And it was. The Sky, on the other hand, had some leaner years while the Mystics took advantage of their championship window, at least early on. They failed to make the playoffs in and Sylvia Fowles did the same in But in , the Sky hired James Wade as their head coach and general manager and improved to a record and a second round playoff appearance.
Then in a pandemic-shortened season, Chicago finished with a record and the playoffs but their run ended in the first round. Ultimately, that laid the foundation for Parker to make her move to the Windy City.
While she remained a reserve player for the Sky from , Copper started all of their games since the season, averaging a career-high Either way, you get the point. The WNBA was founded with only eight teams. But that has to be all the teams, right? There were also the short-lived Miami Sol and Portland Fire.
The WNBA is a constantly evolving league, always looking for new ways to do things better and elevate the play on the court. With that comes expansion, contraction and relocation. The Detroit Shock entered the league in and lasted through the season. Before they moved south to Tulsa in and became the Tulsa Shock through In they moved to Texas and took on a full rebrand as the Dallas Wings.
And today the team, while young and still building, is full of talent such as Arike Ogunbowale , Moriah Jefferson , Allisha Gray , and Satou Sabally , and is thriving. Another team that relocated and changed their name is The Connecticut Sun. Who were known as the Orlando Miracle their first four seasons in the league from , before moving to Connecticut.
They started in the inaugural season as the Utah Starzz lasting from They stayed in San Antonio through Before eventually relocating to Las Vegas and losing the Star all together in exchange for their current name, the Las Vegas Aces in Following the season, eight teams qualify for the playoffs. The regular season records determine the playoff seedings.
Since the first round of the playoffs are played between the seeds and the seeds. The winners advance to the second round. In this round the 3 seed faces whichever team advances with the lowest seed and the 4th seeded team takes on the higher seeded team.
The Semifinals are next, where the winners of the first two rounds take on the well rested, and highest two seeds. The number 1 seed will face the lowest remaining seed and the 2 seed will play the other team. At which point there are only two teams left, so you guessed it, they play each other in the WNBA Finals! The first two rounds are single elimination games, which makes for exciting WNBA action.
WNBA teams are allowed to carry either 11 or 12 players on their roster at any time, while staying under the agreed upon salary cap. Though the actual number of players would be much less as many players have played for multiple seasons. We take it back! After watching this highlight package , we want all the Sue Bird we can get, forever. First up, the Atlanta Dream. This team was founded for the season. And gone all the way to the Finals three times. Losing in all three.
Not true! Their 29 wins is a WNBA record, and they were first in offensive and defensive rating. Their only loss in the playoffs came to Minnesota in Game 2 of the Western Conference finals, but they bounced back to win the series with an point Game 3 victory. Taurasi, who averaged The Phoenix team still holds the best winning percentage for any team outside the expansion era.
In the playoffs, Phoenix was outstanding, beating the defending champion Lynx in the conference finals and sweeping a Chicago team in the Finals by an average of Regular season and playoff records: , Defeated Los Angeles in Finals. After sweeping the Washington Mystics in the semifinals, Minnesota rallied from a deficit to win a Finals rematch against the Sparks in five games.
Minnesota was still smarting over a Finals loss to Los Angeles in , and the teams were again archrivals in Minnesota was first in the league in offensive and defensive rating and Los Angeles was second in both. Target Center was being renovated, so the Lynx's home games in the playoffs were at the University of Minnesota' Williams Arena, where Whalen had played in college.
The decisive Game 5 win came in a packed and cacophonous Williams, and Fowles was Finals MVP for a second time she also won in Regular season and playoff records: , Defeated the Connecticut Sun in Finals. Washington outscored Las Vegas by just one point in a hard-fought four-game semifinals win, then needed the full five games to beat Connecticut in a classic Finals.
A formula that puts more emphasis on the playoffs would drop the Mystics in the statistical rankings. Elena Delle Donne said this was the best team she has ever played on: "Not just talent-wise, but the way emotionally and mentally we were so on-point with one another.
That's what took us to the next level. The Mystics also overcame a back injury that hampered Delle Donne during the Finals and has impacted her career since. Regular season and playoff records: , Defeated New York in Finals. Houston came within Teresa Weatherspoon's unforgettable buzzer-beating heave of sweeping the playoffs and came back to finish off New York in the winner-take-all Game 3 of the Finals to hoist the trophy a third time.
Houston's standouts were the same as in Cooper, Swoopes and Thompson. Ultimately, there was a melancholy feel to the championship for the Comets. Their former point guard Perrot died from cancer on Aug. On Sept. Regular season and playoff records: , Defeated Charlotte in Finals. Los Angeles matched the record of the previous season with a slightly better point differential.
The Sparks followed their lone playoff loss, by one point to the Sacramento Monarchs in the conference finals, with three wins by at least 20 points in their final four postseason games. The Sparks learned a lot going against Houston for four seasons before making their championship breakthrough.
Los Angeles star Lisa Leslie has joked, "Thank God that Coop retired," in reference to the Houston's Cooper ending her playing career after the season she returned for four games in at age Leslie was MVP for the season and the Finals. Regular season and playoff records: , Defeated Atlanta in Finals.
The next year brought the opening championship of the Lynx dynasty as No. The season also brought a well-deserved spotlight to Augustus, who became the original building block for the dynasty when she was drafted No.
She led the Lynx in scoring in the regular season The first Lynx title winner announced itself as a contender by winning six more games than any other team during the regular season.
Following a hard-fought win in the opening round over the San Antonio Silver Stars, Minnesota swept the next two rounds en route to a championship. Regular season and playoff records: , Defeated Minnesota in Finals. The playoff format changed in , seeding the top eight teams regardless of conference, and the Sparks made the Finals again. In an epic five-game series, they beat Minnesota on Nneka Ogwumike 's putback with 3.
That timely rule change allowed the Sparks and Lynx -- the league's two best teams by a five-game margin -- to meet in the Finals, setting up perhaps the greatest series in league history.
Regular season and playoff records: , Defeated Washington in Finals. They had back-to-back No. Seattle again got consecutive No. This championship in a lot of ways was won in the semifinals, when the Storm held off Phoenix in an epic Game 5 in which Bird took over in the fourth quarter.
In the finals, Seattle wasn't going to be denied and swept the Mystics. And the Storm looked to be a strong threat to become the first repeat champion since the Sparks in But an Achilles injury kept Stewart out in When she returned in , the Storm picked up where they had left off in With Los Angeles and Minnesota both eliminated in advance of the semifinals after back-to-back Finals meetings, the Storm emerged as the league's best team, improving by 11 wins under first-year head coach Dan Hughes with Stewart winning MVP.
Seattle went in the regular season and became the first team to go in the postseason after the Finals expanded to best-of-five series in The Storm specialized in close wins, going in games decided by five points or fewer in the regular season and winning their last five playoff games by single digits.
Seattle didn't lose at home in , which ended up being Jackson's last full season in the WNBA, as injuries forced her out of the league after Regular season and playoff records: , Defeated Connecticut in Finals. They were more impressive during the playoffs, going with an average margin of The Sparks' repeat championship seemed more predictable than extraordinary at the time, coming after Houston had won four in a row.
But almost two decades later, no franchise has gone back-to-back, so Los Angeles' achievement stands out more now. There isn't much to separate this team from the Sparks, who had a little better regular-season record. The standout players were the same except for Nikki Teasley, a rookie in who hit the championship-clinching 3-pointer in Game 2 of the Finals. Regular season and playoff records: , Defeated Sacramento in Finals. Detroit got home-court advantage thanks to Sacramento upsetting Los Angeles in the Western Conference finals and used it, rallying from a deficit to knock off the defending champs in five games.
A big key for this team was the midseason trade that brought Katie Smith to the Shock. In the decisive Game 5, won by Detroit, Nolan played all 40 minutes and scored 24 points.
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