The WNBA semifinals are set and a new champion is guaranteed after all four remaining teams were challenged in the opening round.
Minnesota, Las Vegas and Phoenix have all made it this far in the past few years, while Indiana, even without the injured Caitlin Clark, won a playoff series for the first time in a decade. The Lynx will face the Mercury, and the Aces will play the Fever in best-of-five series that begin Sunday.
The Lynx are looking for their first championship since 2017. Minnesota reached the WNBA Finals last year before losing to New York in overtime in a decisive Game 5. The Lynx were the only team to sweep their first-round series, but were pushed hard by Golden State.
They’ll face a confident Phoenix squad that knocked out the Liberty in three games. Minnesota, which had the best record in the regular season, won three of the four matchups during the regular season, but the Mercury weren’t completely healthy for most of those meetings.
“They haven’t played us at full strength yet,” said Phoenix forward Alyssa Thomas, who had her fifth postseason triple-double in the Game 3 win over New York.
Minnesota is led by Napheesa Collier, who is a leading candidate for the league’s MVP. The Lynx also have a solid group around her including co-Defensive Player of the Year Alanna Smith, Courtney Williams and Kayla McBride.
The Lynx also have the advantage of a bit more rest then the Mercury, having finished off their series with Golden State on Wednesday.
“We’ve matched up with Minnesota pretty well all season. We’re going to celebrate tonight and worry about them tomorrow,” Phoenix coach Nate Tibbetts said.
The other matchup will have the experienced Aces playing a short-handed Indiana team. The sixth-seeded Fever shocked Atlanta in the opening round, winning without Clark, who is sidelined for the playoffs with a right groin injury that kept her out of the last 2 1/2 months of the regular season. Indiana is led by Kelsey Mitchell, who had the best season of her career, and Aliyah Boston.
They’ll face an Aces team that needed a go-ahead basket on a follow shot with 12 seconds left to beat Seattle and reach the semifinals. Reigning MVP A’ja Wilson has been stellar all season long and raised her game during the Aces’ winning streak and first round of the playoffs.
The Aces won their final 16 games of the regular season, but struggled in their games against the Fever early in the year, dropping two of the three meetings. The last time they played was July 24 and the Aces, who won back-to-back titles in 2022 and 2023, have been a very different team since.
___
AP WNBA: https://apnews.com/hub/wnba-basketball
