The Guru’s WNBA Report: Playoff Openers See No. 8 New York Upset No. 1 Minnesota; No. 2 Golden State, No. 3 Las Vegas, No. 4 Atlanta Also Win; ‘Vegas’ Wilson Wins 3rd Straight AP Award

 By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsgurux

The Minnesota Lynx after dominating play the last two regular seasons and just missing a third are in danger of not finishing the job again, thanks to the 8th-seeded New York Liberty that clipped them in the finals in overtime in a penultimate Game 5 in overtime in Brooklyn in 2024 that brought the home team its first championship in an existence at the time that matched the 28-year history of the WNBA.

All four pairings in opening round action got under way Sunday and the first of the quartet offered a stunner with New York led by Breanna Stewart scoring 34 points with 12 rebounds, six assists, and pairs of steals and blocks as the Liberty won on the road over the top-seeded Lynx 91-25 before a Target Center crowd of 12,339 in Minneapolis.

The Liberty struggled down the stretch in a tight race for seeding finishing 26-18 while the Lynx were a league best 33-11.       

And while New York, which sent almost its whole roster to varying national teams to the World Cup in Berlin, Germany, during the earlier part of this month creating a break that made the Liberty look rusty in losing both home games to Atlanta at the end of the season, being eighth wasn’t so terrible since Minnesota is the one team that New York seems to give the Lynx fits.

In the other three games, second-year and two-seed Golden State (32-12), that was in the hunt for top seed until the final two games, won its first-ever playoff contest, routing seventh-seeded Dallas 104-80 continuing its lifetime sellout streak in its two seasons of 18,064 at the Chase Center in San Francisco that is also the home of the NBA Golden State Warriors.

A year ago, the Valkyries were routed in Game 1 in the opening round at Minnesota and then lost to the Lynx by a point.

The team’s success brought former Las Vegas assistant Natalie Nakase, the first Asian American mentor in the WNBA, coach of the year honors.

Dallas (27-17) finally turned things around this season after back-to-back acquisitions of No. 1 overall picks out of UConn in 2025 rookie of the year Paige Bueckers and teammate Azzi Fudd, the latter recently lost for the end of the season with an injury.

Golden State has the look of potentially beating big time ownership prediction of a title in five seasons when the team was officially introduced as the first of what is a line of expansion teams that saw Toronto and Portland added this season, Cleveland and Detroit, two former WNBA cities, activating in 2028 and 2029, and Philadelphia in 2030 bringing the membership total to 18 teams.

Next season, Houston, winner of the first four titles from 1997 to 2000, is back in the fold, acquiring the Connecticut Sun, whose last game after 24 seasons ended Thursday night at home.

But before anyone gets too excited, defending champion Las Vegas (31-13), winner of three of the last four trophies, showed in its first contest the third-seed Aces aren’t going to give the hardware away easy in thumping the Caitlin Clark-led sixth-seeded Indiana Fever 102-85 at home before a crowd of 10,207 at home at the Michelob ULTRA Arena as A’ja Wilson, on track to repeat as regular season MVP, which would be her fifth, scored 38 points with 16 rebounds and four blocked shots.

In the other game, fifth-seed Washington (28-16), the surprise team of the year in making the postseason, took an 11-point lead on four-seed Atlanta (30-14), but the Dream rallied for a 92-77 victory as Rhyne Howard scored 26 points with five steals and Angel Reese, the third-year pro who arrived in a trade with Chicago, had 13 points and 12 boards in her playoff debut before a crowd of 9,766 in the State Farm Arena, the game moved to the home of the NBA Hawks from its smaller venue played most of the season in the suburbs.

The opening round is a best-of-three affair so while Sunday’s winners look to close out and move on, the losers will attempt to force Game 3s as Tuesday’s games feature Minnesota at New York at the Barclays Center at 8:30 p.m. on USA Net/CNBC after Indiana at 6:30 p.m. at home in Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis airs on Amazon Prime Video.

On Wednesday ESPN airs both games, Washington hosts Atlanta at 7 p.m. in its CareFirst Arena in the nation’s capital, followed by Golden State visiting Dallas at 9 p.m. at the College Park Center in suburban Arlington.

Games 3, if necessary, return to Sunday hosts on Thursday and Friday.

The best of five semifinals opens Sunday at the higher seeded hosts with the Minnesota/New York winner facing the Atlanta/Washington winner while the Dallas/Golden State winner faces the Las Vegas/Indiana winner.

A year ago, the finals expanded to a best-of-seven format but was not needed with Las Vegas in four games sweeping Phoenix, which was a surprise qualifier.

This year’s finals get under way Oct. 17, a Saturday, on NBC, and could last until Oct. 31, one day before the collegiate season begins in Rome with the men and women of Notre Dame and Villanova facing each other, the latter, nearby in the Vatican, being the alma mater of Pope Leo XIV, a native of Chicago.

It’s the first time since the early days if the league ESPN will not air the finals, a result of the mega dollar deals struck in the current TV deals with the WNBA.

New York Thumps Minnesota

The visiting New York leader Breanna Stewart and Minnesota’s Napheesa Collier, the 2024 defensive player of the year, are the best of friends, each out of the UConn powerhouse, co-founders of the Unrivaled League loaded with WNBA players in the winer, and recent teammates on the USA Gold Medal-winning FIBA Cup, which Stewart had a major role in the triumph by the Americans.

But all that was parked Sunday as Stewart made a shambles of Collier guarding her.

“She’s a walking mismatch,” jested Liberty teammate Sabrina Ionescu, who contributed 13 points. “You can always rely on her. She’s everywhere. She keeps up poised out there and her versatility, her ability to score from really anywhere on the court just helps.”

Stewart was 11-for-18 from the field.

“We did a solid job in the first half and then we just fouled, fouled, fouled,” said Minnesota’s Cheryl Reeve, who’s attempt to break a tie for a record fifth crown has yet to occur. “We can’t give her 12 free throws. Fouling at the end of the shot clock is just not smart.”

Reeve, who was inducted to the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in Knoxville, Tenn., in June, and will be eligible for a similar honor next year at the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass., guided USA to its record eighth straight Olympic title at the Paris Games in 2024 and hails from South Jersey in suburban Philadelphia and starred at La Salle, a member of the City’s Big Five.

The Liberty were hot from outside shooting 13-for-25 from beyond the arc, and Stewart missed the franchise postseason scoring mark by two points. She’s second in WNBA history for postseason scoring average, having also won titles with the Seattle Storm, and four NCAA crowns with UConn, earning four MVP Final Four honors.

Leonie Fiebich was 4-for-5 from distance finishing with 16 points for the winners.

“We knew the shots that we were going to get,” Stewart, a native of Syracuse, N.Y., said. “We had a few days to really practice that and be intentional, and whenever we were able to draw two — kick it to the open person and shoot it with confidence.”

The Liberty and Minnesota each had a jump of a day on the rest of the league knowing their matchup would be against each other while the rest of the seeds were still undetermined heading into the final day of the regular season on Thursday.

Reserve Nia Brodie scored 16 to lead the Lynx, while Kayla McBride scored 14, but took a while to heat up, missing her first five shots from deep. Collier and Natasha Howard, each fouled out and Olivia Miles, the prohibitive favorite for rookie of the year, was limited to 11 points, shooting 3-for-12 with just one assist.

“I thought we even struggled in the first half even though we had a lead,” Reeve said. “It was a little too much grinding. I think there’s some easier things we can do.”

In 2024 Minnesota was on the brink of elimination in Game 4 but forced the finals to go the limit back to Brooklyn and the finish was controversial, Reeve upset with officiating at the close of the game.

Though the momentum has swung to the Liberty, Stewart cautioned, “This doesn’t mean relax. When you’re a lower seed, you want to steal one.

“And doing that today, we kind of harped on it. This team is exceptionally talented. And on Tuesday they’re going to through everything they got at us. And we’re going to be ready for it.

“We did this in Phoenix last year and then we got smoked on our home court.”

Firstd-year Liberty coach Chris DeMarco praised the team’s defense in the second half. “We were locked in; I could hear us talking. We covered for each other. I just loved our aggressiveness; we came out strong in the second half.”

Golden State Blasts Dallas

Cecilia Zandalasini scored 22 for the Valkyries and Gabby Williams poured in 22 more against the Wings to go in front in the series, holding a dominating lead at the half.

Bueckers had 21 for the Wings, shooting 9-for-10 from the field with six rebounds, stalling the Dallas finishing momentum of the regular season with a 7-1 stretch record.

Villanova all-time scorer Maddy Siegrist, the third overall pick in 2023 by the Wings, in her playoff debut started, played 21 minutes, shooting 4-for-9 from the field, 1-2 from deep with three boards, scoring 11 points.

After the Valkyries were activated and with their success last season, the crowd which has packed the Chase Center every game has caused the atmosphere to be labelled “Ballhalla.”

“Ballhalla’s” part of us, Nakase said of the crowd.

It’s the most points ever scored by Golden State in its short history.

Tiffany Hayes, who came out of retirement to join the team, scored 21 off the bench and Veronica Burton added 10 points. Zanalasini was 7-for-11 from the field and connected on four shots from deep.

It was the Valkyries’ first true home playoff game, a year ago, an event, the Laver Cup tennis showcase in the Chase Center that was scheduled long before the franchise was awarded forced Golden State to play its game 50 miles away in the NHL San Jose Sharks’ SAP Center.

As to the grounding of the Wings, Nakase said, “When we’re awake, we’re ferocious on defense.

The Valkyries are 4-0 on Dallas this season and also finished 7-1 narrowly missing upending Minnesota for the top seed when they fell to Phoenix last week in overtime.

“We didn’t get stops and they got whatever they wanted offensively,” Bueckers said. “A 37-point quarter is insane work,so it was just not sticking to our game plan, not locking in defensively. It starts with me, so I gotta be better, I know that.”

 

Said the Valkyries’ Williams, “Yeah, obviously we wanted to start well and set the tone for the rest of the series. I think what was great about tonight was watching every single person contribute and seeing everyone get going.”

Wilson Leads Las Vegas

Former South Carolina star A’ja Wilson matched her playoff high while shooting 15-for-19 from the field.

“She understands the stakes fully,” said Aces coach Becky Hammon. “She was a clinic tonight. She was, I mean, it was all over. She was all over the court, every way.

“Defensive end, offensive end, blocks, steals, boards, scoring, I mean, there was nothing she couldn’t do tonight.”

Noted Las Vegas point guard Chelsea Gray of her teammate on having that kind of performance the best thing to do is “get out of the way. It’s a blessing to be able to see this every single day. I say this all the time, you can’t wait till a person retires to appreciate greatness.

“You’ve got to appreciate it while it’s happening.”

Jackie Young double doubled for the winners with 21 points and 10 assists, Gray had 14 and eight assists, and Jewell Lloyd scored 10.

Gray is second in career playoff assists with 397, eclipsing Chicago’s Courtney Vandersloot (390) for second in league history.

Indiana’s Aliyah Boston, another product of Dawn Staley’s Gamecocks program, had 18 points for Indiana (28-15), which was 2-1 against the Aces in the regular season, while Caitlin Clark, who missed the playoffs her second season a year ago, had 15 points and 10 assists, while Kelsey Mitchell, recently unhooked from her WNBA-record 27 straight 20+ games was held to 12 points on 4-for-16 from the field, her second straight below the 20-point plateau after the record.

“Give Vegas credit,” said Indiana coach Stephanie White. “They’re defending champions for a reason. They understand the moment. They understand the playoffs require a different level of intensity and urgency, and they came with it.”

To not to White’s liking were the 28 points the home team got off 17 Fever turnovers, while Clark graded her side with an “F” for defense, and offensively, they were the cause of their breakdowns.

“I thought our actions were sloppy,” Clark said. “I thought what we were running wasn’t great and nobody got an easy open look.”

Observed Wilson, “I think we just showed up to work, and that’s what we need to do moving forward.”

The 62 points in the first half were a point short of the playoff record they got off Phoenix in 2022.

Wilson is the first in league history in the postseason to have multiple 30 points, 15 rebounds games, and leads with 11 games of 30-point, ahead of New York’s Stewart, who reached nine on Sunday.

White noted the difference in experience as a contributor to the way it played out for the Fever.

“Certainly, there’s no substitute for experience,” White said. “Some got it a year ago. But oftentimes, you have to be humbled first, right? Like I mean, that’s life, right? You don’t always learn from the successes.

“You learn from being humbled. We know we felt the difference in the intensity level. That doesn’t always mean that we weren’t playing hard or we weren’t competing hard. Sometimes, it’s how you execute. So it’s mostly in details. Because I thought our team competed.”

Atlanta Rallies on Washington

For a while the Mystics, with the youngest roster in the league, appeared they would excel above the expectation, holding a three-point lead at the half, as they did to earn a playoff berth.

But then Rhyne Howard and Angel Reese rallied the Dream in the second half.

Atlanta got 27 points off 22 turnovers by Washington and set a team playoff record with 16 steals, just under the 18 Indiana grabbed in 2009.

“I think we were just playing with a lot of nerves,” Atlanta’s DeWanna Bonner, the recent beneficiary of a release from Phoenix to enable her to pursue a championship the Mercury couldn’t deliver this season in not making the playoffs.

“I think the second half, (Dream coach) Karl (Smesko) settled us down,” Bonner explained.

Allisha Gray added 22 for the Dream, and Jordin Canada scored 10 with 11 assists.

Washington’s Sonia Citron scored 25, sister second-year pro Kiki Iriafen had 15 points and 14 boards, nine on the offensive end, and Shakira Austin had 12 points and 16 rebounds.

“In the first half we did a good job of just making everything hard for them and then in that third quarter we just let some of our discipline slip,” Citron said.

Like Stewart with New York, Smesko isn’t ready to say the Dream are moving on.

“This is just round one,” he said. “We feel good about how we set the tone for the first game, but there is a lot more work to be done and I think everyone in our locker room is aware of that.”

This is Washington’s first postseason appearance since 2023, but last won a playoff game in 2019, which was the championship over Connecticut.

“Playoffs are the biggest stage,” Iriafen said. “This is the stage we want to be on. It was our first time being here, not that that’s an excuse, but now we know what it looks like.

“We have a taste for it. We’ll be better prepared for our game on Wednesday.”

Associated Press Awards

The AP Sunday afternoon announced its postseason WNBA awards from its 17-member panel which determines in-season rankings and weekly honors (I’m not one).

The WNBA has a larger national media panel for awards that will be announced during the playoffs.

For the third straight year Las Vegas’ A’ja Wilson is its national player of the year, a record for the the honors that were launched in 2016.

She received 15 of the 17 votes for first place ahead of Minnesota’s Olivia Miles and Indiana’s Caitlin Clark and Kelsey Mitchell.

Overall, Wilson has four AP awards, snapping a tie with three also held by Breanna Stewart.

Atlanta’s Angel Reese replaced Wilson as defensive player of the year, the latter gained that honor three of the previous four seasons.

No surprise, Minnesota’s Miles was unanimous as rookie of the year, drafted in April second overall behind Azzi Fudd of Dallas. The Central New Jersey native passed Caitlin Clark’s rookie record for points.

AP’s All-rookie team was Miles, Dallas’ Azzi Fudd, Chicago’s Sydney Taylor, Seattle’s Flau’jae Johnson, New York’s Pauline Astier and Toronto’s Kiki Rice.

The AP All-WNBA first team included Wilson, Clark, Mitchell, Miles and Stewart, while Reese, Atlanta’s Rhyne Howard, Dallas’ Bueckers, Las Vegas’ Jackie Young and Golden State’s Gabby Wilson made the second team.

Minnesota’s Chery Reeve was coach of the year for the third time, while Golden State’s Natalie Nakase, and Washington’s Sydney Johnson also received votes.

Clark, who missed most of last season, earned comeback of the year, an award the WNBA does not issue. Washington’s Georgia Amoore and Chicago’s Courtney Vandersloot also drew votes.

Dallas’ Jessica Shepard was most improved player, ahead of Washington’s Shakira Austin and Seattle’s Dominique Malonga, while Golden State reserve Janelle Salaun was Sixth Woman ahead of Marine Johannes with New York.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Guru’s WNBA Report: Connecticut Ends Franchise Run With a Win; Playoffs Set as Washington, Minnesota, and Las Vegas Romp and Golden State Rallies

 Content updating with Lynne Roberts firing and other items.

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsgurux

UNCASVILLE, Conn. – In any other scenario the end of the WNBA regular season here Thursday night at the Mohegan Sun Arena would have been eclipsed by the ending shuffling into the final standings setting up what promises to be an exciting last piece of September and all October of playoff basketball that if the finals go the seven-game distance, which did not occur last season in their first time in expanded format, will last until 24 hours before the collegiate basketball season opens with a double header in Rome between the men’s and women’s teams of Villanova and Notre Dame.

The Connecticut Sun, in a two year-rebuild, would have been focused on getting back to the glory days jumped started as a lottery team with a bunch of talent rich candidates, while the Toronto Tempo, finishing its first year as an expansion squad, would have reflected on surviving a debut hampered by injuries but also having the same focus as a lottery participant.

However, as one of the top storylines has been the welcoming of expansion cities coming into the fold until the end of the decade when Philadelphia becomes the 18th team following the arrivals of Golden State (2025), Cleveland (2028), and Detriot (2029), the latter two returning to previous WNBA towns, Wednesday saw a 24-season saga come to its conclusion with the Sun headed to Houston, rebranded as the Comets, the same name as the original operation in the Lone Star State that won the first four league titles (1997-2000).

The ownership is NBA, but a different group than the previous management in charge of one of the eight charter members when the WNBA launched in 1999, coached by Van Chancellor and headlined by Hall of Famers Sheryl Swoopes, Cynthia Cooper, and Tina Thompson.

When the Mohegan Tribe, which acquired the former Orlando Miracle and became the first non-NBA group involved with the WNBA, put the team up for sale, it appeared to be targeted for nearby Boston, which would have seen the team leap from one of the smaller markets to a major city that would still be accessible by the passionate fan base here that grew beyond the crowd raised on the domination by the University of Connecticut.

Indeed, there has been much UConn DNA involved; team president Jen Rizzotti was the dynamic point guard on the first NCAA champion of 11 more to come out run by Geno Auriema, and general manager Morgan Tuck was a later star with the Huskies, while media people in the Nutmeg State covering the collegians doubled up in the summer also  dealing with the Sun.

Both Rizzotti and Tuck have been hired to run the team in its new city, which, for Rizzotti is a return to a place she played for two seasons after the New England Blizzard was part of the collapse of the American Basketball League in the second month of its third season, a demise set when the powerful NBA announced the coming of the WNBA.

 Rizzotti, however, was filled with emotion here after the team thrilled the sellout crowd of 8,911 adding to the nostalgic final chapter of the Sunset Season with a 95-81 victory, book marked when rookie and Duke alum Ashlon Jackson nailed a 3-pointer and scored her 18th point, the team high for the night and final score in franchise history.

When the final buzzer sounded the crowd stood up and applauded as the team took one more set of photos.

“‘Coach (Frenchman Rachid Meziane) spoke about us playing for our pride - pride for our fans, pride for our name, pride for the organization itself. I think we did just that.”

Thank yous were issued throughout from both sides after the game ended, to the point that Meziane presented one of the consistent local media beat members with a bottle of French wine.

The Sun (11-33), which snapped a six-game losing streak, finished tied for 13th with Toronto and ahead of last-place Seattle (8-36) while behind the also-lottery teams tied for 10th in Phoenix (16-28), last season’s surprise runner-up to Las Vegas, Chicago and Los Angeles, and ninth-place Portland (17-27), this season’s other expansion team that was still nine games behind the last playoff qualifier in eighth place New York (26-18).

Saluting the crowd, Rizzotti proclaimed to the crowd, “You guys have been our family for 24 years. I know how hard it is. You have proved that Connecticut deserves a WNBA team.

“And I just want you all to know that no matter what happens from here, this team, as they move onto the next chapter of their careers, the success that all of them have in their future, you will always be part of that. Always.”

All season the team brought back legendary coaches and players who helped make the team the gold standard in terms of operation while falling short several times of a WNBA title, the most recent in 2019 when the Sun were beaten in a full five-game series by Washington, coached by the Sun’s original and longtime mentor Mike Thibaut, whose daughter Carly was an original ball girl and now is not far away to the near South as a successful coach of Fairfield, which has won three straight Metro (formerly MAAC) titles and earned a national ranking in the Associated Press women’s poll.

Thibault was one of the last honorees brought back in Sunday’s home game against Minnesota, whose support coaching staff includes former Sun and Lynx all-time great Lindsay Whalen and Thibault’s son Eric, whose previously succeeded his father coaching Washington, while Dad remained GM until both were let go several years ago.

Mike has been coach of the Belgian national team following Meziane after the latter’s hire by the Sun.

Houston ended up with a team, set in action by now-departing commissioner Cathy Engelbert, who spoke much of the city just missing making the expansion group, out of a round which Boston had not submitted a bid.

Back at Wednesday’s game, Jackson was 5-for-9 on three-pointers. Rooie Raegan Beers added 17 points with eight rebounds, former UConn standout Aaliyah Edwards had 16 points, rookies Hailey Van Lith and Gianna Kneepkins each scored 12.

Edwards, in a postgame TV interview afterwards, shouted to the crowd, “This is the basketball capital of the world, baby! Don’t ever forget!” echoing the claim her alma mater makes off the slew of women’s national titles and multiple crowns won by the men’s team.

Toronto, headed by former New York Liberty coach Sandy Brondello, let go last fall one season removed from guiding the franchise to its first WNBA title in then-29 seasons of existence, against Connecticut got 28 points from rookie Kiki Rice, one of a record six draftees from NCAA champion UCLA.

Isabelle Harrison had 19 points, Laura Juskaite scored 15, and Kia Nurse scored 10 points.

Before the game, Brondello, looking at the first season of the Tempo, noted having just two weeks to put a team together, a situation created due to how late labor negotiations went until a landmark major deal brought the start of multi millions of dollars in salaries.

WNBA Playoffs Set

Though the eight teams in the field were decided several weeks ago, the seed placement overall went undetermined for all but two teams into Thursday night.

Defending champion Las Vegas (31-13), winner of three of the last four titles, defeated Phoenix handily 100-82 on the road as A’ja Wilson, the former South Carolina star and favorite to win another MVP for the season, which would be her fifth, scored 34 points, while Jewell Loyd off the bench scored 25 points.

It wasn’t totally in the bag as it seemed when the Mercury cut a 31-point deficit to nine midway in the fourth period until the rally died in the act of a pair of offensive fouls and a technical.

Fourteen more points for the winners came from Stephanie Talbot, while Chelsea Gray scored 12 of 56 percent shooting from the field, with 28 assists, while Jackie Young had 11 assists and 10 more helpers from Gray.

Wilson’s 30 tied a league mark she set last year with her total happening 13 times this season scoring 30 or more.

Philadelphia-born Kahleah Copper, a Rutgers grad, scored 18 for Phoenix while Shay Ciezki, a former Penn Stater, scored 13 and Natasha Mack scored 12.

That left the final piece of the season-ending puzzle to Golden State (32-11), which a year ago set an expansion record with season wins and qualifying for the playoffs before record sellout home crowds of 18,040, that have marked every game the past two seasons.

The Valkyries were even better this year, narrowly close to winning the No. 1 seed when Minnesota slumped the last two weeks, but on Thursday, in what was veteran Nneka Ogwumike, the longtime president of the players’ association, in her final career game, performing with Los Angeles at home, scored 17 points with 15 boards and five assists for the Sparks with her 19th double-double and 134th to finish six on the career charts, while Dearica Hamby and Rae Burrell each scored 15.

The Sparks had built a 69-57 lead with 4:42 remaining in regulation, and if it held, the Valkyries would slip to a third seed, depriving them of home court advantage if meeting the Aces in the best-of-five semifinals.

But Golden State suddenly stirred and deprived Los Angeles from the field the rest of the way until the last shot of the game for a 69-57 victory as the visitors finished on a 17-4 run.

Gabby Williams, another of the slew of UConn stars in the league, scored 14 points in 20 minutes, eight in the final 90 seconds, while Kaitlyn Chen, who played undergrad ball for Ivy champion Princeton before concluding as a graduate at UConn, scored 14 of her 18 points in the final quarter.

When the Valkyries were introduced as the first expansion outfit in a long time, the owner, who also owns the successful NBA Golden State Warriors, predicted a title within five years, a forecast of which the team lead by last season’s coach of the year in Natalie Nakase are projecting much faster.

Nakase, the first Asian American coach in the league, who was a former Becky Hammon assistant in Las Vegas, suddenly was a potential candidate to retain her coach of the year title, pending how many ballots still had not been cast for postseason awards from a nationwide media panel, whose ballots are due Friday.

On the other side by Friday morning Lynne Roberts, hired a year ago from Utah, was fired, ESPN cited sources, after the Sparks missed the playoffs in both her seasons.

Meanwhile, another coaching candidate is Sydney Johnson, whose Washington Mystics (27-17) weren’t predicted to make the playoffs but landed the fifth seed with the most wins in franchise history, more than the title achievers in 2019, after exciting a home crowd by capping it off with a 101-93 win over the Chicago Sky as second-year pros Sonia Citron scored 21 points and Kiki Iriafen scored 16 with 15 boards, both players being late insertions into openings on what became the Gold Medal winning USA champions over France earlier this month.

The Mystics finished the season strong, winning seven of eight and 16 of 19, and sweeping Chicago 3-0.

Michaela Onyenwere added 16 points and Georgia Amoore scored 14 with 12 from reserve Cotie Mahon, a rookie. Shakira Austin grabbed 11 of the Mystics dominating 44-27 advantage on the boards.

Veteran Courtney Vandersloot scored 16 for Chicago, as did Kamila Cardoso and Sydney Taylor, a walk-on rookie who was stellar all season for the visiting Sky.

Washington last played in the postseason in 2023.

The move to fifth was made possible by the remaining game of the night as Minnesota (33-11), which had dominated the season but slumped down the stretch, including a Monday blowout loss from Indiana (28-16), but backed into the top seed when Golden State was upset in overtime by Phoenix, on Wednesday paid back the Caitlin Clark and Kelsey Mitchell Fever 86-66 despite for the second straight game missing rookie sensation Olivia Miles with a calf injury.

Kayla McBride for the winning Lynx, shoot 6-for-10 from deep and finished with 22 points, Natasha Howard scored 21, and Courtney Williams had nine points, seven boards, with 10 assists.

Indiana’s Mitchell had her record 20-plus scoring streak stopped at 27 games, held to 10 points, while Clark was much worse with a season-low two points shooting 1-for-12 from the field.

Several days ago, the Fever, which was heading to finish on a high note, lost the season tiebreaker to Washington.

Crowds on the final night of the regular season continued to be plentiful.

Besides the sellout here at Connecticut, Minnesota drew 15,221 at the Target Center in Minneapolis, which gained the top seed for the second straight year after being upset last season in the semifinals by Phoenix, which had opened ousting then-defending champion New York, which Wednesday for the second straight night fell to Atlanta, enabled the Dream to finish fourth.

Dallas won its game Wednesday to end a playoff drought by landing the seventh seed.

Washington, moving to the larger Capital One Arena, drew 9,798 down town in the nation’s capital, as opposed to its smaller CareFirst Arena in the Southeast portion of the city.

The Mercury in the Arizona Desert drew 12,385 at the Mortgage Matchup Center, which hosted the NCAA Women’s Final Four in April when UCLA won its first national title in the organization, having won a previous crown led by Ann Meyers Drysdale under the Association for Intercollegiate Athletic for Women (AIAW) in 1978.

For Ogwumike’s final game, Los Angeles at home in the Crypto.com Arena, formerly named the Staples Center, drew 15,965.

The Matchups

The playoffs open Sunday with first-round action consisting of best-of-three 1-1-1 formats, followed by a best-of-five semifinals in a 2-2-1 arrangement before the finals are played in a 2-2-1-1-1 arrangement.

Anyone can win with upsets possible in all four opening rounds, besides the semifinals and finals, as proven by New York’s recent win at Minnesota, a team two years ago the Liberty beat to win the championship at home at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn in overtime in an exciting Game 5.

All four series will begin Sunday with No. 1 Minnesota hosting No. 8 New York at 2 p.m. on ABC, while No. 4 Atlanta hosts No. 5 Washington at 7 p.m. on Amazon Prime, No. 2 Golden State hosts No. 7 Dallas at 9 p.m. on USA Net, and No. 3 Las Vegas at 4 p.m. on ABC hosts No. 6 Indiana, which a year ago when injury-riddled, narrowly came close to upsetting the Aces in the semifinals.

On Tuesday, two games hosted by lower seeds will be played with Indiana hosting Las Vegas at 6:30 p.m. on Amazon Prime and New York hosting Minnesota at 8:30 p.m. on USA Net, likewise on Wednesday, Washington hosts Atlanta at 7 p.m. on ESPN in the CareFirst Arena and Dallas hosts Golden State at 9 p.m. on ESPN.

If necessary, one or two elimination games will be played Thursday back in Minnesota and Las Vegas, and one or two more on Friday back in Atlanta and Golden State.

The semifinals best of five series opens Sunday, Oct. 4, on NBC at a time to be announced and on ABC at 4 p.m.

ESPN and Peacock have Games 2 on the following Wednesday, while Games 3 air Friday, Oct. 9 on ESPN2 and Peacock.

ABC and NBC have Games 4 the following Sunday while potentially decisive Games 5 will be played the following Wednesday, Oct. 14 on ESPN and Peacock.

The best of seven finals open in the home of the highest surviving seed Saturday at 3:30 p.m. on NBC and stay in place Monday, Oct. 19, at 8 p.m. on USA Net.

The lower seed then hosts Game 3 Thursday at 8 p.m. on USA Net and if necessary Game 4 Saturday at 3:30 p.m. on NBC.

Potential Game 5 goes back to the high seed on Monday, Oct. 26, at 8 p.m. on USA Net, the low seed if necessary hosts a  first-ever Game 6 at 8 p.m. on USA Net the following Thursday while the high seed gets a penultimate Game 7 Saturday at 8 p.m. on USA Net, which would be the last or if the finals finish earlier under departing Commissioner Cathy Engelbert, whose retirement is set for Dec. 31 unless a successor had not yet been hired.