Becky Hammon suggests WNBA changed its playoff format for Caitlin Clark

The WNBA has tweaked its playoff format this season, and Las Vegas Aces coach Becky Hammon is not a huge fan. Not only that, but she thinks Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever played a pretty big role in the league’s thinking.

The WNBA is using a 1-1-1 format in its first round this season, meaning higher seeds host the first and third games of the best-of-three series. Previously, the higher seeds got the first two games at home, and the lower seed only got a home game if they were able to force a decisive Game 3. That format meant higher seeds could eliminate underdogs with two wins at home.

Hammon said earlier this week that she dislikes the new format, and that it actually disadvantages higher seeds because of the travel involved. Interestingly, she thinks the WNBA changed the format this season because of complaints from the Fever last year.

“I don’t like it,” Hammon said. “You look at a team like Phoenix, dropping that one. They’re gonna have all the pressure, and it’s going to be unbelievably tough to now have to fly to New York. And New York has a tough one, flying to Phoenix, back to New York, potentially back to Phoenix. I think this conversation came up last year when Indiana didn’t get a game and they were upset. For me then, you’ve got to finish better. Either move it to five or it stays in the 2-1 format, because it puts the higher seed at actually a huge disadvantage.”