Hello, hoopheads! Friday was a night unlike any other this WNBA season, as multiple non-playoff teams won games against playoff teams for the first time in 2026. The first loss was the more surprising of the two, for a variety of reasons, but the biggest one is that the Portland Fire (16-23) put a straight up whooping on the Atlanta Dream (25-14) in a 101-83 rout on Atlanta’s home floor. Carla Leite led the way with 26 points while Emily Engstler had 25 and the pair combined to go 20-for-34 (58.8%) from the field as the Fire snapped a three-game skid overall and a seven-game losing streak against playoff teams, who they’d been winless against since a win at Washington on July 16. Washington (24-16) was, in fact, the second playoff team to fall to an opponent that won’t be heading to the postseason last night, although the Mystics’ loss was quite a bit less decisive than the Dream’s. Washington let an 11-point halftime lead and late 76-72 edge slip away in an eventual 88-82 loss to the Los Angeles Sparks, who got 24 points from Nneka Ogwumike and 15 from Rae Burrell, who…sparked…LA’s game-ending 16-6 run. Perhaps the Dream were caught looking ahead to either the World Cup break or their showdown with the Lynx tomorrow, or the Mystics simply ran out of gas on the tail end of a back-to-back which was also their 12th game in 24 days. Whatever the reason for the stumbles, they were just the seventh and eighth wins for non-playoff teams over playoff teams since July 13 (playoff teams are 57-8, .877 since then), as well as the 26th and 27th such wins this season (playoff teams are 126-27, .824 against non-playoff teams for the season).
Both of last night’s upsets have the potential to be pretty costly to the playoff teams who took the losses. In Atlanta’s case, it fell out of a tie in the loss column with the Las Vegas Aces (27-13), who have the head-to-head tiebreaker and already would’ve needed to lose at least one game to a non-playoff team — which is all Vegas has left — for the Dream to leapfrog them. That would now need to be two losses in the Aces’ final four games, assuming a perfect finish for the Dream, who have the Lynx coming to town tomorrow and a pair of games at New York to finish the regular season, so it’s pretty safe to assume Atlanta’s ceiling is now the 4-seed. Even attaining that will now require some help, however, since Atlanta fell into a tie in the loss column with the Indiana Fever, who also own the head-to-head tiebreaker and would have home-court advantage against the Dream in the first round of the playoffs if the season ended today. The Fever have a matchup with Washington and a home-and-home against Minnesota to close the season, so there might well be losses left on their schedule, but the Dream certainly would’ve preferred not to need the help. The Mystics loss last night dropped them into a three-way tie in the loss column with the New York Liberty (23-16) and Dallas Wings (23-16). Washington has the head-to-head tiebreaker over the Wings, but not over the Liberty, and a three-way tie would most likely leave New York as the No. 6 seed as a result of all three teams being 3-3 in the head-to-head and the Liberty having the best record against winning teams. If the Mystics win their final game against a winning team (at Indiana), the Liberty will need to win at least two of their three remaining games against winning teams (at Minnesota and the aforementioned games vs Atlanta) to hold on to that edge in the potential three-way tiebreaker, which is certainly easier said than done. But just like Atlanta ceded control of the No. 4 seed to Indiana, Washington had the inside track to the No. 6 seed and now it’s going to have to depend on other teams losing.
It might not take very long for Washington to get that help from New York, however, as the first of today’s two games sees my beloved-but-blood-pressure-elevating favorite squad host the Chicago Sky (15-24) when they visit the New York Liberty (23-16) (1:00 ET, CBS/Skydance+). The Sky are looking to avoid a third straight loss since a season-best three-game win streak which included a 93-86 home win over New York last week. That brought the series to 2-1 in the Libs’ favor following a pair of one-point wins earlier this season, and the Sky followed that up by doing something New York never managed to do this season, beating Golden State. Since then, however, the Sky have lost by 23 points to the Fever and six points at Connecticut. Say what you will about Indiana, but I maintain that the latter of those two losses is the embarrassing one. The Liberty loss on Thursday was also embarrassing, but I wrote plenty about that catastrophe yesterday, so I’ll spare you a repeat. Combined with the loss at Chicago, Thursday’s against the Valkyries gave New York losses in two of the last three games, matching the number of times it had lost in the previous 11. Those losses also marked the third and fourth times New York has had an offensive rating under 105 points per 100 possessions in its last five games. The Libs posted eight ratings of 105+ in the nine games immediately prior to this stretch, and New York is 18-3 (.857) when it has a rating of 105+ compared to 5-13 (.278) when it doesn’t. The two most recent losses also saw the Liberty held to truly miserable offensive ratings that weren’t just below 105, but also below 95, and New York is 1-10 (.091) when it has a double-digit offensive rating this season. I promised not run back yesterday’s rant, but I do have one friendly reminder for the Libs, who went 16-for-67 (23.9%) from deep in those two losses as compared to 36-for-68 (52.9%) inside the arc: you are legally allowed to get the ball into the paint on any and every possession, you fucking knuckleheads.
The second game on today’s schedule sees a couple of non-playoff teams become the sixth and seventh squads to head into the FIBA World Cup break when the Toronto Tempo (11-28) visit the Phoenix Mercury (13-26) (10:00 ET, local affiliates/League Pass). The Tempo are playing for the second straight night and third time in four days after losing at Seattle on Wednesday and Las Vegas last night by margins of 12 and 20 points. Phoenix has dropped four in a row after losing home games vs Washington on Tuesday and Thursday, as well as seven of eight since picking up a win at Chicago in Kelsey Plum’s Mercury debut. The teams split a pair of meetings much earlier this season, with Toronto winning at Phoenix on May 19 and Phoenix winning at Toronto’s Pride night on June 27. The second loss dropped the Tempo to 9-10 on the season, kicking off an ongoing 2-19 stretch since starting their existence 9-9.