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NEW YORK — These days, 1-1-1 is adding up to 100.
The WNBA’s new format in the best-of-three first round is delivering the excitement, high stakes and extra basketball the league intended by giving every team at least one home game.
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And the nail-biting stress is hitting hard for fans with a dog in the fight. Three of the four first-round series are going to a winner-take-all Game 3, beginning with two games on Thursday night. The No. 3 Dream host No. 6 Indiana, and No. 2 Aces host the No. 7 Storm. The No. 5 Liberty and No. 4 Mercury conclude the first round on Friday with their Game 3 in Phoenix.
“It’s kind of crazy,” veteran Liberty forward Breanna Stewart said. “Hopefully for the fans and those people watching, they just get to enjoy it more. They get to see basketball more often.”
The fourth series missed a pivotal third game by one bucket when No. 1 Minnesota edged No. 8 Golden State, 75-74, on Wednesday night to book the first berth to the semifinals.
Count veteran Lynx head coach Cheryl Reeve as surprised as we all were.
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“At no point in time did we think this was going to be a two-game series, at no point in time,” Reeve said. “They played well enough to win. Obviously we hung in there and made one more basket than they did.”
The switch of venues evens the tables more than keeping the first two games at the better seed’s house. Previously, the deciding Game 3 went to the lower-seeded team’s court, an issue in its own right. All four best-of-three series were sweeps in 2024, and only a couple of the eight games delivered close battles late. One game went to Game 3 in 2023 and two in 2022, the first year after the WNBA did away with single elimination.
“I think it kind of balances,” second-year Mercury head coach Nate Tibbetts said ahead of Game 1. “It gives both teams a real chance, and both fan bases a chance to root for their team in the playoffs.”
Five of the eight teams won on their home court in these playoffs. The Mercury were the only team not to defend their home court in Game 1. Despite dropping the ball, Aces head coach Becky Hammon used them as an example on the other side of the argument.
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“I don’t like it,” Aces head coach Becky Hammon, a former player, said after Las Vegas won its opener. “You look at a team like Phoenix, dropping that one, they’re gonna have all the pressure. I mean, unbelievably tough to now have to fly to New York.”
But that is what the playoffs are about. There is no easy setting. These aren’t the days of the top two seeds earning automatic byes to the semifinals. “Pressure is a privilege,” isn’t that what they always say?
“Two home games [to start] last year is unheard of in a three-game series,” Alyssa Thomas said on Wednesday. “In order to win a series, you got to win on the road. Tonight we won on the road. It’s been a competitive couple of games.”
Phoenix returned the favor in Game 2 on Wednesday by trouncing the Liberty in a stunned Barclays. The real pressure will be in Game 3 after each team has flown back to Phoenix. There’s also Game 1 of the semifinals in Minnesota to keep in mind. That tips on Sunday.
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Instituting charter flights early in the 2024 season allowed the league to switch its format from 2-1 to 1-1-1, a change it had wanted to make since the COVID-19 pandemic season, commissioner Cathy Engelbert said at her Finals address a year ago. As the league continues to tweak its structure, it should look at the layout of the playoffs moving forward.
That becomes especially important with five more teams entering the league by 2030. Moving back to a conference-based format might help, though it could lessen the increased competitiveness gained by moving away from it in the 2010s. The first week could be extended a day or two, knowing these games are indeed going to a deciding third. The WNBA loves a Sunday afternoon slate, but in its new media deal beginning in 2026, could games be moved around in other primetime windows?
The one thing the league nailed in this was its appreciation of fans. There are more people than ever attending games, buying merchandise and supporting players. Season ticket prices are increasing, a trajectory that will price out some of the league’s longtime fans. It will be less enticing to attend for families, a longtime pillar of this league.
These are all understandable growing pains. By insisting that each playoff team host at least one playoff game, it acknowledges not only the importance to a team, but to its base. It was a shame the Indiana Fever weren’t able to host a home postseason game a year ago when they reached the playoffs for the first time since 2016.
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The Fever sold out nearly all of its regular-season games as the city rallied around Caitlin Clark and the team. Businesses leaned into Fever watch parties and game-night specials, just as they do for the NBA’s Pacers or the NFL’s Colts. To keep growing, fan engagement has to be rewarded when it warrants.
When the buzzer sounded on a heartbreaker Wednesday night, Golden State fans, donned in violet, rose in ovation for their inaugural group. They led the league in attendance and traveled to San Jose for their “home” game when Chase Center was unavailable for the Laver Cup, which was scheduled before the team existed. The league has safely exited its era of moving playoff games due to Disney on Ice and the MNBA.
Not everyone sees it that way.
“I think this conversation came up last year, when Indiana didn’t get a game, and they were upset,” said Hammon, whose Aces teams have never dipped below a four seed. “But for me, people just gotta get, you gotta finish better. Either move it to five [games], or it stays in the 2-1 format, because it puts the higher seed at actually a huge disadvantage.”
Almost one full week into the postseason, three Game 3s will be held at the homes of the higher seeds. The only disadvantage is the impact on everyone’s stress levels.
