5 Biggest Questions Facing the WNBA as the Regular Season Resumes

The WNBA comes back Thursday, Sept. 17, with Washington at Chicago and Los Angeles at Dallas among the first games on the slate. Nobody has played since Aug. 30. The league shut down for more than two weeks so its players could go to Berlin for the FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup. Each of the 15 teams has four games left.

Five games on Thursday, Sept. 24, close out the regular season. Eight teams make the playoffs, and conference does not matter. The first round is best-of-three and starts Sunday, Sept. 27.

All eight of those spots are filled. Minnesota, Golden State, Las Vegas, Atlanta, Indiana, New York, Washington, and Dallas have clinched.

Team USA beat France 97-79 in the World Cup final on Sept. 13 for its fifth straight title and 12th overall. A combined 70 current and former WNBA players appeared in the tournament.

The league also returns with its commissioner on the way out. Cathy Engelbert announced Sept. 4 that she will retire effective Dec. 31, and the search for her replacement is expected to begin this month. Indiana's Sophie Cunningham has already said the next commissioner must unite everybody.

The Minnesota Lynx are 31-9 and have held first place for most of the season. They lost their last two games before the break.

Golden State sits two games behind at 29-11 and has won four straight.

Minnesota beat Golden State in the Bay Area in mid-August. The Valkyries won the rematch a week later.

Minnesota's first game back is Friday, Sept. 18, at home against the New York Liberty. The Liberty beat the Lynx by double digits in early July, one of only two times all season Minnesota has lost by 10 or more. That was before Napheesa Collier's first game of the year. Surgery on both ankles kept her out until July 22.

Before the season, Minnesota lost Bridget Carleton, Natisha Hiedeman, DiJonai Carrington, and Alanna Smith in free agency. Rookie Olivia Miles averaged 19.7 points, 4.6 rebounds, and 6.2 assists before the break.

Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve's team closes the regular season with two straight games against the Indiana Fever.

The top four finishers host the first round. The Las Vegas Aces are third at 27-13, one game ahead of the Atlanta Dream and the Fever, who are both 26-14.

Seattle comes first. Las Vegas sees the 8-32 Storm twice in four days, on Sept. 17 and again Sept. 20, before a home game against Los Angeles and a road finale in Phoenix. All three opponents have been eliminated.

Atlanta finishes with back-to-back games against New York. Indiana has Minnesota twice at the end, and before that it hosts the Washington Mystics on Sunday, Sept. 20.

The Fever and Mystics split their first two meetings by two points apiece. Washington won 104-102 in overtime. Indiana won 78-76.

Kelsey Mitchell set a WNBA record in August with her 21st straight 20-point game, scoring 37 points in a 91-85 loss to Dallas. She went 15-of-15 at the free-throw line that night.

New York, Washington, and Dallas are all 24-16. The No. 8 seed opens against the No. 1 seed.

The Liberty play at Minnesota on Friday. They finish with the two games against Atlanta.

Washington starts Thursday at Chicago, which lost its last three games before the break. Sonia Citron and Kiki Iriafen are coming back from the World Cup for that one. After the Indiana game, the Mystics play only teams already eliminated.

Dallas took a four-game winning streak into the break. None of the Wings' last four opponents made the playoffs.

The Wings host the Los Angeles Sparks on Sept. 17 at College Park Center. They play the Phoenix Mercury on Sept. 19 and again in Phoenix on Sept. 21, then finish at Seattle on Sept. 23.

Dallas beat Phoenix by 15 points in June in the teams' only meeting. The Mercury are 14-26 and will not have Kelsey Plum. Phoenix acquired Plum from Los Angeles in a trade that sent Monique Akoa Makani to the Sparks, and Plum announced before the World Cup that she will miss the rest of the season with an injury.

The berth is the Wings' first in three seasons. Wings coach Jose Fernandez is in his first year.

Smith played 12 minutes for Australia in its World Cup opener against Puerto Rico on Sept. 4. She had 10 points and eight rebounds, went 4-of-5 from the field, and limped off after a defensive rebound in the second quarter.

Australia won 70-54. Smith sat at the end of the bench in a hoodie for the second half.

Smith is a central piece of what the Opals run, and FIBA rules did not allow Australia to replace her on the roster.

"I don't have a status report on Alanna," Opals coach Sandy Brondello said. "Obviously we're praying that she'll be okay. She's such a big part of what we do, and she had played great in the 12 minutes that she did play."

Basketball Australia ruled her out for the rest of the tournament on Sept. 9. No timetable has been announced for her return to the Wings.

Smith shared the 2025 Defensive Player of the Year award with A'ja Wilson while playing for Minnesota. She signed a three-year contract worth roughly $3.75 million with Dallas this offseason and has averaged 6.0 points and 3.9 rebounds in 32 games, with 18 starts. Her first season in Dallas has included a broken nose in the preseason, a stint in the concussion protocol in late June, and a right leg injury that cost her games in July.

Seattle's Ezi Magbegor tore her ACL at the tournament and is out for the rest of the season.

Wilson has won MVP four times, in 2020, 2022, 2024, and 2025. No player has won it three years in a row.

Going into the break, Wilson was at 26.0 points, 9.4 rebounds, and 3.2 assists a game. Her scoring average leads the league.

USA Basketball went to Berlin without her. Wilson pulled out before the tournament, and Team USA named Washington's Kiki Iriafen and Sonia Citron as the replacements for Wilson and Plum.

Miles was named the league's Rookie of the Month for August on Sept. 2, her fourth such award this season. No rookie has won MVP since Candace Parker in 2008.

Indiana guard Caitlin Clark played for Team USA at the World Cup. WNBA.com's most recent MVP ladder had Wilson, Miles, and Clark as its top three.

A player has won MVP on a team without a top-four record four times: Lauren Jackson in 2003 and 2007, Sheryl Swoopes in 2005, and Parker in 2008.

Wilson and the Aces return Thursday against Seattle.