September brings the end of the regular season and the start of postseason play in the WNBA. The league is kicking off this pivotal month with five games that will impact playoff positioning.

We start with the Connecticut Sun hosting the Seattle Storm at 1 p.m. ET (NBA TV), followed by the Chicago Sky playing the Minnesota Lynx at 3 p.m. ET (League Pass). At 4 p.m. ET, we’ll have two games happening, with the Las Vegas Aces and Phoenix Mercury competing in Phoenix (League Pass) and the Indiana Fever and Dallas Wings playing in Arlington (NBA TV). The action ends in Southern California with the Atlanta Dream taking on the Los Angeles Sparks at 7 p.m. ET (League Pass).

A Storm is coming

With Gabby Williams joining the Storm and the team clinching a playoff berth, they seem primed to be title contenders this year. A victory against the Sun is key, as it can help them leap over the Aces in the standings.

The Sun also need the win as they are just a half-game in front of the Lynx for the second seed. With less than 10 games to go, every game gains even more importance, and neither team can afford to drop games if they want to earn the highest seed possible.

Can the Sky win again?

The Sky have lost five in a row and are suddenly fighting for their postseason lives. They are…

Sun star Alyssa Thomas left Saturday’s game against the host Mystics with a leg injury, but Connecticut still defeated Washington 96-85 in a matchup that saw DeWanna Bonner reach a career scoring milestone.

Thomas, the Olympic gold medalist and MVP runner-up last season, was injured early in the second quarter when setting a screen, as her leg collided with the Mystics’ Karlie Samuelson, who was called for a foul. Thomas was helped off the court and didn’t return, playing a total of just seven minutes.

“She’s sore. We’re going to get her reevaluated to see how she feels for [Sunday, when the Sun host Seattle],” Connecticut coach Stephanie White said.

White added that Thomas “in a pinch” possibly could have returned Saturday.

“But not really something we wanted to chance,” she said. “We want to make sure she’s healthy and ready to go.”

Thomas leads the Sun (23-8) in rebounding (9.0) and assists (7.8) this season. In her absence, several teammates stepped forward, including fellow veteran Bonner, whose 16…

It was a must-win game for the Chicago Sky. Aiming to hold onto the eighth playoff spot, they took on their rival, the Indiana Fever, before a star-studded crowd that included Shaquille O’Neal, Sue Bird and Megan Rapinoe. And, it was Barbie Night. The Fever, led by Caitlin Clark, Aliyah Boston, Kelsey Mitchell and NaLyssa Smith, came in holding onto the seventh spot.

The Sky jumped out to a fast start, leading 21-9 in the opening four minutes. The tandem of Lindsay Allen and Michaela Onyenwere were instrumental as they pushed the tempo and scored in bunches. Onyenwere took over for starting guard Chennedy Carter, who was out due to COVID-19.

Then in the second quarter, the bench came in and things took a turn. The Fever began to take control of the game and the Sky’s largely struggling bench couldn’t keep up. The Sky were trying to stay competitive on the perimeter against the hot shooting exploits of Clark, Mitchell and Smith. Rachel Banham, Allen and Onyenwere were doing well from beyond the arc for Chicago, but the Sky’s bread-and-butter game in the post was struggling. Angel Reese was rebounding, but not scoring as much. Kamilla Cardoso wasn’t given the ball often enough in the paint.

The third quarter was not much better, as the Sky couldn’t get on a…

WNBA award voters, regardless of who they pick, will be able to say the following when it comes time to choose between Indiana‘s Caitlin Clark and Chicago‘s Angel Reese in this season’s rookie of the year balloting:

“She did things the league has never seen before,” one said. 

The latest example of that came Friday night, when Clark and Reese went head-to-head for the fourth and final time in this regular season. The game, and the individual race, were both one-sided: Indiana won 100-81, Clark leading the way with 31.0 points and 12 assists — the first such game in WNBA history.

Clark has said she doesn’t fixate on individual awards, but her game Friday night certainly suggested that she’s the runaway favorite for rookie of the year; BetMGM Sportsbook recently listed her odds of winning the award at -5,000, which means oddsmakers consider her a virtual lock.

Indiana went 3-1 against Chicago this season, with Clark (20.5 points, 10 assists per game) having the stats edge over Reese (13.5 points, 13.3 rebounds per game) in those meetings. And the Fever are now 16-16, while the Sky are 11-20.

A look inside the numbers:

For Clark, a WNBA season like none other

Clark’s averages for the season to this point: 18.4 points, 5.7 rebounds, 8.3 assists per game.

That’s never been done…

Swish Appeal recently caught up with Isabelle Gradwell, a 6-foot-1 swingwoman born and raised in Marshalltown, IA. Although distracted by her new puppy, Gradwell told us about growing up in a small town, why she picked bioengineering as her major, playing for Cleveland State and moving to Minnesota for her senior year.

When discussing her pro career, she told us why 3s are better than 2s and why she’s the best player to have on your team in the month of March. Some other highlights from the interview include:

On playing in longsleeve shirts:

I just have always liked having something covering my arms. I don’t know. I honestly have no idea when I started doing it. I think it keeps me warm and I think that’s good as a shooter,

On having higher percentage on 3s than on 2s:

Personally I just emphasize my 3-point game more and I prefer to get a 3-point shot than a 2-point shot most of the time. To me, I’m just better at 3s than 2s, and that’s not the same for a lot of people because a lot of 2s are like layups and stuff like that. But if I had a layup or 3, I’d choose the 3 every time.

On majoring in biomechanical engineering:

I’m not interested in the actual hospital type of stuff. I don’t like blood….

CHICAGO — The first three Indiana Fever–Chicago Sky games were defined by their competitive nature, with the final margins coming down to a combined 10 points.

That wasn’t the case Friday, though, in the teams’ fourth and final meeting of the regular season: The Indiana (16-16) cruised to a 100-81 victory to reach the .500 mark for the first time since May 2022, when they were just 2-2. Indiana’s 103 straight games under .500 was the third-longest streak in WNBA history, per Elias.

The Fever also ensured a win of the season series against the Sky, 3-1.

Indiana has been one of the hottest teams in the league since the Olympic break, improving to 5-1 in that span. By hitting the century mark in scoring — a season-high in points — the Fever demonstrated once more how they’ve had the best offense in the league since mid-June.

Rookie sensation Caitlin Clark was spellbinding with 31 points, a career-high, and 12 assists. She is the fifth player in WNBA history with 30…

Will they or won’t they?

It’s been eight years and counting—the longest current streak in the WNBA—since the Indiana Fever last appeared in the playoffs. The only player on the roster who remembers the 2016 home playoff loss to the Phoenix Mercury is Erica Wheeler (and she’s been on multiple teams since then). The Fever then were coached by Stephanie White, who made a return to Indiana with the Connecticut Sun this Wednesday. The Sun are among the championship favorites, while the Fever are fighting for the playoffs. In the final game between the two teams this regular season, the Fever got their first win against the Sun, not only this year but since July 1, 2021.

White, who lost her first game to the Fever as head coach of the Sun, praised Indiana’s progress and growth in her postgame press conference, noting that, “Everybody on the floor understands how, when and where Caitlin Clark can get them the ball.” The best-passing rookie in WNBA history has been instrumental in her team’s transformation and she was rightfully named Eastern Conference Player of the Week after averaging 25 points, five rebounds and nine assists per game against the Mercury, Seattle Storm and Minnesota Lynx.

The Fever…

Professional sports teams have largely moved to accommodate the needs of fans with sensory issues, but many venues still fall short when it comes to addressing a range of other needs for fans living with conditions known as invisible or nonapparent disabilities, according to a nationwide ESPN survey.

Tens of millions of Americans live with conditions that are not immediately apparent but significantly impact their daily lives, including autism, brain injuries, autoimmune diseases, chronic pain, mental health conditions, and loss of hearing and vision.

Invisible disabilities are protected by the Americans with Disabilities Act, a 1990 law that prohibits discrimination and requires stadiums, arenas and other venues to provide accommodations. But those efforts largely focus on physical accessibility features such as wheelchairs, ramps and elevators.

“People think, ‘Hey, let’s just do the minimum, we have X number of wheelchair seats, that’s good enough,'” said Sherri Privitera, senior principal and senior architect at…

Since play resumed after the Olympic break, the Phoenix Mercury have been quite mediocre, posting a record of 3-4 across seven games.

After bursting out of the break with a rousing rout of the Chicago Sky in Kahleah Copper’s return to the Windy City, the Mercury, somewhat understandably, suffered from a flat first half on the second night of a back-to-back against the Indiana Fever. A visit from the Sky resulted in another win before Phoenix headed to the ATL, where they split a two-game set against the Atlanta Dream; Phoenix was lackluster in the first game, before responding with a more intentional effort in the second game. The Mercury then turned in less-than-competitive efforts against the New York Liberty and Minnesota Lynx. And things aren’t getting any easier, with the Las Vegas Aces coming to the Valley on Sunday, Sept. 1.

Even as the Mercury have muddled through this mediocrity, they’ve benefited from wins on the margins of the roster, with their reserves—highlighted by recently-reacquired rookie Celeste Taylor—providing positive play.

A Taylor-made impact

It’s not uncommon for WNBA rookies to have odd inaugural seasons. They might be drafted by one team, spend training camp with another, sign a seven-day contract with yet another team and then, if…