On paper, the WNBA playoffs started on Sunday, when all eight groups took to the courtroom for a quadruple-header of Sport 1s. However, in spirit, the postseason actually started on Tuesday night time, when the No. 6 Indiana Fever and No. 7 Seattle Storm pulled off massive upsets over the No. 3 Atlanta Dream and No. 2 Las Vegas Aces, respectively, to push each first-round collection to a deciding Sport 3.
It was a completely electrical night time of basketball that noticed shorthanded Fever — who misplaced two-time All-Star Caitlin Clark and 4 different gamers to season-ending accidents this 12 months — win their first playoff sport since 2015 by completely dismantling the Dream in entrance of 16,682 raucous followers at Gainbridge Fieldhouse. The Storm, in the meantime, pulled off a shocking fourth-quarter comeback to snap the Aces’ 17-game successful streak in entrance of 12,500 Storm Crazies at Local weather Pledge Enviornment.
And it was all made attainable by a format change within the offseason.
In 2022, when the WNBA switched the primary spherical of the playoffs again to best-of-three collection, the league applied a 2-1 format, which means the highest seed hosted the primary two video games, and the decrease seed hosted the deciding Sport 3, if it got here to that.
That meant that solely the highest 4 seeds within the playoffs have been assured a house playoff sport. The end result? The highest 4 seeds superior to the semifinals all three years, and the underdogs have been solely capable of power three Sport 3s out of twelve collection — two in 2022, one in 2023 and none final 12 months. That is 9 groups that made the postseason and did not get to have a good time the achievement in entrance of their residence followers.
And worse than that, it is let to some very boring first-round collection that dulled the thrill of the playoffs and triggered the WNBA to lose momentum and a focus that it captured through the common season.
However this offseason the WNBA modified the primary spherical to a 1-1-1 format, which means the highest seed would host the Video games 1 and three, and the decrease seed can be assured a house Sport 2. This variation was made attainable largely by the league’s new constitution flight program, which made journey between video games a lot simpler.
To be clear, it is unlikely that this format change will result in a ton of first-round upsets, and that is not essentially a foul factor; the latter rounds of the playoffs are extra compelling and aggressive if essentially the most gifted groups advance. However the playoffs aren’t simply concerning the final staff standing; they’re additionally concerning the magical moments alongside the best way. And Tuesday night time was pure magic.
Simply hearken to the environment in Indianapolis when Fever guard Shey Peddy deflected Naz Hillmon’s inbound cross, Kelsey Mitchell secured the turnover and swung it to Aaliyah Boston who discovered a large open Lexie Hull who nailed a 26-foot three-pointer to beat the buzzer and provides the Fever a 15-point lead heading into the fourth quarter.
And soak within the roar in Seattle as 19-year-old rookie Dominique Malonga hit the and-1 to cap off a 20-8 run that improbably tied the sport at 83 with simply 31 seconds remaining.
After Malonga hit the free throw to place the Storm forward for the primary time for the reason that second quarter, Skylar Diggins iced the win with a leap shot with seven seconds left within the sport. The electrical energy within the enviornment was palpable via the tv display screen.
“It was so loud in right here I could not hear myself, and that is the environment that they’ve had all 12 months for us no matter how we play,” Diggins mentioned postgame. “This metropolis has at all times been very supportive and so they have been very supportive of us this 12 months. That is why we have been very focused on the kind of effort that we needed to come back out with tonight. And clearly our aim is to come back again right here for one more residence sport. However positively the Storm Crazies have been very supportive of us all 12 months. Within the largest second after we wanted them to be, they have been the loudest. We admire everyone that supported us. We want we may bottle that up and take a few of that on the street with us.”
There are two extra Sport 2s on Wednesday night time — the No. 8 Golden State Valkyries will host the No. 1 Minnesota Lynx, and the No. 5 New York Liberty will host the No. 4 Phoenix Mercury. The Lynx gained Sport 1, and may have an opportunity to get the sweep, whereas the Liberty, who beat the Mercury on the street in Sport 1, may have an opportunity to turn out to be the primary staff to knock a top-four seed out of the playoffs within the first spherical for the reason that 2022 change.
Even when we do not get a repeat of Tuesday night time’s heroics, this transformation to a 1-1-1 format will nonetheless be price celebrating. As a result of sure, each staff that makes the playoffs deserves an opportunity to play in entrance of their followers. But additionally, the playoffs are all about overcoming adversity, so we need to see prime seeds take care of hostile environments.
“They packed the home. They have been actually loud,” Dream head coach Karl Smesko mentioned after Tuesday’s loss. “It offers them a home-court benefit however that is going to be wherever we go. It is the playoffs — it may be packed, it may be loud. We gotta play via something that occurs within the sport.”
The excellent news for the Dream and the Aces? On Thursday night time, they will have the crowds again on their facet.
“I feel it’s a confidence enhance having your private home followers backing you, however I simply suppose there may be an pleasure about going into an elimination sport figuring out how poorly we performed (Tuesday),” Dream ahead Naz Hillmon mentioned. “And like coach mentioned, I am not simply going to say Indy did not do something to make us play poorly, however I feel we’re going to have the ability to make some changes and it is good when these 3s lastly do fall and we’re getting a variety of cheers from our residence crowd.”
The brand new format added a much-needed jolt of pleasure to the primary spherical, and it wasn’t the one playoff format change within the offseason. The WNBA Finals went from being a best-of-five collection to a best-of-seven collection for the primary time in league historical past. Let’s hope that in just a few weeks we get to expertise to full affect of that change, too.
