The WNBA playoffs has reached its semifinal round with four teams facing off for a shot at a Finals appearance. The Phoenix Mercury and Los Angeles Sparks go toe-to-toe first, followed by a showdown between the Washington Mystics and Minnesota Lynx. Both games will air consecutively on ESPN2 Tuesday night beginning with Mystics vs. Lynx at 8 p.m. ET followed by Mercury-Sparks at 10 p.m.
The most important thing to know about every remaining WNBA team
Three teams from last year’s WNBA semifinals are returning for this one, but there are some significant changes all around.
Photo by Hannah Foslien/Getty Images
Three of the four teams are the same as last season, but all of them have different looks this time around. Here’s the important things you should know about the four teams.
The Mystics have finally put it together
Washington is the newcomer to the WNBA semifinals, joining the three other teams repeating from last season. But for most of the season, it didn’t look like that would be the case. After all, the Mystics only finished 18-16 this season in a roller coaster campaign. After all, they won five straight games early in the year but also finished with six losses in their final eight matchups.
Much of that can be directly attributed to Elena Delle Donne, though, who had a season as up and down as the Mystics themselves. Delle Donne, the 2015 WNBA MVP, was great early in the year but struggled a little bit more as the summer progressed. She missed a couple games in July and then most of August with injuries, and her absence hit the Mystics hard.
With her return, though, the team is putting it together. Kristi Toliver is a crucial veteran addition, something we all saw on Sunday when she set a WNBA record with nine made three-pointers. Between her and Delle Donne’s resurgent play — and we all knew she would come around — Washington is playing their best basketball right now.
No Toliver, no problem for the Sparks
The defending champions did lose Toliver, a crucial part of their title-winning team who signed with her local team, the Mystics, in February. But Los Angeles pegged Odyssey Sims as her replacement and haven’t missed a beat, securing the second-best record in the league once again.
The Sparks received a second-straight standout season from Nneka Ogwumike (18.8 points, 7.7 rebounds per game), another stat-stuffing season from Candace Parker, and a career year from Chelsea Gray (up from 5.9 points per game in 2016 to 14.8 this year). The result was a 26-8 record and a best-of-five series against Phoenix for a chance to return to the Finals.
Phoenix is back, but they look much different
The Mercury were here last year, but if not for the purple-and-orange jerseys, you might not recognize them.
Only three players returned this season from their 2016 squad, a near-total roster revamp for a team that was quite good last season, too. Yes, two of the returning players are Diana Taurasi and Brittney Griner, and those two stars are still the players that moves the team along. But all around the edges, the supporting cast is different. Though the Mercury have snuck into the semifinals, there are legitimate concerns about their depth — especially with only a single bench player (Monique Currie) averaging double digit scoring this year.
Phoenix took down the Seattle Storm before stunning the Connecticut Sun in Round 2. The Mercury will need more good luck if they want to come away with a victory over the Sparks.
Can Whalen return to form right away?
A rough 14th season for Linday Whalen swerved off the road in August when she needed surgery on a fractured fifth metacarpal (pinky bone) in her left hand. Whalen has returned to practice and is expected to play her first game back with the team when they open on Tuesday, but there are viable concerns about how well she’ll be able to perform right away.
Looking at Minnesota’s season, it’s easy to pinpoint when Whalen went out. They were 20-2 on Aug. 3 when Whalen suffered the injury, before finishing the season 27-7. That’s still a 7-5 record in the team’s final month, but Whalen’s steady hand at the helm of the offense is needed for the team to play their best.
Still, though, the Lynx clearly have gobs of firepower even outside of Whalen. It starts with veteran center Sylvia Fowles, who’s enjoying a resurgent 2017 season in Minnesota. Then, of course, there’s Maya Moore, whose numbers have trended downward in recent seasons but is still one of the best talents in the WNBA who shoots 41 percent from range. And with help from Seimone Augustus and Rebekkah Brunson, Minnesota is poised to return to the WNBA Finals and rectify its Game 5 loss to Los Angeles last season.
