The longest regular season in WNBA history has finally arrived at its last day, and there’s plenty at stake heading into Thursday’s finales.
Eight teams — the Atlanta Dream, Golden State Valkyries, Indiana Fever, Las Vegas Aces, Minnesota Lynx, New York Liberty, Phoenix Mercury and Seattle Storm — open the 2025 WNBA playoffs Sunday, but through Wednesday’s games, the seeds are set for fewer than half of the teams and only one of four first-round series matchups is determined.
Two of Thursday’s four games carry playoff implications, including one that also impacts the draft lottery. But a winning streak and a spot in the WNBA record books are also at play. Here’s what to watch as the league’s first 44-game regular season draws to a close and the playoff picture is finally locked in.
Seeds that have been determined
No. 1 seed: Minnesota Lynx
No. 4 seed: Phoenix Mercury (will play New York in first round)
No. 5 seed: New York Liberty (will play Phoenix in first round)
Thursday’s games with seeding implications
Golden State Valkyries at Minnesota Lynx
Although the Lynx have long since locked up the top seed in the WNBA playoffs, their regular-season finale (8 ET, NBATV) will determine who they face in the first round, as well as the order of the Nos. 6, 7 and 8 seeds.
After losing Tuesday to Seattle — a victory that clinched the Storm a playoff spot — the Valkyries can finish with either the sixth or eighth seed depending on the result of Thursday’s game. A win would put Golden State in sixth, and a loss would drop it to eighth and mean the Valkyries would start the playoffs where they finish the regular season: at Minnesota.
That, in turn, would affect the seeding for the Storm and Fever. A Golden State win means Indiana finishes seventh and Seattle eighth. A loss pushes both teams up a spot. That’s interesting in part because the Storm split the season series with the Lynx, handing them one of two losses all season at the Target Center late last month. Minnesota has won all three matchups with Golden State thus far.
By completing a season series sweep Thursday, Minnesota would avoid Seattle in the first round in favor of a Golden State team making its postseason debut. — Kevin Pelton
Las Vegas Aces at Los Angeles Sparks
To secure the No. 2 seed, the Aces will need to extend their winning streak to 16 consecutive games (more on that below) to finish the regular season. Atlanta’s win Wednesday over the Connecticut Sun in their regular-season finale gave the Dream 30 wins, but Las Vegas holds the tiebreaker and would claim the No. 2 seed — and home-court advantage should the teams meet in the semifinals — with a 30th victory Thursday.
The final game of the regular season (10 p.m. ET, NBATV) also has implications for the WNBA draft lottery. A Sparks win would match the Washington Mystics‘ two-year record of 30-52, meaning the teams would split lottery odds and Washington would enter the lottery third instead of fourth by virtue of a worse record this season — meaning the Mystics would pick higher if neither team draws a top-two selection.
That makes the Storm interested observers in this game. Seattle holds Los Angeles’ 2026 first-round pick by virtue of a 2024 trade that sent the No. 4 pick to the Sparks, who selected Rickea Jackson. — Pelton
WNBA playoff seeding scenario cheat sheet
The seeds for five teams will be determined Thursday. Here’s how high or low they could be seeded when the final buzzer sounds close to midnight ET.
Listed in order of highest potential seed
Atlanta Dream
No. 2 seed: if Aces lose Thursday
No. 3 seed: if Aces win Thursday
Las Vegas Aces
No. 2 seed: with win Thursday
No. 3 seed: with loss Thursday
Indiana Fever
No. 6 seed: if Valkyries lose Thursday
No. 7 seed: if Valkyries win Thursday
Golden State Valkyries
No. 6 seed: with win Thursday
No. 8 seed: with loss Thursday
Seattle Storm
No. 7 seed: if Valkyries lose Thursday
No. 8 seed: if Valkyries win Thursday
The hottest team in the league: A record win streak … and sign of things to come?
Since Minnesota routed Las Vegas by 53 points on Aug. 2, the Aces haven’t lostwinning 15 consecutive games. If Las Vegas wins Thursday, the 16 straight wins would set a WNBA record for consecutive wins to end the regular season. It also would tie the 2014 Phoenix Mercury for the second-longest win streak in league history of any kind (the 2001 Sparks hold the record with 18 in a row).
Though Las Vegas hopes to ride the momentum into the playoffs, might the win streak also be a harbinger of things to come? The three previous WNBA teams that won at least 15 straight games during the regular season went on to win the championship. Can the Aces win the 2025 title and join the 1998 Houston Comets, 2001 Los Angeles Sparks and 2014 Phoenix Mercury? — ESPN Research
How much will Thomas add to assists tally?
With Phoenix’s seed locked up, Alyssa Thomas might not meet her usual 31.8 minutes per game average Thursday. But every assist Thomas tallies will add to her WNBA single-season assist mark.
Thomas took back the record five days ago, topping Caitlin Clark‘s 337 in 2024. Thomas, who has dished at least 316 assists in each of the past three seasons, enters Thursday with 352. While it’s notable that the WNBA regular season grew to 40 games the past two seasons and to 44 this year, Thomas’ 9.3 assists per game this season rank second all time, trailing only Courtney Vandersloot‘s 10.0 average in the 22-game 2020 season.
Thomas has tallied a WNBA-record eight triple-doubles this season and became the first player in league history with three straight triple-doubles last month.
