It’s beginning to feel a lot like the postseason. The WNBA has less then one month before the start of the playoffs, and the intensity kicked up a notch last week. Whether it was teams recognizing how little time is left to solidify playoff positioning or the aided boost of Rivals Week matchups, more games than usual were hotly contested for a full 40 minutes — and not just those involving the Seattle Storm.
Dallas and Indiana went down to the wire, with the Wings eking out a one-point win in Indianapolis, though the long-awaited first pro matchup between Paige Bueckers and Caitlin Clark will have to come in 2026. Dallas was on the other end of that story later in the week, making a frantic comeback against Los Angeles at home but falling short as Bueckers’ buzzer-beating 3-pointer rimmed out.
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The Aces picked up perhaps their first signature win of the season in a rivalry bout against the New York Liberty, even if the absence of Breanna Stewart denied fans an iconic Stewart versus A’ja Wilson showdown. New York lost another heart-breaker in another finals rematch to Minnesota in its next game, while Las Vegas followed up its victory with a nail-biter in Phoenix, stealing an inbounds pass with less than four seconds to play to secure the win.
The Mystics played postseason spoiler against both the Fever and the Sparks, and Indiana responded by posting the biggest comeback in franchise history. Kelsey Mitchell tied a career-high with 38 points as the Fever erased a 21-point deficit against Connecticut to keep their tenuous hold on a playoff spot.
And the Storm simply cannot play a normal game. After losing six games in a row — five by four or fewer points — Seattle finally seemed to reverse its curse by coming back from five down with three minutes to play in Vancouver. But the Storm fell right back into old habits in their next game against Phoenix, losing by three.
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As Minnesota coach Cheryl Reeve said following the Lynx’s win over the Liberty, these games are the reason you play, but they are also exhausting. They bring out the best and the worst in their participants. With three weeks still to go before the postseason, perhaps teams need to dial down the passion and save some energy before the playoffs tip off. It seems unlikely that the excitement can maintain at this pace all the way through the finals.
Three standout performances
Golden State sets the expansion wins record
In a 44-game season, the Valkyries had a pretty good chance of breaking the all-time wins record for an expansion team, previously set by the Detroit Shock in 1998, which was the WNBA’s second season. The Shock won 17 games in a 30-game campaign, but they didn’t make the playoffs in a 10-team league as only four teams qualified. Golden State has a great chance to become the first expansion playoff team, and the Valkyries could best Detroit’s expansion win percentage by winning seven of their final 10 games.
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However this season ends, Golden State’s play, particularly on defense, already deserves plaudits. The Valkyries enter the home stretch with the league’s second-best defense, surrendering 76.8 points per game. They have the best opponent field-goal percentage. Their switching and occasional zone defenses deter drives and prevent kick outs, and they concede the fewest shot attempts in the paint. Golden State brings opponents into the muck, and the Valkyries thrive in that slow pace.
The set-up of the expansion draft suggested that Golden State wouldn’t pluck away any high-usage players or potential stars. But so many of their expansion selections have thrived in bigger roles, like Veronica Burton, Kayla Thornton and Cecilia Zandalisini. All of them might have been marginalized had they remained on their title-contending teams. With the Valkyries, they get to spread their wings and show off the playmaking, toughness and shot-making that their previous clubs saw in shorter stretches.
With the rapid pace of expansion, perhaps more players will get the chance to level up like Golden State’s role players. But it might be that the Valkyries’ story is unique, that this type of debut won’t come around very often, and its success should be celebrated for its rarity.
Rhyne Howard, Atlanta’s 3-point queen
Seattle has suffered some crushing losses in the past two weeks. Conceding three 3-pointers in 29 seconds probably isn’t even among the top three most disappointing sequences of that time period, but that doesn’t make it any less special for Rhyne Howard.
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After missing a month for injury and getting ejected in her first game back, what a way for Howard to return to her All-Star form. Her nine-point flurry extended Atlanta’s lead to 14 points to end the third quarter en route to the Dream’s sixth consecutive win. With five 3-pointers that night, Howard tied Tiffany Hayes for the most 3-point makes in Atlanta’s franchise history, a record Howard would eclipse and claim as her own one game later. Howard is now 57th all-time in league history in 3s in just her fourth season.
The Dream take the second-most 3-pointers in the WNBA but have only two rotation players who convert them at an above league-average rate: Allisha Gray and Te-Hina Paopao. Howard’s efficiency has taken a dip in 2025. However, her volume is important to Atlanta’s overall offensive philosophy. Howard creating a clean look over the outstretched arms of Gabby WIlliams — which she did twice against the Storm — is a skill unto itself. When Howard makes at least four 3s, the Dream are 8-2.
Sparks’ defense is approaching performance art
Los Angeles has made a spirited rise through the standings since falling to 5-13, going 11-5 since then with wins over New York, Indiana and Seattle to get back in the playoff picture. But it’s hard to imagine a team that is so disconnected on one end of the floor actually appearing in the postseason.
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The Sparks’ run has been entirely fueled by their offense. They have the second-best offensive rating in the WNBA behind Minnesota since the All-Star break, but they also have the worst defense during that stretch, even worse than the Chicago Sky’s 1-10 during that time. It’s sometimes unclear what they’re trying to accomplish. The goal of a defense should be to take away something, even if that means opening up opportunities elsewhere. L.A. concedes open 3s and allows easy access to the paint. The Sparks are bad on the defensive glass and give up the most second-chance points in the WNBA. The only reason they don’t foul more frequently is that they often aren’t even in position to make contact.
Against the Liberty this week, L.A. repeatedly allowed Emma Meesseman to get switched onto a guard, duck into the post and power her way through whichever Belgian teammate (Julie Allemand or Julie Vanloo) had the misfortune of defending her. New York kept running the same action, and the Sparks didn’t adjust until the fourth quarter. All of L.A.’s three opponents this week shot at least 50 percent from the field, peaking with Washington at 59.3. For reference, the Mystics came into Sunday making 44.2 percent of their field goals. The Sparks only managed 15 rebounds in the loss to Washington, displaying a startling lack of force for most of the game.
L.A. games have become must-watch because of how many points both teams score. The Sparks defense provides minimal resistance, and the only way their offense could be better is if it were playing against their defense. It’s a fun formula, but it won’t get them to the playoffs until the defense tightens up.
Rookie of the week
Janelle Salaün, Golden State Valkyries
Salaün’s rookie season has had stark highs and lows, but she seems to have settled into a groove in August. The Golden State roster has had its least amount of turnover in the past few weeks; the only transaction it has made in the past month is signing Kaila Charles to a series of seven-day contracts. That has clarified individual roles, especially for the rookie Salaün. She is making 44 percent of her field goals and 39 percent of her 3-pointers during August, and is turning the ball over much less frequently.
Salaün is excelling next to her new starting frontcourt partner Cecilia Zandalisini; the pairing has a plus-14.3 net rating with their combined shooting providing a challenge for defenses. Their spacing allows runways for Burton and Tiffany Hayes to attack the basket, and they’re defensively interchangeable with good size for the three and four.
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Coach Natalie Nakase said at the start of the season that one of the challenges of leading the Valkyries, a team of career role players, was getting them to realize that they had to score when a play was called for someone. They weren’t just an option or a decoy for someone else; the responsibility would fall to them. Salaün has taken that challenge to heart and is shooting the ball with confidence.
An honorable mention goes to Madison Scott, who joined the Mystics this week and was already in the defensive closing lineup in her first game.
Game to circle
Seattle at Washington, 3 p.m. (ET) Sunday
Despite trading away Brittney Sykes, the Mystics remain in the playoff picture, only one half-game behind the Storm for the eighth and final spot in the postseason with the tiebreaker in hand. Whether Washington wants to make the playoffs or retain a lottery pick is an open question, but now that the Mystics control Seattle’s first-rounder (via the Sykes trade), a win Sunday could improve the Storm pick by knocking it into the lottery. Then again, if Washington were truly interested in manipulating the outcome of the Seattle pick, it would have benefited the Mystics to lose to the Sparks yesterday. Either way, this is a return game for Sykes to Washington after she requested a trade, and the grass hasn’t exactly been greener on the other side. Plenty of intrigue.
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This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
Minnesota Lynx, New York Liberty, Seattle Storm, Los Angeles Sparks, Washington Mystics, Atlanta Dream, Chicago Sky, Connecticut Sun, Indiana Fever, Dallas Wings, Las Vegas Aces, Phoenix Mercury, Golden State Valkyries, WNBA
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