The matchup has been dissected, the picks and predictions made. Come Thursday (8 p.m. ET, ESPN), the 2024 WNBA Finals between the No. 1 seed New York Liberty and the No. 2 seed Minnesota Lynx will tip off.
And there’s no shortage of star power and underdog stories. Five players who earned MVP votes will play in the WNBA Finals, most prominently 2024 MVP runner-up Napheesa Collier, two-time MVP Breanna Stewart and former No. 1 pick Sabrina Ionescu.
Both teams have also thrived behind some key second-round (or later) draft picks, including three starters in Minnesota’s Bridget Carleton and New York’s Betnijah Laney-Hamilton and Leonie Fiebich.
Heading into Game 1, ESPN’s Michael Voepel, Alexa Philippou and Charlie Creme debut their WNBA Finals player impact rankings. All of the players on the list are expected to help decide the championship series. Some will continue to lead their teams in scoring or defense, and any of them could have a pivotal performance.
We rank the top 15 based on their play so far in the 2024 postseason.
2024 playoff stats: 27.1 PPG, 9.6 RPG, 3.9 APG
Collier is the leading scorer in the 2024 playoffs and has been very efficient, shooting 54.6% from the field and 45% from beyond the arc. In the four previous…
