After the Las Vegas Aces' victory at the Golden State Valkyries last Wednesday, A'ja Wilson acknowledged she checks the WNBA standings every day — sometimes multiple times a day with individual games often affecting the 1-13 order.
The Minnesota Lynx sit comfortably atop the league with a little more than a month left in the regular season, but the remaining playoff hopefuls are battling it out for seeding and for one of the eight playoff berths. Though the New York Liberty, still without Breanna Stewart, are hanging on to the No. 2 spot by a thread after the Atlanta Dream tied their 20-11 record, the most interesting part of the postseason race is happening further down the board: only 2½ games separate the No. 5 Indiana Fever and the No. 9 Los Angeles Sparks. Wilson's surging Aces have won six of their past seven games to climb up to the sixth spot just a week after teetering in and out of the postseason picture. And the Seattle Storm have hit a bumpy patch, falling to eighth.
With stakes in seemingly every remaining game, checking the standings daily is likely to become common practice for more than only Wilson.
Previous ranking: 1
Next seven days: vs. NY (Aug. 16)
Despite losing Napheesa Collier for at least two weeks, the Lynx have managed to grind out three wins last week over Seattle, Washington and New York. Kayla McBride, Courtney Williams and Alanna Smith have done a good job supplementing the scoring Minnesota lost when Collier went down against the Aces on Aug. 2, while DiJonai Carrington has found her footing through her first three games since she was traded from Dallas.
Take Minnesota's game against the Liberty: McBride was able to pass off the defensive assignment of guarding Sabrina Ionescu to Carrington
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