The Road to the WNBA Championship Is Set

Forty-four games have determined who gets the opportunity.

Now none of them matter.

The 2026 WNBA regular season is complete, the eight-team playoff field is officially set, and beginning Sunday, every team still standing starts chasing the same thing.

A championship.

The Minnesota Lynx earned the No. 1 seed after finishing 33-11. The Golden State Valkyries secured No. 2 at 32-12. Defending champion Las Vegas enters at No. 3, followed by Atlanta, Washington, Indiana, Dallas and New York.

That produces four first-round series:

No. 1 Minnesota Lynx vs. No. 8 New York Liberty

No. 2 Golden State Valkyries vs. No. 7 Dallas Wings

No. 3 Las Vegas Aces vs. No. 6 Indiana Fever

No. 4 Atlanta Dream vs. No. 5 Washington Mystics

The first round is best-of-three with a 1-1-1 format, giving the higher seed Games 1 and 3 at home. The semifinals expand to best-of-five before the WNBA Finals becomes a best-of-seven championship series.

And there may not be much room for a slow start.

Lynx vs. Liberty: A Familiar Matchup With Different Circumstances

Two years ago, Minnesota and New York met for the WNBA championship.

Now they're meeting in the first round.

That alone makes the 1-vs.-8 matchup impossible to dismiss.

Minnesota enters as the league's top seed after a 33-win regular season and has earned home-court advantage throughout the postseason. New York, meanwhile, arrives from the opposite end of the bracket after finishing 26-18.

The Liberty aren't entering the postseason with much momentum, either. Atlanta beat New York in each of its final two meetings, including an 83-65 loss Wednesday that left the Liberty locked into the eighth seed.

But that's what makes this dangerous.

An eighth seed carrying championship experience isn't a typical first-round opponent.

Minnesota earned the right to enter the postseason as the favorite on its side of the bracket.

New York enters with nothing resembling the same regular-season résumé.

Once Game 1 begins, however, the Lynx still have to eliminate them.

Golden State Is No Longer the New Team

Last season, simply making the playoffs was historic for Golden State.

The Valkyries became the first WNBA expansion franchise to reach the postseason during its inaugural season.

Year 2 brought something different.

Expectations.

Golden State finished 32-12 and claimed the No. 2 seed by completing a wild comeback against Los Angeles in its regular-season finale. The Valkyries trailed by 16 in the second half and by 12 with less than four minutes remaining before closing on a 17-1 run to win 76-75.

That victory secured a first-round matchup with Dallas.

Golden State also swept the Wings during the regular season as part of a remarkable 21-0 combined record against seven opponents.

Last year's question was whether an expansion team could immediately compete.

Golden State answered that.

Now comes the harder question:

Can the Valkyries contend for a championship?

The Champions Are Still Here

Las Vegas doesn't enter as the No. 1 seed.

The Aces probably don't care.

They're still the defending WNBA champions, and they closed the regular season playing some of their best basketball.

Las Vegas finished 31-13 and won six straight entering the postseason.

Their first challenge is Indiana.

And that matchup brings one of the most fascinating individual stories of the postseason.

Kelsey Mitchell enters the playoffs after producing a historic regular season and breaking the WNBA's single-season scoring record.

Indiana also showed immediately before the postseason that it can challenge the league's best, beating Minnesota 96-77 on September 22.

That doesn't erase what Las Vegas has accomplished.

It does make the 3-vs.-6 series considerably more interesting than the seeds might suggest.

The champions are trying to defend their crown.

Indiana is trying to prove it belongs in that conversation.

Atlanta and Washington Might Be the Tightest Series

If you're searching for the first-round matchup where the seeds tell you almost nothing, look at No. 4 Atlanta against No. 5 Washington.

The Dream finished 30-14.

The Mystics finished 28-16.

Atlanta closed the regular season with five consecutive victories and went 9-1 over its final 10 games.

Washington wasn't far behind.

The Mystics finished by winning three straight and eight of their final 10, and their 28 victories established a new franchise record.

That means one of the league's hottest teams is guaranteed to go home in the opening round.

Atlanta earned home court.

Washington has given the Dream every reason not to feel comfortable with it.

Three Wins Aren't Required Yet

The first round doesn't offer much time to figure things out.

That's what makes the WNBA's 1-1-1 best-of-three format so unforgiving.

Lose Game 1 and suddenly the season can be 40 minutes away from ending.

Steal Game 1 on the road and the lower seed returns home with an opportunity to finish the series.

There is no seven-game runway.

There isn't even a five-game runway.

Two wins.

That's it.

The survivors move into best-of-five semifinal series beginning October 4. The WNBA Finals begin October 17 and can extend as late as October 31 if the championship requires all seven games.

Eight Teams. One Trophy.

Minnesota earned the No. 1 seed.

Golden State proved its inaugural playoff appearance wasn't a novelty.

Las Vegas still owns the championship until somebody takes it away.

Atlanta enters hot.

Washington just completed the winningest regular season in franchise history.

Indiana has one of basketball's hottest scorers.

Dallas has an opportunity to disrupt Golden State's breakthrough season.

And New York gets another shot at Minnesota in a rematch carrying memories of a championship series.

The regular season told us who earned the right to participate.

It gave us records, seeds and home-court advantage.

It gave us favorites and underdogs.

Now comes the part where those labels have to survive the basketball.

Eight teams are left.

The road to the 2026 WNBA championship starts Sunday.