What To Look For When The WNBA Season Resumes
On August 15th the WNBA season will resume and the playoff race will be even more intense as the regular season ends September 19th. The Seattle Storm, Las Vegas Aces, and Connecticut Sun should provide an exciting battle for the one seed and then for the eighth and final seed, the race will leave one real competitor for the seed on the outside. Right now, that’s the Dallas Wings but they are within striking distance of even the five seed if they get it together.
The top three seeds currently are the Storm at one 16-5, the Aces at two 15-6, and the Sun at three 14-6. Breanna Stewart and Sue Bird lead the Storm and they should make a deep run in the postseason. Stewart averages 20.6 points per game and 9.6 rebounds per game and Bird averages 10.9 points per game with 5.5 assists. Currently, the Storm are 2nd in net rating at 8.2, 2nd in offensive rating at 105.3, and 4th in defensive rating at 97.2. For the Aces, they are 1st in net rating at 11.8, 1st in offensive rating at 107.0, and 1st in defensive rating at 95.1. A’ja Wilson averages 19.4 points per game to go with 9.0 rebounds. Liz Cambage averages 14.6 points per game with 8.9 rebounds per game and Chelsea Gray averages 11.5 points per game to go with 6.1 assists. As for the Sun they are 3rd in net rating at 8.0, 4th in offensive rating at 103.1, and T-1st in defensive rating at 105.1. The Sun are lead by Jonquel Jones and Brionna Jones. Jonquel averages 21.0 points per game with 11.1 rebounds and Brionna averages 15.0 points per game with 6.9 assists per game.
For the eight seed, the Dallas Wings are currently at nine and look like they can kick someone above them out of the playoffs. As of now, the Wings are sixth in net rating at 1.8, 3rd in offensive rating at 104.8, and 8th in defensive rating at 103.1. The Wings are lead by Arike Ogunbowale’s 18.9 points per game and Marina Mabrey’s 13.9 points per game and 4.5 rebounds. The team that is most likely to fall out of the playoff picture is the New York Liberty. The Liberty are 10th in net rating at -6.7, 10th in offensive rating at 95.7, and 7th in defensive rating at 102.5. That certainly doesn’t sound like a playoff team and they definitely have work to do if they want to avoid falling out of the playoff picture.
All stats are from https://www.wnba.com
