The top 25 players of the 2023 WNBA playoffs - ESPN

The Las Vegas Aces' A'ja Wilson and the New York Liberty's Breanna Stewart have been the top players in the WNBA, and the world, for some time, and they are once again duking it out for MVP honors, which will be announced by the league Sept. 26.

No matter who is named — and despite Stewart edging Wilson by one vote for The Associated Press Player of the Year honors — the No. 1 spot in our ranking of the top 25 players in the 2023 WNBA playoffs is set, with Wilson's spectacular second half of the 2023 campaign catapulting her over the Liberty star.

The Aces stumbled a bit after Candace Parker's season-ending injury, but Wilson has been sensational in her absence. Before the All-Star break, Wilson was averaging 19.7 points, 9.3 rebounds and 2.1 blocks per game. After the break? A league-best 26.2 PPG, to go along with 9.7 RPG and 2.3 BPG. She has been efficient all year long, behind a career-best 55.7% shooting rate.

Some of Wilson's individual game performances have been staggering too. Last month, she tied the WNBA single-game scoring record with 53, after a 40-piece 11 days prior.

She also remains one of the league's best defenders, as the reigning Defensive Player of the Year. And she finished the 2023 regular season with 22 double-doubles, behind only the Connecticut Sun's Alyssa Thomas (28).

If Wilson takes home the MVP trophy, which she also won last year, she would become the fourth WNBA player to win the award three times. She'll have done so before she turns 28.

But the South Carolina great currently has bigger aspirations: leading her Aces to back-to-back WNBA titles, something that hasn't been done in the WNBA since the Los Angeles Sparks in 2001 and 2002.

ESPN's Michael Voepel, Alexa Philippou and Kevin Pelton