The WNBA Playoffs Have Arrived

The 2026 WNBA (Women’s National Basketball Association) playoffs got underway on Tuesday and just completed the best-of-three first-round series. The postseason features the league’s top eight teams competing for the championship. Teams are ranked by their regular-season records, with the No. 1 as the top seed and the No. 8 as the lowest seed.

The playoffs are moving into the semifinals following an eventful first round highlighted by a historic upset, two series “sweeps” (when one team wins all of its games against another team in a particular set of games, it is said to have swept the other team, per Dear Sports Fan) and two series that went down to the final game.

Per the WNBA, the playoff seeds went as follows: Minnesota Lynx (No. 1 seed), Golden State Valkyries (No. 2 seed), Las Vegas Aces (No. 3 seed), Atlanta Dream (No. 4 seed), Washington Mystics (No. 5 seed), Indiana Fever (No. 6 seed), Dallas Wings (No.7 seed), and New York Liberty (No. 8 seed). 

The first round began Sept. 27 and concluded on Friday, Oct. 2. Four teams remain: the New York Liberty, Atlanta Dream, Golden State Valkyries, and Las Vegas Aces. 

The biggest surprise of the opening round came from the eighth-seeded New York Liberty, who swept the top-seeded Minnesota Lynx 2-0. New York won Game 1 91-75 before defeating Minnesota 87-71 in Game 2. The Liberty are the first No. 8 seed to defeat a No. 1 seed since the WNBA adopted its current best-of-three first-round format in 2022, as The Athletic reports. 

T he Atlanta Dream also advanced with a sweep, defeating the Washington Mystics 2-0. Atlanta won Game 1 by a score of 92-77 and Game 2 93-75 to reach the semifinals for the first time since 2018.

The Las Vegas Aces vs. Indiana Fever series needed all three games to decide a winner. After Las Vegas won Game 1, Indiana responded with a 99-89 victory in Game 2. The Aces then won the deciding Game 3, 94-83 to advance.

The final first-round series was between the Golden State Valkyries and Dallas Wings. After splitting the first two games, the teams met in San Francisco for Game 3 on Oct. 2. Golden State overcame a 16-point second-half deficit to win 77-73 and advance to the semifinals. The victory was the first playoff series win in Valkyries franchise history.

The semifinals begin Sunday, Oct. 4. The Liberty will face the Dream, while the Valkyries will take on the Aces. Unlike the first round, the semifinals are a best-of-five series. With the first round complete, the remaining teams are one step closer to the WNBA Finals, which are scheduled to begin Oct. 17.

Image Courtesy of John Mac on Wikimedia Commons.