The Commissioner’s Cup results in some weird scheduling quirks for WNBA teams. Because Cup play features a concentrated stretch of in-conference matchups, its conclusion brings the opposite, with the schedule immediately populated with inter-conference contests. Presumably to reduce travel demands, the WNBA favors back-to-back sets between Eastern and Western Conference teams. This week’s schedule has […]
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Certain players can get hot from the field and suddenly become the best version of themselves. They enter a flow state. Suddenly, every jumper goes in, passes they shouldn’t try work and no matter what defenses do, it’s impossible to stop them. When Marina Mabrey gets going, flow state feels like an understatement. When she […]
It hasn’t been the best of times for the Chicago Sky. But on Wednesday night, it wasn’t the worst of times. At least for one night; They notched their first win after a six-game losing streak, beating the Portland Fire, 101-78. After trailing 6-0 at the outset, the Sky attacked the paint, pushed the tempo, […]
One team is the 2025 WNBA champions. The other team was bad enough to receive the No. 1 pick in the 2026 WNBA Draft. And yet, when the Las Vegas Aces have played the Dallas Wings during the 2026 WNBA season, the formerly-woeful Wings look like the defending champs, while the dynastic Aces appear in […]
Currently, four WNBA teams can be considered contenders for the final spot in the 2026 playoffs: the Los Angeles Sparks (8-8), Washington Mystics (8-8), Toronto Tempo (8-9) and Portland Fire (8-10). While the NBA has recently adopted a flattened lottery system to prevent teams from tanking, the WNBA’s two-year cumulative record system still benefits teams […]
A 5-foot-8 guard known for her flashy passes, Tatum Forbes was born and raised in Pawtucket, RI. She graduated from Saint Anselm (2023-26) and is about to embark on a pro career in basketball. In her last college season, she averaged 18.3 points and 5.1 assists for the Hawks. She joined Swish Appeal to talk […]
I can’t claim San Francisco as my own, but it will always hold a special place in my heart. My dad grew up in Concord, CA, about half an hour northeast of Oakland. He and my mom raised me in Boston, so it was hard to get out to California to see family frequently, but […]
Voting for the 2026 WNBA All-Star Game wraps up just before the clocks strikes midnight on Saturday, June 27. Today, however, is the final “2-for-1” day, where fans’ votes count twice. That means it’s an important day to craft a 10-player roster that features all your faves. Alternatively, maybe some players in one of tonight’s […]
There are hundreds of thousands of basketball takes that can be heard and seen all day, every day, from television shows to podcasts and even short-form content on social media. Most takes are doom-scrolling noise at best and toxic click-bait at worst. Some are legitimate analysis that can either be right or wrong. Las Vegas […]
The Toronto Tempo (8-9) are no strangers to playing shorthanded. Injuries to their frontcourt forced them to play smaller than expected right out of the gate, with Isabelle Harrison missing the first 10 games of the season and Temi Fagbénlé only recently returning from an injury suffered on opening day. The Tempo’s injury woes have […]
Slated to meet in the Commissioner’s Cup championship on Tuesday, June 30, the New York Liberty and Las Vegas Aces will give us a preview this Tuesday, with the Aces hosting the Liberty (10 p.m. ET, USA Network). As evidenced by advancing to the Cup final, both teams are contenders for the WNBA title, although […]
This season, the WNBA’s offensive numbers are up. Way up! There are over nine teams with an offensive rating above 105, while last season only six teams reached that mark. In 2025, the No. 1 offensive rating went to the Lynx at 109.5. Fast forward a year, and the same rating would make a team […]
Somehow, Rhyne Howard lacked the typical amount of hype a No. 1 overall WNBA Draft pick receives entering her rookie season of 2022. Yes, 2021 No. 1 pick Charli Collier had failed to impress the year before, and, yes, Howard was coming off an NCAA Tournament first-round upset, as her Kentucky Wildcats lost to a […]
Expect there to be no shortage of spice when the Toronto Tempo visit the Atlanta Dream on Monday night (7:30 p.m. ET, WNBA League Pass). The extra curriculars that occurred between Isabelle Harrison and Angel Reese during Atlanta’s win in Toronto, which resulted in an early exit for Harrison after she was ejected for unnecessarily […]
LOS ANGELES — June 21, 1997, will be a legendary day for as long as the WNBA exists. This date marks the first-ever WNBA game between the New York Liberty and Los Angeles Sparks. They met again on June 21, 2026 to celebrate that inaugural matchup. The 18,043 fans in attendance received a stellar basketball […]
Tonight, the New York Liberty visit the Los Angeles Sparks, just as they did exactly 30 years ago, competing in the first-ever WNBA game (8 p.m. ET, ESPN). Micahya Costen captured the significance of that inaugural contest. Where were you on June 21, 1997? Although my memories are fuzzy, I’m pretty sure 10-year-old me was […]
“Welcome to the Great Western Forum, and a festive atmosphere here in Los Angeles. It is a sellout and then some,” Hall of Fame broadcaster Hannah Storm said on NBC’s broadcast of the first-ever WNBA game. The camera pans from a Ferris wheel to a young girl shooting a basketball in the massive parking lot […]
In classic Phoenix Mercury fashion, relatively unknown players stepped up to lead them to a 20-point victory over the Seattle Storm on Saturday afternoon. Valeriane Ayayi debuted in the WNBA in 2015; she went for career-highs of 18 points and 10 rebounds Saturday in what is now her second season 11 years later. Although a […]
The Portland Fire began the 2026 season as one of the WNBA’s most pleasant surprises. One of the league’s two newest expansion teams, not much was expected of the Fire during their inaugural season, but a 6-4 start, highlighted by multiple upset wins and Coach of the Month honors for Alex Sarama, quickly put Portland […]
Before the 2026 WNBA season began, Edwin Garcia wondered if the Seattle Storm might regret their offseason decisions. Should the franchise have made re-signing veterans Nneka Ogwumike, Skylar Diggins and Gabby Williams a priority, rather than jumping into a rebuild? In contrast, Zack Ward endorsed Seattle’s direction, citing them as big winners of the 2026 […]
It’s time to admit that I was too low on Olivia Miles. She is miles ahead of where I thought she would be, not just as a rookie but at any point in her WNBA career. The playmaking vision was not in question; however, I was skeptical whether she had the athleticism to hang defensively, […]
Through the first month and a half of the 2026 WNBA season, the Indiana Fever have a net rating just under +6 points per game. It’s the kind of number that should put a team firmly in the championship conversation. However, it might come with an asterisk. The Fever rank just seventh in offensive rating, […]
A 2025 Atlanta Dream regular season that finished with a franchise-record 30 wins and No. 3 seed ended with a first-round postseason exit at the hands of the No. 6-seed and injury-plagued Indiana Fever. The playoff series testified to Fever’s resiliency, and exposed the Dream’s lack of it. The favored and more talented team, Atlanta […]
Ready or not, even more WNBA basketball is on the way. On Wednesday, the league announced that the 2027 WNBA season will be a 50-game season. With 15 teams, that gives fans 750 games to observe, analyze and obsess over. Here’s what Commissioner Cathy Engelbert said about the decision to further expand the WNBA season: […]
Over the years, the WNBA’s Commissioner’s Cup has been an indicator of the league’s best teams. This year, now that the group stage games are over, we have an answer for the elite teams from the Eastern and Western Conferences: the New York Liberty and Las Vegas Aces. Both dominated Cup play, going a combined 12-1 […]