Ballislife Resident W Experts Forecast the 2025 WNBA Playoffs
The 2025 WNBA playoffs commence on Sunday, Sept. 14 and if the WNBA Finals go to a game seven, the finale will take place on October 17.
The WNBA’s top eight teams qualify for the post-season, regardless of conference, and the first round of the playoffs is a best-of-three series. The semifinals are best-of-five and the WNBA Finals is best of seven. In that best of five scenario, the first game is always important so we wanted to forecast the W playoffs before the first game tip offs on Sunday.
2025 WNBA Playoff Teams
1. Minnesota Lynx (34-10) 2. Las Vegas Aces (30-14) 3. Atlanta Dream (30-14) 4. Phoenix Mercury (27-17) 5. New York Liberty (27-17) 6. Indiana Fever (24-20) 7. Seattle Storm (23-21) 8. Golden State Valkyries (23-21)
Our Ballislife resident experts give our audience a quick rundown of what they feel will transpire in the W playoffs over the next month.
Aya Abdeen, Ballislife Writer
In the first round, I predict the Minnesota Lynx, Las Vegas Aces, Atlanta Dream, and Phoenix Mercury will advance to the semifinals. One matchup I can see going to three games for sure is between Phoenix and New York. The Mercury have been healthy for most of the second half of the season, have found their identity through team chemistry, and also hold a home-court advantage. The Liberty, on the other hand, just got their key players in time for the postseason, but I’m curious to see how it all works out, especially after dealing with injuries at the worst possible time.
Other than that, I can see the Minnesota Lynx and Las Vegas Aces facing off in this year’s WNBA Finals and the series going up to seven games. Both of them have similarities when it comes to their productivity on both ends of the court. Respect to both the Dream and Mercury for the seasons they’ve had (I grew up as a Phoenix basketball fan).
WNBA Finals Prediction: Minnesota Lynx vs. Las Vegas Aces (Minnesota wins in six)
Grant Afseth, Ballislife Writer
There is no player more unstoppable in the WNBA than A’ja Wilson right now. No team is hotter than the Las Vegas Aces, either. The long-favored title pick has been the Minnesota Lynx, while the defending champion New York Liberty is another popular option. If the Lynx and Liberty win their first-round series, it would result in a matchup in the second round. The path is simpler for Las Vegas to get to the Finals.
Teams that appear primed to advance past the first round include the Atlanta Dream, Lynx, Aces, and Liberty. The closest series appears set to be the Phoenix Mercury taking on New York, but the Liberty get the edge despite not having home-court advantage. The Indiana Fever are likely too shorthanded to defeat the Dream. The Aces appear primed to take out an inconsistent Seattle Storm team. Lastly, the Golden State Valkyries have had a great season, but Minnesota should get it done quickly.
WNBA Finals Prediction: Aces defeat Lynx in 7
Sara Jane Gamelli, Ballislife Managing Editor
It’s clear the Minnesota Lynx are on a revenge tour after falling to the New York Liberty in last year’s WNBA Finals. Minnesota is the consensus No.1, and it’s easy to see why they’re the clear favorite among several popular sportsbooks.
Led by the best in the business, head coach Cheryl Reeve, you can feel the championship aroma in the air. With a league best 34-10 record, this team is stacked top to bottom. MVP front-runner Napheesa Collier has put up historic numbers this season, and the Lynx even stayed afloat in her absence.
The Lynx traded for DiJonai Carrington at the deadline, further strengthening the defense of this team. Alanna Smith and Jessica Shepard have been huge in the frontcourt, while Kayla McBride continues to shine as one of the most elite two-way flamethrowers. Once McBride gets hot beyond the arc, she’s nearly impossible to contain.
Sure, Collier is the Lynx leading scorer, but it’s her supporting cast and coaching staff that make this team premier. Knocking at the door once again, I’m a huge fan of the assistant coaching additions of Lindsay Whalen and Eric Thibault. Plus, Courtney Williams and Natisha Hiedeman, better known as the “Stud Budz,” have been lights out for the Lynx. It also helps that Minnesota has solid bench depth, one that averaged 22.8 points per game.
As the No. 1 seed, I expect the Lynx to take care of business against the Golden State Valkyries in round one, and I don’t see the Liberty going back-to-back. The Lynx dropped just 10 games, two of which came against No.4 Phoenix Mercury and New York.
Having finished the season with 16 straight victories and earning the No. 2 seed, it’s hard to see any team taking down the Aces. I do believe they will have a tough matchup with Seattle, but Vegas is more than capable of handling the Indiana Fever in the Semifinal (Since Caitlin Clark and several players are out with injury). While the Atlanta Dream might be the toughest test, they are the only team I could see knocking off the Aces. Led by MVP and Defensive Player of the Year front-runner A’ja Wlson, it’s hard to fade them heading into the playoffs.
This is where I predict a Lynx vs Aces finals. Who wouldn’t want to see a classic finals matchup between head coaches Becky Hammon and Cheryl Reeve. Both have won multiple championships and are among the most intense and passionate coaches in the WNBA.
The Aces are elite, and turned their season around post All-Star break.. With a core roster of A’ja Wilson, Chelsea Gray, Jackie Young, and Jewell Loyd, they’ve proven they belong in the championship conversation.
That said, I give the edge to the Lynx. The organization is clearly chasing its first WNBA championship since 2017. Leading the league in offensive, defensive, and net rating, Minnesota has dominated in nearly every facet.
The Lynx won the regular season series over the Aces 3-1, and I highly doubt the Aces will endure another 111-58 loss against Minnesota. Still, the Lynx have a defensive edge and have retained their main core of last year’s finals roster.
WNBA Finals Prediction: Lynx over Aces
Geoff Magliocchetti, Ballislife Writer
The general consensus is that a greater sense of parity lingers over this WNBA postseason after the Liberty and Lynx’s epic meet-up felt like a foregone conclusion last time around. How some of the league’s finest have stepped up in recent weeks, however, suggests otherwise and hints at familiar faces once again reigning supreme in the “nobody gets a bye” era.
With high-profile injuries eating away at the contenders from the bottom half of the bracket (i.e. Caitlin Clark, Kayla Thornton) the only true bit of series-altering drama in the opening round should stem from the series between the Liberty and the Mercury. Phoenix generally outmatched the defending champions in three of their four get-togethers this season, but only one featured a full-strength seafoam squad.
The only problem for the victors of that series, however, is that it will likely have to face the league-leading Lynx, no doubt still smarting over last year’s defeat in the Finals. A challenge will no doubt be staged but betting against an infuriated Naphessa Collier, Kalya McBride, and Courtney Williams before returning to the promised land seems like a tough ask at this point. On the other side, the Dream feels like the likeliest team to end Sin City’s lengthy winning streak (Good night, Seattle, we love you), but more elite postseason experience could well prove to be the difference in the potential future.
That sets up a Finals showdown between Las Vegas and Minnesota with MVP contenders Collier and A’ja Wilson doing battle. It should be the desired seven under the new format, but experience, once again, rules the day as Vegas takes another title to perhaps dip Wilson’s legacy in pure gold.
WNBA Finals Prediction: Aces over Lynx
Isabelle McCarthy, Ballislife Writer
This year’s playoff format is quite interesting. For the first round, I can see the Minnesota Lynx sweeping the Golden State Valkyries. Golden State loves to shoot 3-pointers, which can also be their biggest flaw in their series, especially against a team like Minnesota, which doesn’t shoot as many as the Valkyries but they are the best 3-point shooting team in the league.
Meanwhile the Phoenix Mercury and New York Liberty are going to Game 3, with the Liberty moving forward. It just so happens that New York is now fully healthy in time for playoffs, which should give us an entertaining semifinal rematch between the Liberty and Lynx, last season’s finalists.
The rematch between New York and Minnesota will be worth watching, however I believe the Lynx are looking for all kinds of revenge and would love to send the Liberty home early. I do think the Liberty will put up a good fight, but in the end the Lynx will take the series in Game 4, and punch their ticket to the 2025 WNBA Finals to finish the job this time.
As for the opposite side, we have four interesting teams and once again audiences will be seeing the Seattle Storm face off against the Las Vegas Aces. In the past five postseasons, these two will have met three times. The Aces are riding a 16-game win streak going into the first round and quite frankly they aren’t stopping. This should be a clean sweep for Las Vegas.
The Indiana Fever and Atlanta Dream series is going to a Game 3. Both teams can be inconsistent, but rely on their superstars to get the job done. Atlanta should be the favorite with all the injuries Indiana has, but the Fever battled to the sixth seed despite everybody counting them out. This is going to be a tough matchup, but it’s going to come down to who plays better defense, and I think Atlanta’s defense is better going into this series.
This leaves a semifinal matchup between the Dream and Aces, and to put it lightly, I think the Aces got the easier side to the coin, as they won’t have to see the Liberty, Lynx, or even Mercury until the Finals. The Aces are just playing like the better team right now, and there isn’t a foot on the gas pedal to suggest their dominance will stop. In June it would be crazy to predict the Aces getting to this point, but A’ja Wilson and Jackie Young are going to come up big in this series to send Las Vegas to the WNBA Finals in four games.
The 2025 WNBA Finals between the Las Vegas Aces and Minnesota should be an interesting and fun matchup. There’s a lot of noise surrounding Napheesa Collier and A’ja Wilson that leaves me to believe we will see these two put up extraordinary numbers.
WNBA Finals Prediction: The Lynx have been on a revenge tour since the ending of Game 5 of the 2024 WNBA Finals, and with now a seven game series, I could see the Lynx winning it all in Game 7.
