WNBA Power Rankings: Lynx take over top spot in final week - ESPN

ESPN's WNBA Power Rankings for the 2024 season have reached the end of the line. Next stop: the playoffs, which start Sunday. But before that, a few things are still up for grabs in the final few days of the regular season.

That includes the eighth and last playoff spot (the Washington Mystics, Atlanta Dream and Chicago Sky are still trying to sort that out) and the No. 1 overall seed (it will be the New York Liberty or Minnesota Lynx). But in our Power Rankings, the last No. 1 is settled: It's Minnesota, which is 12-1 since the Olympic break ended and is coming off Sunday's victory over previous No. 1 New York.

The Lynx underwent some important roster construction in the offseason, but it meant they came into 2024 with some question marks — at least from the outside. They answered those quickly, though, going from No. 9 in the preseason to No. 4 in the first regular-season Power Rankings.

Minnesota has fallen out of the top four in the Power Rankings only once the rest of this season: at No. 6 just before the Olympic break. That followed a stretch the first two weeks of July when the Lynx lost four of six games. Lynx star Napheesa Collier missed the last two of those losses with plantar fasciitis.

She was back strong for the Olympics and the second part of the WNBA season. Were it not for Las Vegas Aces star A'ja Wilson's incredible season that essentially already has wrapped up MVP, Collier could have won the honor. As it is, she's positioning the Lynx for a long playoff run.

Minnesota still has a chance to nab the top seed in the playoffs from New York; the Liberty would have to lose their last two games and the Lynx need to win both of theirs. If that happened, the Lynx would have the tiebreaker after winning the