WNBA playoffs first-round openers: Sunday highlights, analysis

The WNBA playoffs are underway. The best-of-three first round tipped off Sunday as the top-seeded Minnesota Lynx opened with a dominant Game 1 home victory.

The postseason now shifts to Atlanta, where the Dream host the Indiana Fever.

How will the first round play out? What games are we most looking forward to, which players might step up, and which matchups will have the most impact? ESPN breaks down what to expect — and provides postgame analysis on every game Sunday.

MORE: Playoff predictions | Strengths, flaws for every team | Top 25 players | Schedule

Sunday schedule

3 p.m. ET (ABC): No. 6 seed Indiana Fever at No. 3 seed Atlanta Dream

5 p.m. ET (ESPN): No. 5 seed New York Liberty at No. 4 seed Phoenix Mercury

10 p.m. ET (ESPN): No. 7 seed Seattle Storm at No. 2 seed Las Vegas Aces

Final: Minnesota 101, Golden State 72

What the win means for Minnesota: The Lynx took control in the second quarter. After trailing by six at the end of the first, the Lynx opened the second quarter on a 15-5 run, outscored the Valkyries 26-12 in the period and led 47-40 at halftime.

Natisha Hiedeman, a candidate for Sixth Player of the Year, provided the Lynx with a big spark off the bench, as she has done all season. The momentum shifted as soon as she checked into the game with 3:43 left in the first quarter. Hiedeman finished the game with a career-high 18 points in 23 minutes.

The Lynx never looked back, outscoring the Valkyries 54-34 through the final two quarters to move one game away from returning to the semifinals.

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What the loss means for Golden State: The Valkyries trail 0-1 in the series as they return to the Bay Area — where they will play at the SAP Center in San Jose instead of Chase Center in San Francisco. It’s a tall task to slow the Lynx, but there were flashes today of what could steal them a game this series and avoid a sweep.

Golden State entered the playoffs ranked 12th in the league in 3-point percentage, but the Valkyries had one of their best shooting periods of the season Sunday. They shot 5-of-8 (62.5%) from beyond the arc and held Minnesota to 8-of-20 from the floor at the other end. They were creating good looks, not just hoisting up shots and hoping for the best. To even the series, they have to replicate this kind of offense and take control of the game again.

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X factor for Game 2: Bench production will be a big factor in either the Valkyries forcing a Game 3 or the Lynx sweeping the series. Golden State’s second unit scored six points until the benches were cleared with 3:37 left in the game — all by Kate Martin. Its bench finished with 17, while Minnesota got 42 points from its second unit. Hiedeman had 18, while Jessica Shepard added 12 points and DiJonai Carrington, who had missed the past four games with a shoulder injury, finished with six points on two made 3-pointers.

The Valkyries need more from these bench minutes and can’t solely rely on their starters if they want to make it past the first round. — Kendra Andrews

What individual matchup are you most looking forward to seeing Sunday?

Kevin Pelton: New York’s Breanna Stewart vs. Phoenix’s Alyssa Thomas. This matchup itself is nothing new — Stewart’s Liberty beat Thomas’ Connecticut Sun in the 2023 semifinals — but the Mercury’s spacing presents a different challenge for New York in slowing down Thomas.

Kendra Andrews: I’m looking at the same game as Pelton, but a different matchup: Thomas vs. New York’s Jonquel Jones. Both have size, but one plays with a bit more finesse and the other with a lot of power and force down low. I think how New York coach Sandy Brondello and Phoenix’s Nate Tibbetts deploy these players — and how they perform — will dictate the games.

Alexa Philippou: There are a few big ones in Dream-Fever. In the battle of the backcourt, Kelsey Mitchell having a historic season for Indiana, while Atlanta’s Allisha Gray has had an All-WNBA first-team caliber season — and former No. 1 pick Rhyne Howard completes the Dream’s one-two guard punch. Brionna Jones (and Brittney Griner) vs. Aliyah Boston is also a fun battle down low. It’s a rematch from last year’s first round (when Jones still played for the Sun), when Boston had the upper hand.

Elsewhere, the frontcourt talent in Storm-Aces will be appointment viewing, with A’ja Wilson playing at an otherworldly level and Seattle stacked with the likes of Nneka Ogwumike, Ezi Magbegor and the up-and-coming Dominique Malonga. Will the Storm be able to slow Wilson down?

What game are you most excited to see Sunday?

Pelton: New York vs. Phoenix. Both of these teams were expecting a deep playoff run all season, but one will be facing an elimination Game 2. Neither wants to be in that situation, especially with difficult travel between each game in this series.

Andrews: The star power in Phoenix-New York alone makes it must-watch basketball. The defending champion’s roster features Breanna Stewart, Sabrina Ionescu, Jones, Emma Meesseman and Natasha Cloud (to name a few). The Mercury have Thomas, Satou Sabally, Kahleah Copper and DeWanna Bonner. The fact there’s so much at stake makes the series even more intriguing.

Philippou: There’s a lot of familiarity between Las Vegas and Seattle, which also faced off in the 2020, 2022 and 2024 playoffs. And that was before Jewell Loyd was traded from the Storm to the Aces this past offseason when her tenure in the Emerald City didn’t end on the best of terms. Las Vegas has been red-hot in August and September, while Seattle has been remarkably inconsistent. Can the Storm, desperate for their first postseason win since Sue Bird retired, make things interesting in Vegas and this series as a whole?

What storyline are you most excited to watch play out this postseason?

Michael Voepel: The Dream likely feel overlooked among the playoff teams, but they shouldn’t be. They are a far better team offensively than last season, when they averaged a league-low 77.0 PPG, especially from behind the arc. So it will be interesting to see how well the Dream play in the postseason when their offense could carry them further than they’ve been since 2018. Their series with Indiana is intriguing as the teams split their four regular-season games.

Philippou: I’m fascinated to see what the Liberty look like in the playoffs. Their repeat bid has gone awry, in large part due to injuries, but it’s fair to say they have underachieved this season.

Now their road to a Finals return is incredibly difficult and it won’t come with home-court advantage all postseason. With their big three healthy, and Meesseman in the mix, will the Liberty look like the dominant team we saw at the beginning of the season — or will they shockingly flame out early? And what would an early exit mean heading into 2026 and beyond?

Pelton: I’m fascinated by the Aces. They don’t make any sense. Acknowledging the regular season is now 44 games, other teams that put together long winning streaks had single-digit losses rather than starting the streak at .500 like Las Vegas. (The 2014 WNBA champion Phoenix Mercury, for example, won 16 consecutive games in the regular season, where they were 29-5.) And in part because of their 53-point loss to the Lynx, the Aces still had only the WNBA’s fifth-best point differential, behind the Fever. I believe Las Vegas has improved into a championship contender, but we won’t really know until the playoffs.

First-round playoff predictions