Sunday marked the first night of the 2025 WNBA playoffs, as all four series tipped off. The Athletic brings you highlights and analysis from the opening day of action.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Liberty survive thriller<\/p>\n
Natasha Cloud felt hurt when the Phoenix Mercury traded her this past offseason. She spent the 2024 campaign in Phoenix, starting 38 games and feeling so connected to the organization that she spent time last winter at Unrivaled trying to recruit Satou Sabally to the Mercury.<\/p>\n
If Cloud still felt any pain six months after the offseason deal, she channelled it well on Sunday in Game 1 of New York\u2019s first-round WNBA playoff series against Phoenix.<\/p>\n
Cloud finished the fifth-seeded Liberty\u2019s 76-69 overtime win over the Mercury with 23 points, tying her season-high. Her nine field goals were the most she\u2019s hit since joining New York. She added six rebounds, five assists and a game-high four steals while trying \u2014 largely successfully \u2014 to keep Phoenix star Kahleah Copper in front of her on defense.<\/p>\n
Liberty coach Sandy Brondello<\/a> said that Cloud was \u201cmassive\u201d on both ends of the floor.<\/p>\n \u201cShe made some really timely shots and she controlled the game for us,\u201d Brondello said.<\/p>\n Whether Cloud can replicate her performance will be all the more important on Wednesday in Game 2. Breanna Stewart suffered a left leg injury with 3:01 to play in overtime while making a contested layup.<\/p>\n Brondello did not have an update on Stewart postgame, only saying that the Liberty\u2019s star forward, who finished with 18 points and six rebounds, will undergo an evaluation \u201csoon.\u201d Stewart missed a month of the season with a right knee bone bruise in late July. She returned on Aug. 26, playing in New York\u2019s final seven regular-season games.<\/p>\n Stewart played 54 more seconds after the injury before asking to be subbed out, Brondello said, as New York led by seven points. \u201cWe\u2019ll just be hoping that she\u2019ll be OK,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n On the possession after Stewart went to the bench, Cloud split a pair of free throws. Cloud\u2019s final assist of the night, on New York\u2019s ensuing trip down the floor, was to Leonie Fiebich for a game-sealing 3-pointer.<\/p>\n Phoenix coach Nate Tibbetts wasn\u2019t exactly surprised by Cloud\u2019s outing. \u201cShe\u2019s kinda done this traditionally throughout her career. She steps up in the playoffs,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n That\u2019s an understatement.<\/p>\n Cloud has averaged 12.7, 11.5 and 10.1 points per game in her last three regular seasons with Washington, Phoenix and New York, respectively. Albeit in small samples, she averaged 18.5 points per game in both the 2023 and 2024 playoffs, improving her field goal percentage as well. She\u2019s off to another good start.<\/p>\n The Mercury dared Cloud to beat them from the perimeter, going under ball-screens. Cloud has seen defenders give her space all season. Nine times this season she has attempted multiple 3s but hit none. Yet, Cloud remained confident in the playoff opener with her new team. Now she has made multiple 3-pointers in each of her last four postseason games, the longest streak of her playoff career.<\/p>\n With Stewart\u2019s status uncertain, even more could be on Cloud\u2019s shoulders when the series flips to Brooklyn.<\/p>\n \u201cTip her hat,\u201d Tibbetts said. \u201cShe had a hell of a game.\u201d<\/p>\n Aces breeze to 17th consecutive victory over Storm<\/p>\n They may be facing off in the first round of the playoffs, but Las Vegas and Seattle were hardly competitors Sunday. The Aces had no problem dispatching the Storm to take a 1-0 lead in the best-of-three series. Their sights are grander; they are chasing history.<\/p>\n With a 102-77 win over Seattle, Las Vegas has now won 17 games in a row, spanning the regular season and postseason, for the second-longest combined winning streak in WNBA history. Only the Los Angeles Sparks have had a longer streak, when the franchise won 18 straight games during the 2001 regular season (which ended in a title) and another 18 in a row from the end of the 2002 regular season through the postseason and into the start of 2003.<\/p>\n The Aces have had three one-possession wins during this run, one coming against the Storm on Aug. 8. It was hard to reconcile that Seattle team with the one that laid an egg Sunday at Michelob ULTRA Arena.<\/p>\n Seattle fell behind by 10 less than five minutes into the game and made a short-lived rally to close the gap to five in the second quarter. A\u2019ja Wilson found Gabby Williams switched onto her on the ensuing possession, scored with ease and the rout was back on. Las Vegas\u2019 defense, which has been the weaker side of the ball this season, limited the Storm to 25 first-half points, the team\u2019s lowest total in a half in franchise history.<\/p>\n \u201cComing out locked in on the defensive end, that\u2019s the biggest thing for us,\u201d Jackie Young said postgame.<\/p>\n The Aces have never lost a first-round playoff game under coach Becky Hammon. They have won six consecutive postseason games against the Storm, dating to a 3-1 series win in the 2022 semifinals. They scored their fourth-most points in franchise playoff history, third most in a regulation game. And none of their starters played 31 minutes with a closeout game in Seattle looming Tuesday.<\/p>\n Lynx dominate \u2026 for three quarters<\/p>\n It took the Minnesota Lynx just over a quarter to adjust to what was at stake in Sunday\u2019s WNBA playoff game against the Golden State Valkyries. The Lynx surely hope the first 10 minutes of their best-of-three series with the Valkyries are their worst of the series. Golden State jumped out to a seven-point lead after one quarter at Target Center, scoring 28 points and making 5 of 8 3-pointers. Then, as great teams tend to do, the Lynx shook off the rust. Their defense stiffened. Their offense came alive.<\/p>\n \u201cThey still go through being disappointed in themselves, but it doesn\u2019t last long,\u201d coach Cheryl Reeve said. \u201cI think that wisdom that the crew has gained along the way applies there.\u201d<\/p>\n Minnesota won 101-72, leading by as many as 36 points in the second half. Sans the first quarter, the Lynx\u2019s performance reminded spectators why they have been the league\u2019s best team all season.<\/p>\n The Lynx demonstrated why the Valkyries, who are playing in their first season, have a tough road ahead against the championship contenders. Collier, an MVP candidate, scored the first basket in each half en route to a game-high 20 points on 7-of-11 shooting. She was one of five Lynx players to score in double digits, including 17 points from Kayla McBride and 18 points from Natisha Hiedeman off the bench.<\/p>\n playoff spark. \ud83d\udca5 pic.twitter.com\/301S8jeCYv<\/a><\/p>\n
After clinching home-court advantage at the end of August, the Lynx spent the last few weeks of the regular season fine-tuning for a playoff run, sometimes resting Napheesa Collier and Alanna Smith in the waning games. With only eight losses at that point, they went 3-2 in the lead-up to Game 1.<\/p>\n