2025 WNBA playoff seeds, scenarios and records: End of regular season guide

The longest regular play successful WNBA past has yet arrived astatine its past day, and there's plentifulness astatine involvement heading into Thursday's finales.

Eight teams -- the Atlanta Dream, Golden State Valkyries, Indiana Fever, Las Vegas Aces, Minnesota Lynx, New York Liberty, Phoenix Mercury and Seattle Storm -- unfastened the 2025 WNBA playoffs Sunday, but done Wednesday's games, the seeds are acceptable for less than fractional of the teams and lone 1 of 4 first-round bid matchups is determined.

Two of Thursday's 4 games transportation playoff implications, including 1 that also impacts the draught lottery. But a winning streak and a spot successful the WNBA grounds books are besides astatine play. Here's what to ticker arsenic the league's archetypal 44-game regular play draws to a adjacent and the playoff representation is yet locked in.

Seeds that person been determined

No. 1 seed: Minnesota Lynx

No. 4 seed: Phoenix Mercury (will play New York successful archetypal round)

No. 5 seed: New York Liberty (will play Phoenix successful archetypal round)

Thursday's games with seeding implications

Golden State Valkyries astatine Minnesota Lynx

Although the Lynx person agelong since locked up the apical effect successful the WNBA playoffs, their regular-season finale (8 ET, NBATV) volition find who they look successful the archetypal round, arsenic good arsenic the bid of the Nos. 6, 7 and 8 seeds.

After losing Tuesday to Seattle -- a triumph that clinched the Storm a playoff spot -- the Valkyries tin decorativeness with either the sixth oregon eighth effect depending connected the effect of Thursday's game. A triumph would enactment Golden State successful sixth, and a nonaccomplishment would driblet it to eighth and mean the Valkyries would commencement the playoffs wherever they decorativeness the regular season: astatine Minnesota.

That, successful turn, would impact the seeding for the Storm and Fever. A Golden State triumph means Indiana finishes seventh and Seattle eighth. A nonaccomplishment pushes some teams up a spot. That's absorbing successful portion due to the fact that the Storm divided the play bid with the Lynx, handing them 1 of 2 losses each play astatine the Target Center precocious past month. Minnesota has won each 3 matchups with Golden State frankincense far.

By completing a play bid expanse Thursday, Minnesota would debar Seattle successful the archetypal circular successful favour of a Golden State squad making its postseason debut. -- Kevin Pelton

Las Vegas Aces astatine Los Angeles Sparks

To unafraid the No. 2 seed, the Aces volition request to widen their winning streak to 16 consecutive games (more connected that below) to decorativeness the regular season. Atlanta's triumph Wednesday implicit the Connecticut Sun successful their regular-season finale gave the Dream 30 wins, but Las Vegas holds the tiebreaker and would assertion the No. 2 effect -- and home-court vantage should the teams conscionable successful the semifinals -- with a 30th triumph Thursday.

The last crippled of the regular play (10 p.m. ET, NBATV) besides has implications for the WNBA draught lottery. A Sparks triumph would lucifer the

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