The WNBA regular season ends in three weeks, but there’s still plenty to be decided before the playoffs open Sept. 14.
Who’s in? So far, the Minnesota Lynx are the lone team to clinch one of eight postseason berths. Who’s out? The Connecticut Sun were eliminated from the playoff race Sunday, and the Dallas Wings and Chicago Sky were ousted Tuesday.
From there, the standings feature a cluster of teams vying for home-court advantage or one of the final playoff berths. Just six games separate the second-place New York Liberty from the 10th-place Washington Mystics.
Which teams are best positioned to find their stride before the regular-season finales on Sept. 11? Which squads are looking shaky down the stretch? ESPN breaks down what’s for real and what’s not for each of the 10 teams (realistically) still in the playoff race.
Jump to: ATL | GS | IND | LV | LA | MIN | NY | PHO | SEA | WAS
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Real or Not: Minnesota will lose only one playoff game.
Minnesota has six losses this season, not counting in the Commissioner’s Cup final, and none have come back-to-back. Getting through the opening round and the semifinals unscathed? We can see that. But making it through what’s now a best-of-seven WNBA Finals — a 2-2-1-1-1 structure, in which the higher seed would host Games 1, 2, 5 and 7 — with just one loss?
Can the Lynx shrink the Finals to the equivalent of the former five-game series? It’s possible: They are 17-1 at home this season, again not counting the Cup loss to Indiana on July 1. Their regular-season loss at Target Center was to Atlanta on July 27.
Verdict: Not real. It’s more likely the Lynx will drop as many as three postseason games, the first of which we predict will come in the semifinals. Then the Finals can take on a life of their own. We’ll say Minnesota wins that series in six games. –…
