3 p.m. ET. That game will be followed by the defending champion New York Liberty and the Phoenix Mercury. The nightcap features the hottest team in the league, the Las Vegas Aces, hosting the Seattle Storm.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Aces wrapped up their regular season Thursday by winning their 16th consecutive game. They won back-to-back WNBA titles in 2022 and 2023. As MVP candidate A\u2019ja Wilson<\/a> starts to peak at the right time, she believes they will be tough to beat.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt speaks volumes as to how our offense is running,\u201d Wilson said. \u201cObviously, we love to keep the ball popping, and that\u2019s something that Becky harps on a lot. It\u2019s something that we probably struggled with in the first half of the season, which was just ball movement, player movement.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\"QR<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tDownload the SAN app today to stay up-to-date with Unbiased. Straight Facts\u2122.\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPoint phone camera here\t\t<\/p>\n

Will there be a lockout when the playoffs end?<\/p>\n

There has been no movement when it comes to negotiations between the players\u2019 union and the league regarding<\/a> a new collective bargaining agreement<\/a>. The impending deadline of Oct. 31 is just two weeks after Game 7 of the WNBA Finals. If no deal is reached by that time, there could be a work stoppage in the form of an owner lockout. That scenario threatens to undo all the positive momentum the league has produced in the last two record-breaking seasons.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe headline is \u2018lockout!\u2019 and ultimately the goal for everyone is to get a good deal done,\u201d WNBA Players Association president Nneka Ogwumike told ESPN<\/a>. \u201cHopefully, it gets done in the time that makes sense. I don\u2019t think anyone wants to see a lockout. That\u2019s not something that we\u2019re advocating for. We just want to make sure that this is a deal that\u2019s done the right way and using whatever time it takes for us to be able to have both sides agree on something.\u201d<\/p>\n

What is the biggest roadblock to a deal?<\/p>\n

Revenue sharing seems to be the biggest roadblock. The players\u2019 union believes they should receive a percentage of league revenue that grows each year. They also want a dramatically increased salary cap and larger base salaries, which are currently capped at $249,244 per season. Los Angeles Sparks guard Kelsey Plum heard the fan support during the All-Star break and believes that will help the players\u2019 cause.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThat awareness piece,\u201d Plum said<\/a>. \u201cMaybe someone tuned in today that hasn\u2019t seen a WNBA game before or is not super familiar with the climate that is going on and where salaries are at. I know we\u2019re gaining a lot of fans, and it\u2019s extremely important that we educate them on what we\u2019re asking for, why we\u2019re asking for it, where it\u2019s at now, and where it could be.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

That fan support will certainly be there during the playoffs. If the looming deadline doesn\u2019t spur action, the league will head into the offseason with an uncertain future.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tJoey Nunez (Video Editor)\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tand Oly Noneza (Motion Graphic Designer)
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tcontributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The longest regular season in WNBA history leads right into Sunday\u2019s first playoff games with all eight teams…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":152543,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[99,434],"class_list":["post-152542","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152542","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=152542"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152542\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/152543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=152542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=152542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}