The defending champion Las Vegas Aces and A’ja Wilson will look to three-peat while sensation rookie Caitlin Clark makes her postseason debut when the WNBA playoffs begin Sunday.
Those are just two of the storylines to follow when the league’s postseason starts.
This is the third straight postseason the league will use a best-of-three format in the first round with the higher seeded team hosting the first two games. A decisive third game would be played at the home of the lower seed.
Many players and coaches weren’t thrilled with the format especially now that the league provided teams charter flights all season long. The WNBA chartered flights for all playoff games starting in 2023.
Now that we have charters that should have changed automatically,” New York forward Breanna Stewart said. “To create the home-court advantage. So there’s just some, like, little nuances that need to be looked at and be dissected a little bit. Obviously if we can extend playoffs, it makes it feel a little bit less rushed.”
New York, which hosts Atlanta in the first round, played the Dream in the final regular-season game on Thursday. So both teams were already in the city for this weekend’s opening game.