WNBA season resumes: Playoff matchups, home-court advantage, lottery implications at stake in final week — SkimNews
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- Minnesota Lynx hold a 2-game lead over the Golden State Valkyries at 31-9 with a magic number of 2 to clinch the No. 1 seed and home-court advantage throughout the playoffs.
- Aces, Dream and Fever are battling for seeds 3-5, with the Aces controlling their own destiny for No. 3, the Dream holding the tiebreaker over the Fever, and one of the three losing home-court advantage in the first round.
- Liberty, Mystics and Wings are jockeying for seeds 6-8, with the Liberty — despite injuries to Breanna Stewart, Sabrina Ionescu and Jonquel Jones — still mathematically in the hunt for home-court advantage.
- Alyssa Thomas leads Caitlin Clark 320-302 in total assists but is essentially tied per-game (8.42 to 8.38), and the per-game metric determines the assists crown; Thomas needs 38 more (9.5/game) to break her own single-season record of 357.
- Earlier this season, Thomas was retroactively suspended one game for putting her fist on Clark's throat in a Flagrant 2 foul — adding extra motivation to the rivalry between the league's top two playmakers.
- Due to expansion with the addition of the Portland Fire and Toronto Tempo, seven teams are in the 2026 WNBA lottery — the most since the inaugural 2002 lottery.
- The Connecticut Sun and Toronto Tempo face each other on the final day of the regular season — a game tied to the best odds for the No. 1 pick in the 2027 draft, where USC's JuJu Watkins is the clear favorite to go first overall.
Why it matters: The No. 1 seed guarantees home-court advantage throughout the playoffs, a real edge for the Lynx. The assists title is awarded per-game, leaving Clark and Thomas dead even despite Thomas's 18-assist total lead. The Sun-Tempo finale carries outsized stakes — its loser likely lands the best odds at No. 1 in a draft where USC's JuJu Watkins is the clear favorite.
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