With the 2025 WNBA Playoffs getting underway on Sunday, which first-round series carries the best headlines?
The WNBA Playoffs: enjoy them while you can.
With a potentially brutal labor battle on the horizon, the league and its top eight finishers will get a last hurrah of sorts with the annual postseason tournament, which gets underway with a quartet of quarterfinal openers throughout Sunday. The league-leading Minnesota Lynx tip off action against the eighth-ranked Golden State Valkyries before the Atlanta Dream hosts the Indiana Fever in the early afternoon.
Shortly after, the defending champion New York Liberty takes on the Phoenix Mercury, opening on the road as the fifth-seed against the fourth, while the runner-up Las Vegas Aces and their epic winning streak will close things out against the Seattle Storm in a Sin City nightcap.
In celebration of the postseason, Ballislife ranks the four first-round matchups in order of watchability, to help you make the most of the WNBA time that’s guaranteed on the current calendar.
4. Dream vs. Fever
If anything, the Dream can salvage a relative nightmare for the league, even if there’s really nothing in it for them beyond a long-sought advancement: it has been nine years since the Dream has seen its name move on the WNBA bracket, the second-longest such active drought in league history. Immediately behind them, ironically enough, the Fever is right ahead of them at 10, but that won’t be enough to shift the intrigue in this first-round set.
Atlanta quietly rose to the third seed, headlined by sterling sharpshooting from Allisha Gray and Rhyne Howard, not to mention Naz Hillmon’s breakout as a reliable depth star that is projected to end with the Sixth Woman of the Year honor in her pocket. Everything about the Dream, beyond the legendary Brittney Griner, hints at their serving as a “not ready for prime player” on this bracke, but the firepower is certainly there to prove the basketball world wrong.
Without Caitlin Clark, Are the Fever Doomed?
Alas for Atlanta, it’s trapped in a matchup with the downtrodden Fever, which is counting down the innumerable days until opening day 2026. A good bit of luster from any Fever playoff series is, of course, tarnished by the lack of Caitlin Clark, who headlines an injury report that could well serve as a starting five. From an Indianapolis perspective, the series could be worth watching solely to see what more Kelsey Mitchell can possibly do to keep this team afloat—getting to the sixth seed, frankly, is impressive enough—but that’s not enough to elevate it over the other matchups.
Even with Mitchell’s breakout season, taking down Indiana doesn’t do any favors for a Dream group looking to prove itself, as it’s hard to think of any notable reward for putting the Fever out of its misery. That hurts this series in terms of watchability.
3. Lynx vs. Valkyries
Has the air been let out of Ballhalla? It definitely feels like a hole has been poked, even with taking into account its facing off against a not-so-Minnesota-nice squad.
A late tumble down the playoff board brought about by a three-game losing streak (the streak sandwiched by these very Lynx) is understandable, even forgivable, considering all that has transpired in the Bay Area this season.
But what truly stings is the fact that the Valkyries won’t even have the comforts of home to potentially send them off in Game 2: a previously scheduled tennis tournament at Chase Center is forcing the Valkyries on the road to San Jose, where they’ll host the defending finalists on Wednesday night. Golden State, of course, has defied its original critics before, but defeating an angry group of previous runner-ups and ending Napheesa Collier’s possible MVP tour early seem like tall tasks for anyone, much less a group making its maiden postseason voyage and missing franchise faces Tiffany Hayes and Kayla Thornton.
If and when the inevitable comes to pass, the Valkyries will have nothing to be ashamed about. They hit the jackpot when it comes to expansion and probably never had a believer at any point this season, thanks to both their expansion status and the growing list of injuries. At the very least, fans will be treated to Collier’s brilliance, Alanna Smith’s defense, Kayla McBride’s outside shooting, and the heroics of StudBudz Natisha Hiedeman and Courtney Williams.
The expected outcome of this series yields a result where everyone wins in a sense, so that feels like a perfect reason to leave it out of last place.
2025 WNBA title odds! 💍
— Ballislife Bets (@BallislifeBets) September 14, 2025
The playoffs start today, and the Lynx are the favorites!
Lynx +105
Aces +260
Liberty +350
Dream +1000
Mercury +2500
Storm +6000
Valkyries +30000
Fever +30000
Who ya got?#WNBAPlayoffs #WNBA #ALLINLV #nowyouknow #LightItUpNYL #WNBATwitter pic.twitter.com/2lSQ1hab0J
2. Aces vs. Storm
As little as a month ago, some felt that Las Vegas was ripe for a first-round upset, which probably would’ve elevated its series on a list such as this.
All that and more, of course, is of no matter to A’ja Wilson, who is poised to crash both the MVP and playoff parties. What could well stand as Wilson’s magnum opus to date shouldn’t be missed, and she has been aided in this recent by newcomers and returnees alike.
The Aces’ season seemed to hit a new level when NaLyssa Smith broke out of North Texas purgatory and Jewell Loyd eventually found her Sin City footing after a rocky start. Kelsey Plum is gone, but Wilson still has championship cohorts Chelsea Gray and Jackie Young in tow, both hitting their relative stride as the postseason ramps up.
Vegas is obviously the main attraction here, but the Storm, partly aided by the late acquisition of Brittney Sykes and the sneaky two-way game of Gabby Williams, could well carry the defensive fortitude to bust the Aces. Aided by the legendary presence of Nneka Ogwumike, the Storm split a four-game set with Las Vegas this year, and they enter the tournament mostly healthy, which makes them one of the more intriguing cases at the bottom of the bracket.
1. Mercury vs. Liberty
Perhaps the only series capable of evening prognosticators, a good number of headlines and subplots reside in the middle of the bracket.
Is a healthy lifestyle the metropolitan key? Phoenix took all but one quarter of the four-game regular season set, but the lone Liberty win came when it had a full Seafoam contingent available on July 25. Even with that in mind, the Mercury’s propensity for rebounding (Natasha Mack), forcing turnovers (Satou Sabally), or both and more (Alyssa Thomas), Phoenix seems tailor-made to end the Liberty’s repeat run.
But New York’s traditional starting five, headlined by its “big three” of Sabrina Ionescu, Jonquel Jones, and Breanna Stewart, is undefeated when it starts and finishes a game together, a ledger maxing out at 10 appearances due to the aforementioned recurring injuries. No team on the bracket carries more postseason experience than New York, which has a combined 252 games of WNBA playoff work to date, and that doesn’t include the international hardware such as Olympic medals and overseas MVP titles.
Phoenix and New York previously provided one of the last great memories of the single-game playoff round, as the Mercury took a narrow 83-82 decision en route to the WNBA Finals in 2021. That run, ironically, was not only overseen by Liberty head coach Sandy Brondello but also serves as the most recent occasion where the fifth seed on the WNBA bracket secured any sort of advancement.
The only downside of the series? The sheer amount of firepower and headlines is enough to make one forget that the presumably exhausted winner’s will likely be a bout with the league-leading Lynx.
Geoff Magliocchetti is on X @GeoffJMags
