Hello, hoopheads! The playoff race continued to heat (and tighten) up on Friday, albeit with there now being a bit more separation between the top three teams in the prospective bracket and the other five. There is absolutely no separation to be found among those five, however, with two of them currently tied for fourth in the WNBA standings and the other three tied a half-game behind them. The Friday result which did the most to tighten the standings was the Washington Mystics (18-12) beating the Atlanta Dream (19-12) by a 79-74 margin to pull the Dream down into a tie with the Indiana Fever for fourth place, and pull themselves back up into a virtual tie with my beloved New York Liberty (19-13). The Dallas Wings (19-13) were part of the Fever-Dream tie at the moment the Mystics finished off their win, but they finished the night in the Mystics-Liberty tie after being beaten pretty handily by the Golden State Valkyries (22-9), who pulled back into a second-place tie with the Las Vegas Aces (22-9). Those two teams sit 2.5 games behind the Minnesota Lynx (25-7) and three games ahead of the Fever and Dream, with the entire eight-team field separated by six games (the same number of games which separate the Wings/Liberty/Mystics from ninth place).
Washington’s win was its sixth straight, extending its longest win streak since its lone championship season in 2019 while clinching the head-to-head tiebreaker over the Dream thanks to a 2-1 edge in the season series. The Mystics held the Dream to a meager offensive rating of 79.6 points per 100 possessions according to Her Hoop Stats, the lowest by one of their opponents since the season-opening rock fight against the Toronto Tempo, who had a rating of 76.5 points per 100 possessions in their inaugural game. Atlanta players other than Allisha Gray (who had 26 points on 11-for-23 from the field) combined to make just 14-of-54 (25.9%) from the field. At the other end of the spectrum were the Mystics’ star trio of Shakira Austin (21 pts, 7-for-11), Kiki Iriafen (15, 6-for-10) and Sonia Citron (14, 5-for-10), who combined for 50 points on 58.1% from the field.
Golden State’s win was its third in a row and 12th in 14 games, which doesn’t seem like it’s a particularly hard trend to identify given that it went nine-game win streak → consecutive losses → three straight wins, and yet everyone on ION last night kept referring to it as their ninth win in 11 games. They weren’t technically wrong to say that, it just left me seriously wondering if anyone there can count to 12 (or, for that matter, 14). The Valks got 22 points on 8-for-13 (61.5%) from the field from Veronica Valkyrie (Burton), who also added 7 assists without a turnover. It’s been a minute since I gushed about V2, in large part because I have been consciously trying not to play favorites — even though I have one — and to also spotlight the likes of Gabby Williams and Janelle Salaün when addressing the Valkyries. That said, it remains my opinion that Burton is the best manipulator of a game’s tempo in the WNBA at the moment, as well as arguably its best point guard. Her 1.5 turnovers per game are just barely on pace to be the lowest mark in league history among players to average at least 5 assists, and they’d easily be the fewest among players to also average at least 10 points per game. Burton’s on pace for the seventh 10/5 season with fewer than 2 turnovers per game, which includes the Wings’ Jessica Shepard also being on pace this season, but none of the other such seasons featured fewer than 1.8 turnovers per game. The five such seasons prior to 2026 also belong to three of the league’s most prolific point guards ever: Sue Bird (2010 and 2018), Natasha Cloud (last year) and Lindsay Whalen (2008 and 2014)
Today’s three-game schedule comes right out of the gate with the main event before tapering off as it progresses, although it’s hard to go anywhere but downhill from a matchup between the league’s top two teams when the Las Vegas Aces (22-9) visit the Minnesota Lynx (25-7) (1:00 ET, CBS/Skydance+). This is the second of three meetings between the teams, with Las Vegas having taken an instant classic by a 100-97 margin when they matched up in Commissioner’s Cup play. Rookie of the Year Olivia Miles was the top scorer despite Minnesota’s loss, finishing with 29 points on 11-for-20 from the field while hitting several big shots as the teams traded haymakers down the stretch. The GOAT A’ja Wilson led Las Vegas with 24 points on 9-for-15 from the field, Chelsea Gray added 23 and Jackie Young had 16 points and 10 assists. Those helpers from Young were a stark contrast to the job the Aces did taking Miles’ playmaking ability away, as they collectively, and Young to a large extent individually, held the bespectacled baller to just 1 assist (one of two times she didn’t have at least 2 so far) while coaxing 6 turnovers out of her (tied for her most in a game).
The Lynx will be trying to bounce back from an 89-82 home loss to the Los Angeles Sparks on Thursday which snapped the longest win streak in the WNBA this season at 10 in a row. Minnesota’s offensive rating of 103.8 points per 100 possessions according to Her Hoop Stats wasn’t bad by any objective standard, but it was the Lynx’s lowest in about six weeks (since being held to consecutive sub-95 ratings by the Mystics in late June) and dropped Minnesota to 5-4 (.556) this season when held to a rating below 105 points per 100 possessions (which is the new 100, tell your friends) while the Lynx are 20-3 (.870) when they have a rating of at least 105. They also lost the two games with their ratings that cleared 105 by the slimmest margins, so perhaps the most accurate way to frame it is that Minnesota is mortal about a third of the time when its offense isn’t firing on all cylinders (5-6, .455) and essentially unbeatable the other two-thirds of the time (20-1, .952). Given that it only takes one win more than 50% to win a playoff series, being unbeatable two-thirds of the time seems like a pretty damn good formula to me. Even in defeat, Thursday’s game was notable for being the first time that Miles and Napheesa Collier scored 20 points in the same game. I’m willing to hazard a guess it won’t be the last time, even being fully cognizant of the fact that Phee is unsigned beyond this season.
The Aces are looking for a third straight win after escaping from Indiana with an 86-84 overtime triumph over the Fever on Thursday thanks to Gray’s buzzer-beaters to force the extra session and then win the game, as well as a few glaring miscues by Caitlin Clark that left the door open in the first place. Las Vegas is also looking to improve to 3-0 in a stretch of four straight road games against playoff teams, a run which ends less than 24 hours after today’s game tips with a 12:30 start against the Liberty tomorrow in Brooklyn. The Aces will then return home to face the Mystics twice, Minnesota and Atlanta (where this run began with a resounding win), making eight straight games against playoff teams in a span of 16 days. The good news for the reigning champs, if you choose to see facing good teams as bad news, is that their final seven regular-season games are all against non-playoff teams (Connecticut, Toronto, Seattle, Los Angeles and Phoenix). Wilson led the way with 26 points on Thursday despite a pedestrian-for-her 10-for-25 (40%) night from the field, her 12th straight 20-point game, which is within four games of the WNBA record of 16 straight that she shares with Cynthia Cooper (including multi-season streaks and playoff games). That record might not be Wilson’s for much longer, however…
Because Indiana’s Kelsey Mitchell takes a 15-game streak into the Indiana Fever’s (19-12) matchup with the Chicago Sky (12-19) (3:30 ET, ABC) this afternoon. The Fever will be looking to get back to doing what they’ve done best this season after losing to the Aces — other than being omni-present, at least — and that is beating up on losing teams. Indiana is 13-3 (.813) against the seven teams who won’t be heading to the postseason, but fell to 6-9 (.400) against its eventual playoff peers on Thursday. The Sky will again be without both breakout rookie star Sydney Taylor (groin) and veteran star Skylar Diggins (knee) as they look to win for the fourth time in five games and sixth time in their last nine. Taylor’s absence is definitely a buzzkill, as someone who has mostly been tuning into Sky games for the last couple months to watch her get buckets, but her emergence remains the single greatest reason for Sky fans to be optimistic about the future.
Rounding out the three-game slate are the Seattle Storm (6-27) and Portland Fire (12-19) (8:30 ET, NBA TV/local affiliates). This game has the distinction of being the first one this season to include a team that has been mathematically eliminated from the playoff race (even though I continue to feel pretty strongly that half of the league has already been realistically eliminated), as the Mystics win last night made it impossible for Seattle to win enough games to catch up to the No. 8 seed. On the bright side, the Storm still put a pair of baby unicorns on the floor who are going to run this league in a couple of years, and watching them is never a bad time. The Fire delayed their inevitable elimination, which is still a couple weeks away at the worst, by improving to 2-0 against their expansion sisters from Toronto on Thursday to snap a five-game skid.