Previewing First Round of 2024 WNBA Playoffs

A'ja Wilson #22 of the Las Vegas Aces reacts during the first quarter against the Seattle Storm at Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle on Sept. 17, 2024. Steph Chambers/Getty Images

The 2024 WNBA season was one for the ages, highlighted by record attendances and TV ratings as rookies like Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese meshed with veterans such as A’ja Wilson and Breanna Stewart.

Now, it’s onto the 2024 WNBA playoffs, which began on Sunday and feature the eight teams with the best regular-season records jostling to hoist the WNBA Championship Trophy in roughly a month’s time.

Round One will be a best-of-three series, while both the semifinals and WNBA Finals will be a best-of-five series.

The New York Liberty are the No. 1 overall seed after tying their best record in franchise history, while the 3-seed Connecticut Sun are in the postseason for the eighth straight year, which is the league’s longest active streak. Clark and the Indiana Fever nabbed the sixth seed, which ended a seven-year playoff drought, and the No. 8 seeded Atlanta Dream secured the last playoff berth on the final day of the regular season.

Here is a preview of the Round One matchups, which have a 2–1 format in which the better seed will host the first two games, with a potential Game 3 hosted by the team with the worst seed.

No. 1 New York Liberty (32–8) vs. No. 8 Atlanta Dream (15–25)

The Liberty posted the same record they had last year, but instead of ending up as a 2-seed a year ago, they are the top overall seed and will have a rematch with a Dream team that just defeated them on Thursday to lock up a postseason bid. However, the Liberty’s best players saw limited action in that contest, and New York won the first three matchups this season between the two. New York ranked second in scoring, third in points allowed and had the best net rating of any WNBA team as their three All-Stars in Stewart, Sabrina Ionescu, and Jonquel Jones have led them.

However, a concern for New York is that Ionescu is playing through a neck injury that’s affected her production as she averaged 19.8 PPG on 42 percent shooting before the Olympics break but is putting up just 15 PPG on 33 percent shooting since. As for Atlanta, it will certainly take a less-than-optimal Ionescu as the Dream ranked last in the WNBA in scoring this season. However, they have one of the greatest players in league history in Tina Charles—a New York native no less—who is a former league MVP and is the WNBA’s all-time leader in both rebounds and double-doubles.

No. 2 Minnesota Lynx (30–10) vs. No. 7 Phoenix Mercury (19–21)

The Commissioner’s Cup champion Lynx excels at arguably the most important aspect of this era of basketball, and that’s both shooting the 3-pointer and defending from downtown. Minnesota tops the league in both regards, knocking down a league-best 38 percent from deep and limiting opponents to a league-low 30 percent from beyond the arc. Star Napheesa Collier ranked in the top six in points, rebounds, steals, and blocks per game, while coach Cheryl Reeve has already collected four rings and is a three-time WNBA Coach of the Year.

Minnesota went 3–1 versus Phoenix in the regular season, with all three wins coming by double-digits and the one defeat coming by a single point. The Mercury still has two all-time greats in Diana Taurasi and Brittney Griner, but Kahleah Cooper is the engine of the team. The league’s No. 3 scorer will hope for more efficiency in playoff competition versus Minnesota than what she displayed in the regular season as Cooper had 15 turnovers versus just four assists over the four matchups.

No. 3 Connecticut Sun (28–12) vs. No. 6 Indiana Fever (20–20)

This could be the last hurrah for this current group of Sun players after they’ve made two finals appearances and another three semifinals appearances but have won zero rings over the last five seasons. They hang their hats on the defensive end, leading the W in both points allowed and defensive rating. Connecticut has great balance, with six players averaging in double-figures, and while it won the first three meetings against Indiana this season, the Fever claimed the last in late August.

Clark’s WNBA playoffs debut will come against the same opponent she made her WNBA debut versus in Game One. The rookie infamously had 10 turnovers in that 21-point defeat, but she—and her team—have bounced back in a big way.

After starting the year 3–10, Indiana finished the regular season on a 17–10 run and boasted the highest home attendance in the league. But with the hosting format of the 2024 WNBA Playoffs, the Fever won’t get to play at home unless they win one of the first two games, and that could be huge. No playoff team had a bigger difference between their home and road records than Indiana which won 60 percent of its home games compared to 40 percent of its road games.

No. 4 Las Vegas Aces (27–13) vs. No. 5 Seattle Storm (25–15)

The defending champion Aces will have a tougher road to navigate to repeat as they were the No. 1 overall seed a year ago. A big reason for the drop-off was due to Chelsea Gray being hurt for the first part of the year as the team was 7–6 when she was sidelined, compared to the Aces being 20–7 with her on the floor.

You can’t talk about the Aces without praising Wilson, who had arguably the greatest season in WNBA history as she led the league in total points, rebounds and blocks, broke the league’s single-season scoring mark, and had the second-highest player efficiency rating in WNBA history.

Vegas won the season series 3–1, though Seattle’s leading scorer in Jewell Loyd didn’t play in one of the losses and scored a single point in another. The Storm are the league’s most active team defensively, ranking first in both steals and blocks. They also have as experienced a trio as any team possesses as Loyd, Nneka Ogwumike and Skylar Diggins-Smith have all made at least six All-Star teams.

It will be interesting to see how Seattle plays without the leadership of Sue Bird, who retired after the 2022 season. Bird has been on the court for all 60 of the postseason games in Storm franchise history, and after the team missed the playoffs in her first year of retirement last year, it begins a new playoff era this year.