WNBA playoff picture - Which teams will earn the final three playoff spots?

The WNBA has been split into its top five and everybody else for a while. The defending champion Chicago Sky, the Las Vegas Aces, the Connecticut Sun, the Seattle Storm and the Washington Mystics already have secured their playoff berths. Now with six teams competing for the three spots left — the Indiana Fever are in spoiler mode — every game has a heavier feel to it.

In truth, it's starting to feel like five teams going for two spots. Things are looking good for the sixth-place Dallas Wings. They go into the weekend on a high, coming off back-to-back victories over the Sky and the Aces, the league's current top two teams.

Dallas has won four of its past five games and is 15-16. The franchise has finished at .500 or better just once since moving from Detroit after the 2009 season. That was in its last of six seasons in Tulsa, when it went 18-16 in 2015. The next year, the team moved to Dallas and has made three playoff appearances since, including last season, but lost its first-round game each time.

The Wings have had some rough patches this season, including losing six of seven during a stretch from late May to mid June. But Dallas' March trade with Indiana for center Teaira McCowan and a first-round draft pick, which became be guard Veronica Burton, has turned out well for Dallas.

It took a little while for McCowan, the No. 3 overall pick in 2019, to get warmed up; she didn't score in double figures until June 12. But she has now done that in 10 of her past 14 games, including the past five in a row.

«I'm proud of Big T — the way she's performing is huge,» Dallas coach Vickie Johnson said after McCowan's 21 points and 16 rebounds Thursday against the Aces.

Burton and Tyasha Harris both have stepped forward the past