The 2025 WNBA playoffs are underway and Day 1 offered a pair of blowouts by the top seeds.
The No. 1 overall seed Minnesota Lynx protected homecourt in Game 1 and beat the No. 8 seed Golden State Valkyries by 29 points. It was made possible in part by Lynx guard Natisha Hiedeman, who scored a career-playoff high of 18 points, after she and StudBudz twin Courtney Williams went from red hair back to pink.
The Las Vegas Aces extended their win streak to 17 games with a 25-point win over the Seattle Storm. Seattle had no answer for reigning MVP A’ja Wilson, who had 29 points, 7 rebounds and 2 blocks in the victory.
‘In my eyes, the streak was over when the regular season ended,’ Wilson said postgame. ‘We have whole new thing we have to start cooking here. And that’s what I am going to hold up to my teammates every single day.’
The Atlanta Dream recorded a victory over the Caitlin Clark-less Indiana Fever at home, but the Mercury lost homecourt advantage over the New York Liberty following an overtime loss in Phoenix. To add insult to injury, the Mercury had a chance to win in regulation, but a would-be game-winning layup from Alyssa Thomas bounced off the rim.
‘I made that shot thousands of times,’ Thomas said after the Mercury’s 76-69 overtime loss. ‘Unfortunately, the shots weren’t going down today, but we had a lot of open looks.’
The Lynx and Dream highlight the winners of Day 1, while the Mercury, Fever and Dream round out our list of losers of Day 1 of the WNBA Playoffs:
Winners
Minnesota’s bench
The Lynx bench players have averaged 22.8 points per game. Minnesota’s bench outdid itself Sunday, dropping 42 points in the Lynx’s 101-72 win over Golden State. The Valkyries were held to 17 bench points. Natisha Hiedeman led the way with 18 points, four assist and three rebounds in 26 minutes, which marks a playoff career-high. Jessica Shepard added 12 points and eight rebounds and four assist off the bench and DiJonai Carrington knocked down a pair of clutch 3-pointers in her first game back from a four-game absence due to a left shoulder injury. The Lynx will be tough to beat if their bench keeps rolling.
A’ja Wilson’s MVP case
The votes may have already been cast but A’ja Wilson’s complete domination of the Seattle Storm only proved why she could be at the top of the MVP ballot. Wilson, who won the award in 2020, ’22 and ’24, is in competition with Lynx forward Napheesa Collier, who had 20 points and six rebounds Sunday. Wilson helped the Aces to a 20-point lead at the half and finished with 29 points, 7 rebounds and 2 blocks in the 25-point victory.
New York Liberty guard Natasha Cloud
Last year, Natasha Cloud called PHX Arena home as a member of the Phoenix Mercury, but she returned to the desert on Sunday after being traded to the Liberty ahead of the season. Cloud clearly benefited from the familiarity and turned in a game-high 23 points, six rebounds and five assists in the Liberty’s 76-69 overtime win over the Mercury. Cloud shot 9-of-12 from the field and 3-of-6 from the 3-point line and her nine field goals are the most she’s recorded for the Liberty this season.
Indiana Fever guard Kelsey Mitchell
Mitchell is a scoring machine. It’s not hard to see how she helped will the Fever to the playoffs. She finished with 27 points on 50% shooting from the field. She was the lone Indiana player to have 20 points or more, and she got it done from all over the floor, mostly terrorizing Atlanta in the paint.
Atlanta’s defense
Out of the gate, the Dream allowed the Fever to dictate the pace of the game, and that put Atlanta in an early nine-point hole. They climbed out of it with defense, causing turnovers and cutting off lanes, while holding Indiana to 34% shooting. Atlanta held the Fever to 12 points in the second quarter and 15 points in the fourth and caused several mistakes with 10 steals and six blocked shots.
New York Liberty
Unlike New York’s 2024 championship run that ended with the team claiming its first title in franchise history, the Liberty entered the 2025 WNBA playoffs without home-court advantage. However, it didn’t take New York long to get it back with a win over the Mercury in Phoenix. The Liberty can close the Mercury out on Wednesday at Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
Losers
Breanna Stewart’s left knee
Liberty All-Star Breanna Stewart went down with 3:01 remaining in overtime with an apparent left knee injury. Stewart attempted to play through it, but asked to be subbed out about a minute later. Stewart didn’t return, finishing with 18 points, six rebounds and four assists. She was spotted wearing a brace on her left knee after the game.
Liberty coach Sandy Brondello said its too soon to provide an update on Stewart following the overtime victory, but said the two-time WNBA MVP will undergo evaluations with the team’s medical staff. Stewart previously missed 13 games in the regular season after sustaining a bone bruise in her right knee on July 26.
Phoenix Mercury’s offense
The Mercury shot 32.5% from the field in Sunday’s loss, marking the team’s second-worst field goal percentage of the season. They also went 6-of-23 from the 3-point line. Despite that, the Mercury still had an opportunity to win Game 1 at home. It came down to a layup. The game was tied at 65 with 8.4 seconds remaining, Mercury forward Alyssa Thomas drove toward the basket for a shot she said she’s made ‘thousands of times.’ The layup would have given the Mercury the lead with 2 seconds remaining, but took an ‘unfortunate roll’ and the Liberty came up with the defensive rebound to send the game to overtime. The Liberty went on to outscore the Mercury 11-4 in OT to steal Game 1 on the road.
Officiating
Officiating has been a storyline throughout the 2025 WNBA season and came up in a couple of games the first day of the playoffs. Golden State Valkyries coach Natalie Nakase called out the referees after her team’s Game 1 loss to the Lynx in Minneapolis. ‘I want a fair fight. I really do. I want a clean fight,’ Nakase pleaded in a postgame interview that will likely result in a fine from the league.
She wasn’t the only coach who took issue with officiating Sunday.
Fever head coach Stephanie White received a technical for saying some colorful words to the official. The Dream and Fever amassed 43 fouls in their first-round game. Hillmon, Dream forward Brionna Jones and Fever forward Aliyah Boston all had five fouls. Atlanta guard Jordin Canada fouled out.
Liberty head coach Sandy Brondello also pointed to New York’s free throw disparity. (Phoenix had 16 free throw attempts in Game 1, compared to six for New York.)
Golden State’s 3-point shooting…
Golden State relies on the 3-point line more than any other team in the league. Nearly 38% of the Valkyries points come from beyond the arc this season, and Golden State averages a league-leading 9.7 made 3-pointers per game. However, the 3-pointers weren’t falling in Game 1 against the Minnesota Lynx. The Valkyries finished 9-of-31 (29%) from beyond the arch and shot 33.9% from the field. That’s not going to get it done against the league-leading Lynx.
… 3-point shooting in general
The Dream and Fever didn’t shoot the 3-ball particularly well on Sunday. By the start of the fourth quarter, there were six total made baskets beyond the arc between the Fever and the Dream. For comparison, Indiana finished the regular season fourth in 3-point percentage (34.6%), and the Dream finished third in total 3-point shots with 421 on the season. Atlanta managed to finish the afternoon with seven 3-pointers.
Indiana Fever’s fourth quarter
By the halfway point of the fourth quarter, Indiana had just two points. That’s not a typo. There wasn’t a made field goal until the five-minute mark. The points came from the free-throw line before Boston finally got them going again with two quick back-to-back buckets. If the Fever want to get out of the series, they can’t have putrid quarters like that.
Storm in the playoffs
Seattle continued a troubling trend with it loss to Las Vegas. The Storm are now 6-19 in playoff games as the lower seed. The lone series the Storm have won against a higher seed? The WNBA Finals in 2004, when they notched their first title against the Connecticut Sun — the top seed in the Eastern Conference.
No. 7 seeds are 1-6 and the lower-seeded teams are 3-24 since the WNBA adopted a best-of-three series in the first round in 2022. The Storm, who went 2-2 against the Aces in the regular season, hope to turn it around on their home court at 9:30 p.m. ET on Tuesday.
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