2024 WNBA Playoffs
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Dates | September 22 – October 20[1] |
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The 2024 WNBA Playoffs will the postseason tournament of the WNBA's 2024 season. The playoffs will begin on September 22, 2024, and will finish by October 20, 2024.[2]
Overview
[edit]Updates to postseason appearances
[edit]- The Las Vegas Aces entered the postseason for the sixth consecutive season.
- The New York Liberty entered the postseason for the fourth consecutive season.
- The Connecticut Sun entered the postseason for the eighth consecutive season, currently the longest streak in the WNBA.
- The Minnesota Lynx entered the postseason for the second consecutive season.
- The Phoenix Mercury returned to the postseason after missing the postseason in 2023.
- The Seattle Storm returned to the postseason after missing the postseason in 2023.
- The Indiana Fever entered the postseason for the first time since 2016, breaking their seven-season playoff drought.
- The Dallas Wings missed the postseason for the first season, after making the postseason the previous three editions.
- The Los Angeles Sparks missed the postseason for the fourth consecutive season, the longest active postseason drought in the WNBA.
Notable occurrences
[edit]- The Indiana Fever broke their playoff drought, which was the longest in the WNBA, at seven seasons.
Format
[edit]The 2024 Playoffs continued to use the format that the WNBA Board of Governors approved prior to the 2022 season. In November 2021, the WNBA Board of Governors formalized a new playoff system that will structure the 2022 playoffs onward. The new playoff format scraps the single-elimination games of the first two rounds in favor of a best-of-3 quarterfinal round. As a result, all eight playoff teams, seeded according to overall regular season record regardless of conference (1 vs. 8, 2 vs. 7, 3 vs. 6, 4 vs. 5), will begin postseason play in the first round. Since 2016, seeds 3 and 4 received a bye to the second round (single game) and seeds 1 and 2 received a bye to the semifinals (best-of-5). In the first round series, the higher seeded team will host games 1 and 2, and the lower seeded team will host game 3 if necessary. In the semifinal round, no reseeding will take place, which means the winners of the 1 vs. 8 series will be paired with the winner of the 4 vs. 5 series as will the winners of the 2 vs. 7 and 3 vs. 6 series. The semifinal and final rounds will remain best-of-5 series in which the higher seeded team hosts games 1, 2 and (if necessary) 5 while the lower seeded team hosts games 3 and (if necessary) 4.[3]
Broadcast
[edit]All games will be aired across the ESPN family of networks, which includes ESPN, ESPN2, and ABC in the US.
Playoff qualifying
[edit]As of games on September 17, 2024
Seed | Team | Record | Clinched | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Playoff berth | Top Record | |||
1 | New York Liberty | August 17[4] | September 17[5] | |
2 | Minnesota Lynx | August 24[6] | ||
3 | Connecticut Sun | August 24[7] | ||
4 | Las Vegas Aces | August 30[8] | ||
5 | Seattle Storm | August 30[9] | ||
6 | Indiana Fever | September 3[10] | ||
7 | Phoenix Mercury | September 3[11] | ||
8 | TBD | September 19 |
Playoffs and Finals
[edit]Bracket
[edit]Round One: Best-of-3 | Semifinals: Best-of-5 | Finals: Best-of-5 | ||||||||||||
1 | New York Liberty | |||||||||||||
8 | ||||||||||||||
4 | ||||||||||||||
5 | Seattle Storm | |||||||||||||
2 | Minnesota Lynx | |||||||||||||
7 | Phoenix Mercury | |||||||||||||
3 | ||||||||||||||
6 | Indiana Fever |
Bold Series winner
Round One
[edit](1) New York Liberty vs. (8)
[edit]- Game 1
- Game 2
- Game 3 (if necessary)
(2) Minnesota Lynx vs. (7) Phoenix Mercury
[edit]- Game 1
- Game 2
- Game 3 (if necessary)
(3) vs. (6) Indiana Fever
[edit]- Game 1
- Game 2
- Game 3 (if necessary)
(4) vs. (5) Seattle Storm
[edit]- Game 1
- Game 2
- Game 3 (if necessary)
Semifinals
[edit]TBD vs. TBD
[edit]- Game 1
- Game 2
- Game 3
- Game 4 (if necessary)
- Game 5 (if necessary)
TBD vs. TBD
[edit]- Game 1
- Game 2
- Game 3
- Game 4 (if necessary)
- Game 5 (if necessary)
Finals
[edit]TBD vs. TBD
[edit]- Game 1
- Game 2
- Game 3
- Game 4 (if necessary)
- Game 5 (if necessary)
References
[edit]- ^ "Key Dates: 2024 WNBA Season". wnba.com. WNBA. Retrieved September 6, 2024.
- ^ "WNBA playoffs tracker: Who's in? Who's making the biggest impact and more". ESPN. September 5, 2024. Retrieved September 6, 2024.
- ^ "WNBA Approves New Playoff Format". WNBA. NBA Media Ventures. Retrieved August 4, 2022.
- ^ Stumbaugh, Julia (August 17, 2024). "Sabrina Ionescu, Liberty Clinch Spot in 2024 WNBA Playoff Bracket; Updated Standings". Bleacher Report. Retrieved September 6, 2024.
- ^ Michael Voepel (September 17, 2024). "Liberty clinch top seed in WNBA playoffs with win vs. Mystics". ABC News. Retrieved September 18, 2024.
- ^ Wald, Jeff (August 24, 2024). "Lynx beat Caitlin Clark, Fever behind Napheesa Collier's 31 points, clinch playoff spot". KMSP-TV. Retrieved September 6, 2024.
- ^ Feinberg, Doug (August 24, 2024). "Mabrey helps Sun end Liberty's 8-game winning streak with 72–64 victory, clinch spot in Playoffs". Washington Post. Associated Press. Retrieved September 6, 2024.
- ^ Williams, Jack (August 30, 2024). "Aces defeat Dream to clinch WNBA Playoff berth". Las Vegas Sun. Retrieved September 6, 2024.
- ^ "Breanna Stewart scores 32 points, Sabrina Ionescu adds 25 as Liberty defeat Storm 98-85". ESPN. Associated Press. August 31, 2024. Retrieved September 6, 2024.
- ^ Mordoh, Hannah (September 4, 2024). "Indiana Fever clinch 2024 playoff spot". WISH-TV. Retrieved September 6, 2024.
- ^ "Kahleah Copper scores 28 points, Mercury clinch playoff berth with 74-66 win over Dream". Washington Post. Associated Press. September 4, 2024. Retrieved September 6, 2024.