WNBA Power Rankings: Liberty surge late as every playoff seed remains undecided with four days left in season

The home stretch of the 2026 regular season is full of intrigue

Sep 21, 2026 at 10:35 am ET • 1 min read

Six months ago, amid a contentious labor battle, it was unclear when, or if, the 2026 WNBA season would start. Now, it's nearly over. The regular season will come to a close on Thursday, with the playoffs set to begin less than 72 hours later on Sunday afternoon.

All eight playoff spots have been decided, but no team is locked into a seed, and just one game separates fifth from eighth. Seeding and matchups could be in flux until the very end of Thursday night, which will feature a five-game slate. 

All teams have two games remaining, aside from the Portland Fire and Seattle Storm, which are down to their final contest. Notably, there are just four games left that will feature two playoff teams against each other, and they're part of two mini two-game series:

• Monday: Atlanta Dream at New York Liberty, 8 p.m. ET – Peacock
• Tuesday: Minnesota Lynx at Indiana Fever, 8 p.m. ET – ESPN
• Wednesday: Atlanta Dream at New York Liberty, 8 p.m. ET – USA
• Thursday: Indiana Fever at Minnesota Lynx, 8 p.m. ET – USA

The Lynx need one win or one Golden State Valkyries loss to clinch the No. 1 seed, and could lock it up as early as Tuesday. The aforementioned games will have the biggest impact on seeding over the final few days, as it's unlikely a lottery-bound team will pull off an upset the rest of the way. Since play resumed on Thursday, the eight playoff teams are a combined 12-0 against lottery-bound opponents. 

As the final stretch of the season begins, here are CBS Sports' latest WNBA Power Rankings:

Biggest Movers

2 Liberty

2 Fever

Rk	Teams		Chg	Rcrd
1	Valkyries	The Valkyries put together two more dominant defensive efforts to take care of the Fire and Storm, and are still alive in the race for the No. 1 seed - but just barely. The Lynx own the season tiebreaker between the clubs, which means the only way the Valkyries can finish first is if they win out and the Lynx lose out. You would expect the Valkyries to beat the Fire and Sparks, but it's hard to see the Lynx losing back-to-back games to the Fever.	--	31-11
2	Dream	The Dream have come storming out of the World Cup break with dominant wins over the lifeless Sun and Sky to maintain their hold on the No. 4 seed. Angel Reese, who put up 30 points and 10 rebounds against the Sun and 23 points, 10 rebounds, four assists and three blocks versus the Sky, is now the first player in WNBA history to grab 500 rebounds in a season. She's also making a late push for Defensive Player of the Year.	--	28-14
3	Aces	The Aces easily won both ends of a home and home with the last-place Storm to extend their winning streak to five games and remain in third place. A'ja Wilson had a combined 59 points, 15 rebounds, nine assists, four steals and three blocks in those two wins to begin her closing statement on her MVP case. With two games left against the Sparks and Mercury, the Aces should win out.	1	29-13
4	Lynx	Olivia Miles continued her historic debut season when she broke Caitlin Clark's rookie points record in Sunday's win over the Sun, but she and the Lynx have bigger priorities right now. Due to Friday's loss to the Liberty, they still have not clinched the No. 1 seed - though their magic number is down to one. The Valkyries have the Fire and Sparks remaining, which means the Lynx will likely have to take care of business themselves and win one of their remaining two games, both of which are against the Fever.	1	32-10
5	Liberty	Fresh off her World Cup MVP award, Breanna Stewart went for 24 points, 10 rebounds, four assists and three steals to lead the Liberty past the Lynx on Friday for their biggest win of the season. She followed that up with 27 points, eight rebounds and four assists in a win over the Tempo to keep the Liberty in sixth place and their hopes of a top-four seed alive. They'll close with two games at home against the Dream, who currently sit in fourth.	2	26-16
6	Mystics	The Mystics crushed the Sky, then put together a brilliant performance against the Fever to win the season series between the clubs and keep their hopes of a top-four seed alive. Georgia Amoore picked up where she left off before the break with 23 points and nine assists on 7 of 11 from 3-point range in their two wins. She's averaging 12 points and 3.8 assists on 51% from 3 in her last eight games on either side of the break.	2	26-16
7	Fever	Kelsey Mitchell broke A'ja Wilson's single-season points record in a win over the Tempo, but that was overshadowed by a disastrous loss to the Mystics a few days later that may have ended the Fever's hopes of catching the Dream for the No. 4 seed and also left them at risk of dropping even further down the standings. With two games remaining against the first-place Lynx, there's a real possibility that they fall all the way to eighth and have to play Minnesota in the first round of the playoffs.	2	27-15
8	Wings	Things were looking grim for the Wings when Azzi Fudd was ruled out for the season. But after beating the Sparks and Mercury out of the break, they've now won six games in a row to keep pace with the Mystics and Liberty, and could still finish as high as fifth. Paige Bueckers put up 26 points and five assists in the win over Phoenix for her ninth game this season with at least 25 points and five assists. Only Caitlin Clark (15) has more.	2	26-16
9	Sparks	Nneka Ogwumike is refusing to go out quietly. The Sparks' remaining games are meaningless for their lottery position, but they mean everything to Ogwumike, who will retire at the end of the season. Ogwumike put up 18 points, seven rebounds and four assists against the Wings, followed by 20 points, 12 rebounds and five assists versus the Fire. The former MVP and 11-time All-Star will play her final game on Thursday when the Sparks host the Valkyries.	1	16-26
10	Fire	Like many of their fellow lottery-bound teams, the Fire are limping to the finish line, though that's for the best. They're 0-3 since play resumed from the break, and their defeats to the Mercury and Sparks, in particular, have ensured that they'll finish with no worse than the fifth-best lottery odds. The Fire faded over the last two months of the season, but their future looks bright, especially after Iyana Martin's breakout performance at the World Cup.	1	16-27
11	Mercury	Alyssa Thomas put up 19 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists to record her 23rd career triple-double in the Mercury's loss to the Wings on Saturday. No one else in league history has more than six. In fact, the next six players on the all-time list have a combined 22 triple-doubles. This has been a frustrating season in Phoenix, but Thomas is still filling up the stat sheet. The assist race between her and Caitlin Clark will come down to the wire. Clark is at 8.447 assists per game, while Thomas is at 8.425.	1	15-27
12	Sky	The Sky's 30-point loss to the Mystics in their first game out of the break was yet another stark reminder of the different direction these franchises are heading - in large part due to a pair of trades that have, and will continue to, heavily favored the Mystics. The 2025 deal that sent Sonia Citron, a 2027 first-round pick swap and a 2027 second-round pick to Washington in exchange for Ariel Atkins will be completed this year, and there's a very real chance the Sky give up the No. 1 pick.	1	15-27
13	Sun	The Sun lost by 44 to the Dream in their first game back from the break, which was the second-largest defeat in franchise history and their 11th by at least 20 points. Their 11 20-point defeats are tied - with themselves in 2025 - for the second-most in a season in WNBA history. With a .244 winning percentage over the last two seasons, they remain in the driver's seat for the best odds for the No. 1 pick in the 2027 draft. But, of course, that pick will be made by the Houston Comets, since the Sun are relocating to Texas in the offseason.	--	10-32
14	Storm	The Storm returned from the break with three games in four nights against the Aces, Valkyries and Aces again. They lost all three by a combined 71 points to keep hold of the fourth-best lottery odds. Amid the losing Flau'jae Johnson continues to impress. She had a career-high 29 points, six rebounds, six assists and four steals in Sunday's loss to the Aces.	--	8-35
15	Tempo	The Tempo continue to stay right on the Sun's tail for the best odds at the No. 1 pick. They've now lost six in a row and are 2-22 since their 9-9 start, but their .262 winning percentage remains slightly better than the Sun's .244 mark. Thursday's season finale between the teams could be box office. In other news, Laura Juskaite continued a quietly impressive rookie campaign with a career-high 28 points in the Tempo's loss to the Liberty on Sunday.	--	11-31