It’s WNBA playoff time! The regular season ended on August 14th, leaving the top eight teams to qualify for the playoffs, regardless of conference. These top eight teams included the Las Vegas Aces, the Chicago Sky, the Connecticut Sun, the Seattle Storm, the Washington Mystics, the Dallas Wings, the New York Liberty, and the Phoenix Mercury. The playoffs started on August 17th with the Aces-Mercury series. With the best of three format of the first round, the No. 1 Aces easily swept the No. 8 Mercury, securing their spot in the semifinals. The Aces will face the No. 4 Storm, who swept the No. 5 Mystics in the first round as well. During the regular season, the Storm only beat the Aces once out of the four meetings. However, the difference in score was never more than eleven points, showing that these two teams are somewhat evenly matched. Their series should be an interesting one.

On the other side of the bracket, we have the rest of the top eight teams. The No. 2 Chicago Sky, the defending champion, faced off against the No. 7 New York Liberty in the first round. Although they started the series with a loss on August 17th, the Sky were able to win the series against the Liberty after back-to-back blowouts. They advanced to the semifinals and will face the Connecticut Sun. The No. 3 Connecticut Sun defeated the No. 6 Dallas Wings after an intense back-and-forth series. When the Sun faced the Sky during the regular season, they lost every single time. This fact may cause some Sun fans to be nervous about the upcoming series. However, if there is one thing about the playoffs, it is that anything can happen. 

The semifinals start Sunday, August 28, with the Aces-Storm series at 4:00 pm EST., followed by the Sky-Sun series at 8:00 pm EST. Make sure to check it out!

Written By: Gianna Willcox

Photo Creds: SLAM Online