My remaining WNBA regular season questions — Team USA captures gold

Welcome to Basketball Insider, presented by The BIG EAST Conference. While the FIBA World Cup provided no shortage of excellent basketball, the return of the WNBA this week is a welcome resumption of the most wide-open and intriguing season in a long time, if not ever.

---

---

Accordingly, I have a number of remaining questions about the WNBA season I’ll be looking to answer by the time the playoffs begin.

Who benefits from the break?

Every team spent the past two weeks largely resting and healing, while a number of key star players participated in the World Cup. Who has the advantage in that dynamic? We don’t have many recent data points to guide the way. My initial read is that the Aces and Liberty probably benefited the most — Las Vegas because A’ja Wilson got to rest and recover, New York got the same for Jonquel Jones and, critically, Sabrina Ionescu.

But we just don’t know — something as significant as Sonia Citron and Kiki Iriafen logging USA Basketball minutes could give them an extra boost of big-game experience and confidence heading into the playoffs for the Mystics. Perhaps the extra reps helped Napheesa Collier reach her pre-injury level (though she was doing a pretty good job of that before the FIBA break even arrived). It certainly had to help Leonie Fiebich, who badly needed minutes.

Breanna Stewart took on the biggest workload of all during the tournament — does her confidence carry over? If you’re Breanna Stewart, do you even need more confidence after all you’ve accomplished? So maybe a better question is whether breakout performances like those from Han Xu and Isobel Borlase carry over into their more specialized roles with the Liberty and Atlanta Dream, respectively.

Regardless: this introduced a wild card into the season.

---

---

The three playoff races

For most of the season, the WNBA playoff race has come down to the eight teams who are clearly going to make it and the seven teams who are not. But ahead of the break, we saw some separation even among the top eight.

Minnesota and Golden State are not locked into No. 1 and No. 2, but it will take some really shocking results to shake either of them loose. Then there’s No. 3-5, which are Indiana, Atlanta and Las Vegas, though the Aces have both a one-game lead and only non-playoff teams remaining on their schedule. In theory, Indiana’s got the harder remaining schedule, with two left against Minnesota, but those are the last two Lynx regular season games of the season, and Minnesota might have top seed locked up by then.

Atlanta, meanwhile, has a pair left against New York, who will almost certainly have something to play for. This is where the third race — No. 6-8 — blends into No. 3-5. The Liberty, after all, have won seven of their last 10 games, and when healthy are as talented as any team in the league. If they move up into the No. 4 vs. No. 5 series, regardless of home court, that becomes the most intriguing matchup of the first round.

Dallas, too, cannot be written off, with four remaining games against Los Angeles, Phoenix twice and Seattle. Right now, the Wings are the No. 8 seed, but a strong regular season finish could put them in a dramatically better position just over a week from now.

The JuJu Watkins sweepstakes

Sure, you’re focused on the incredible postseason to come, but in Houston and Toronto, jockeying for position atop the 2027 WNBA Lottery odds is where the drama lies.

Right now, both the Sun/Comets and Tempo have a good shot at that top pick. Toronto needs to lose all four of its remaining games to tie for the top lottery odds. So if both sides lose out heading into their head-to-head season finale, it sets up the greatest single lottery match-up since the Seattle-San Antonio battle to end the 2015 season, with the rights to Breanna Stewart at stake.

I don’t know how many of you remember that game, but it was an absolute classic in dueling priorities. Here is the box score if you want a sense of just how fully both teams leaned into the lottery odds. If you have League Pass, watch it all … if you dare. I remember watching every minute of it on my iPad, infused with the very real sense that if a critical mass of people saw this game, it would set women’s basketball back 20 years.

Sept. 24, 2026 at Mohegan Sun Arena will be momentous for plenty of reasons, most of all due to it being the final game in Connecticut Sun history. But we might also look back on it as the moment JuJu Watkins’ future was decided.

---

---

This week in women’s basketball

Sydney Johnson joined Sarah Spain’s podcast.

Terrific from Alexa Philippou on how Team USA captured gold.

And our Scott Mammoser also captured this well.

Meanwhile our Lukas Petridis looks at what this meant for France.

Love to see veteran centers signed for the stretch run. Mercedes Russell…

…and Kalani Brown.

Also, baseball, but have you been tuned into the WPBL? If not, fix that, the championship is here!

Brianna Turner is not shrinking from the moment.

And Unrivaled made the right call returning to Philly. Not just because of my commute!

---

Five at The IX: Team USA captures gold

---

---

Soccer: Annie Peterson, @AnnieMPeterson, AP Women’s Soccer
Tennis: Joey Dillon, @JoeyDillon, Freelance Tennis Writer
Basketball: Howard Megdal, @HowardMegdal, The IX Sports
Softball: Maren Angus-Coombs, @Maren-Angus, The IX Sports
Golf: Marin Dremock, @MDremock, The IX Sports
Hockey: @TheIceGarden, The Ice Garden
Gymnastics: Jessica Taylor Price, @jesstaylorprice, Freelance Writer