There's still more than a month until the 2026 WNBA season comes to a close on Sept. 24, but just over two weeks of game action remains. That's because the league will pause from Aug. 31-Sept. 16 for the 2026 FIBA Women's World Cup, which will run from Sept. 4-13 in Berlin, Germany. No team has more than 10 games remaining, and some have as few as seven.
While the eight playoff teams are largely set -- the eighth-place Wings have a four-and-a-half-game lead on the expansion Portland Fire for the final spot -- no team has locked in a seed and there's still a lot to sort out in the middle of the playoff picture. As the final playoff push begins, let's try to predict how things will shake out at the end of the season. Note: Teams in bold have already clinched a playoff spot Here's how I think the standings will shake out at the end of the season: The Lynx won a franchise-record 34 games last season to earn the No. 1 seed, then lost six rotation players in the offseason, played without Napheesa Collier until late July this summer and are going to be the No. 1 seed again.
Their last two wins, over the Aces on Saturday and over the Valkyries on Wednesday, have all but locked up the top spot and home-court advantage throughout the playoffs. They now have a four-game lead over the Valkyries and own the tiebreaker (more on tiebreakers below) between the teams, making the gap essentially five games. No other team is within five and a half games.
Even though the Lynx have the hardest remaining schedule, no one is going to catch them at this point. The Valkyries' six-game winning streak came to an end Wednesday in a defeat to the Lynx that effectively ended their hopes of catching Minnesota. Still, they remain in the driver's seat for the No. 2 seed, which would guarantee them home-court advantage up until the Finals.
Golden State is one and a half games up on the third-place Fever, who lead the rest of the pack, and thanks to the tiebreaker, that is effectively a two-and-a-half-game advantage for the Valkyries. The Aces, who are two games back and own the tiebreaker with the Valkyries, are the only other team within three games. Two and a half games separate the third-place Fever from the seventh-place Liberty, and if there's playoff seeding drama down the stretch, it's going to come from this group.
After a frustrating start, the Fever have won five games in a row and 12 of their last 15 to surge into third place, and are one victory away from a single-season record. They are one and a half games back of the Valkyries for second, but have lost that tiebreaker, so it's unlikely they'll move up. Rather, their focus will be on holding off the Aces and Dream to ensure they earn home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs.
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