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WNBA's new playoff format ratchets up the pressure
Indiana Fever forward Tamika Catchings faces a new playoff format in her final season in the WNBA. USA TODAY Sports

WNBA's new playoff format ratchets up the pressure

The 20th season of the WNBA follows up with a new playoff format that may remind you somewhat of the wild card games in Major League Baseball and the NFL — but with a couple of twists. For the majority of the league’s history, the playoffs featured eight teams in three rounds of best-of-three series, with the WNBA Finals themselves growing into a best-of-five series in 2005. Yet, for first time since the 1999 season, there will be single-elimination games in a “conference-less” postseason.

The new first round features two single-elimination games between the lower four seeds. The winners move into the second round, where lower remaining seed heads to New York to take on the third-seeded Liberty and the second-lowest seed visits the fourth-seeded Chicago Sky, both also single-elimination games. The victors of those contests go on to face the top two teams, the defending champion Minnesota Lynx and the Los Angeles Sparks, who were given double byes into the semifinals.

Today, we take a look at the four first-round teams pacing nervously at the thought of being four quarters away from going back home in this new format.

(8) Phoenix Mercury @ (5) Indiana Fever

As discussed after the Summer Olympics ended, the Mercury may have had one of the greater challenges after the break because of how many players played in Rio coupled with the fact that the Mercury had already been a maddeningly uneven team. In spite of that, Phoenix managed a 6-4 record after the break. A three-game win streak followed three straight losses before winning three of the final four games of the year.

Diana Taurasi is still the engine that drives this train as the most dynamic offensive player on the team, but it stands out even more when she’s not hitting her stride. There are games in which Brittney Griner looks unstoppable on both ends and others where she seems like the league’s tallest screener and little more.

This duo sets the tone for Phoenix, but opponents know that they could either bump the 6’8” Griner out of the paint or double-team Taurasi to get the team out of sync. However, Griner has played excellent basketball in the last five games, averaging 19.4 points and 8.4 rebounds, including 19 and 16 in a loss to second-seeded Los Angeles Sept. 13.

The Fever, meanwhile, had its own ups and downs en route to a 17-17 tally on the season. Tamika Catchings has had a heck of a farewell tour in her 16th and final season — all with Indiana — with per game averages of 12.7 points, 4.8 rebounds, 1.9 assists and 1.8 steals. Yet while the rest of the offense is balanced with eight players averaging between 7.8 and 9.8 points per contest, it’s the defense that sometimes gives the Fever trouble.

Indiana is one of two playoff teams with a negative net rating (Atlanta is the other), allowing more points than it scores. Yet, the team was within striking range of a top-four seed because of a grinding style that forces opponents to work a little harder on each possession.

True to the franchise names, the Mercury want to push the tempo while the Fever would prefer to slow things down. Phoenix needs to create those extra offensive possessions that could make the difference in the game while Indiana has to make the most of each of its own in order to move on.

(7) Seattle Storm @ (6) Atlanta Dream

There has to be something said for the resilience of the Seattle Storm. When considering teams to watch headed back into league play, the Storm wasn’t on the list and for seemingly good reason. Seattle was 9-15 before the Rio Games, on the outside of the playoff picture and hoping for teams above it to stumble. Lo and behold, the Storm is the hottest team in the league not in Minnesota, winning seven of its last 10 and surging ahead of Phoenix for the seventh seed. The kicker: beating the Sparks twice as well as New York and Chicago, the two teams in the second round.

Sue Bird’s knee held up just fine after missing the Olympic semifinals last month, as she and Jewell Loyd could very well be considered the league’s best backcourt right now. Breanna Stewart looks like the presumptive Rookie of the Year, finishing her first season sixth in points per game (18.3) and second in rebounds (9.3).

Major contributions from Alysha Clark, Crystal Langhorne, Ramu Tokashiki and super sub Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis have paced a well-balanced Storm team into a meeting in Atlanta.

Coming into the break, Atlanta was positioned to host a second-round game instead of the first. Yet the three-time Eastern Conference champions slipped thanks to a 4-5 finish to the regular season, with only a win against the Washington Mystics keeping the Dream from having to fly to Seattle instead of playing hosts.

Angel McCoughtry continues to be the team’s all-everything, but a late-season one-game suspension for passing the league’s technical foul limits (a player or coach is automatically suspended for her/his seventh technical of a season) caused her to miss the game against the San Antonio Stars. Against the league’s worst team, it was a game the Dream had no business losing, but lose it did as the Stars broke a six-game skid that night.

Bria Holmes has found a greater offensive groove in the last six games of the season, averaging double digits, including a career-high 20 points against the Stars. Elizabeth Williams has been a relatively steady force in the paint for Atlanta, yet the team moves through McCoughtry, which could be an issue whenever her fiery instincts flare up.

With the Storm riding high and knowing McCoughtry’s emotions can get the best of her at times, does the WNBA’s fourth-leading scorer dial herself back a bit and hope that Holmes and Williams pick up the slack? Does McCoughtry let it fly in a single-elimination game so the team can advance? Even with that, she’d have to consider the same choices going into another win-or-go-home game in Round 2.

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