WNBA playoff matchups decided on last day of the regular season
NEW YORK (AP) — The WNBA playoff matchups are coming into form as the regular season came to an end Thursday night.
Heading into the last day of games, all eight playoffs teams were known, but three of the four opening round matchups were still up in the air. Now there's a clearer picture.
Minnesota, which clinched the No. 1 seed a few weeks ago, will face Golden State in the opening round of the playoffs that begins Sunday. The Lynx topped the Valkyries on Thursday night in the regular-season finale for both teams to drop Golden State to the eighth spot.
With the expansion team's loss, the Indiana Fever moved up to the sixth seed. The franchise, which had its first season over .500 since 2015, will be playing either the Las Vegas Aces or Atlanta Dream. A win by the Aces over Los Angeles late Thursday night would give them the two seed. A loss would drop them to three.
Seattle moved up to the seventh seed with Golden State's defeat and will play the No. 2 seed.
Phoenix and New York are the four and five seeds and their first round matchup was determined before Thursday night's games.
While Las Vegas is playing for the No. 2 seed, Los Angeles wouldn't be hurt with a loss. If the Sparks win it also would give the franchise an equal two-year record with Washington, meaning the two franchises would split their draft lottery odds. If neither team drew a top-two selection, then the Mystics would get the No. 3 pick because they had a worse record this season.
All four of the playoff series begin Sunday with Game 2 of the best-of-three series shifting to the lower-seeded team's homecourt on either Tuesday or Wednesday.
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