The WNBA is already full speed ahead into the second half of the season, and it is going to be a sprint to the finish. Regular-season action ends in exactly one month, with each team packing 12-14 games in the final stretch.

As players re-acclimate to following the Olympic break and make one last push for the postseason, here is a look at which teams I project will make the playoffs as well as a to-do list for each team to focus on to be in the best possible position come playoff time.

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Playoff-bound

1. New York Liberty

Stay the course

The Liberty remind me of the Aces at this point last season. New York is the best team in the league, and a couple of bad games or a bad week won’t change that, just as an August swoon for Las Vegas didn’t prevent the Aces from repeating as champs. It will be interesting to see if the Liberty choose to chase the single-season wins record of 34, set by the Aces last year. New York can also tie the best winning percentage of all-time — the Houston Comets won 90 percent of their games in 1998 — by winning out, but that might be a Pyrrhic victory if the Liberty tire themselves out and don’t cap off the season with a ring. Just ask the 2016 Golden State Warriors.

The bag was DEEP and the Libs closed the West Coast tour out the right way

The Las Vegas Aces and Los Angeles Sparks played for the fourth and final time of the regular season Sunday, but it was the first meeting since Dearica Hamby filed a lawsuit against her former team and the WNBA.

After the game, Aces head coach Becky Hammon, who was the subject of several of the complaints Hamby alleged in the lawsuit, addressed the situation. As she did last season after the original league investigation in 2023 — when Hammon was suspended two games for violating workplace policies — Hammon insisted that her behavior was above board.

“It just didn’t happen, … the bullying,” Hammon said after the game. “I spoke with her every day. If she wanted to practice, she practiced. If she didn’t, she didn’t. Over-the-top care, actually.”

She also asserted she has kept a clean track record through an extensive Hall of Fame career.

“Here’s some facts. I’ve been in either the WNBA or the NBA for now, 25 years. I’ve never had an HR complaint, never not once. I still didn’t actually, because Dearica didn’t file any,” Hammon said. “She didn’t file with the players union. She didn’t file with the WNBA. Those are facts. It’s also factual that nobody made a call about trading her until Atlanta called us in January.”

During the game, in…

VILLENEUVE-D’ASCQ, France — Team USA coach Cheryl Reeve is no stranger to dynasties. From 2011 to 2017, her Minnesota Lynx won four WNBA championships. And during the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio, where Reeve was an assistant, four of her players played key roles for the gold medal squad.

So, it’s probably a pretty comforting — and in a way, a familiar — feeling for Reeve to look down her bench now in France and see four starters for the Las Vegas Aces, the defending two-time WNBA champs.

Sunday night, it was a core from the most dominant WNBA team in recent memory — go figure — that propelled Team USA to an 87-68 win over Germany in the team’s final group stage game.

Through the first 15 minutes, the game was pretty even (Germany even led after the first quarter), but midway through the second quarter — just a minute after Team USA took its first lead of the game with an Alyssa Thomas layup — Reeve re-inserted A’ja Wilson onto the floor, where she joined Aces guards Kelsey Plum and Jackie Young. With the Aces core on the floor, Team USA closed out the first half on a 17-7 run.

Again, in the third quarter, midway through, a Plum-Young substitution (with Wilson already on the floor) spelled instant offensive energy for Team USA as the squad — which had allowed…

PHOENIX — At halftime of Saturday’s WNBA All-Star Game, Arike Ogunbowale received a bit of a surprise. Team WNBA coach Cheryl Miller was talking about the group’s first half performance — which saw it enter the locker room trailing by two points — but paused amid her comments and pointed at the Dallas Wings star. Ogunbowale said Miller told her to “take a deep breath and play your game.”

Coming out of the locker room, Ogunbowale did. The former league scoring champion collected all of her All-Star Game-record 34 points in the second half.

“You guys saw what happened,” she said, reflecting on how she took Miller’s advice to heart.

Ogunbowale’s scoring barrage saw her claim her second All-Star MVP and will go down as the most memorable performance of the night. But there were plenty of other moments that delighted the sellout Phoenix crowd during Team WNBA’s 117-109 victory.

Here’s a breakdown and grade for every player who participated.

Team WNBA

Starters

Nneka Ogwumike: B+

Ogwumike was among the tone-setters for Team WNBA. She got off to a fast start — with 1:35 left in the first quarter, she had scored what was then a game-high 8 points. Her 14 points were the third-most of any Team WNBA participant and she missed only two shots.

DeWanna Bonner: B-

Bonner…

In the midst of the most highly touted WNBA rookie class in recent memory, or perhaps league history, I’ve been a bit negligent on spotlighting the veterans in 2024. Rather than focus on the WNBA’s newest entrants, let’s take a look at the opposite side of the coin as we head into the midseason break: the 40 players in the league who are at least 30 years old.

First, one caveat: This group excludes players who are already All-Stars or Olympians. A quick hat tip to DeWanna Bonner, Chelsea Gray, Brittney Griner, Dearica Hamby, Jonquel Jones, Jewell Loyd, Kayla McBride, Nneka Ogwumike, Diana Taurasi and Alyssa Thomas. They’ve already received recognition. With that in mind, here is my All-30-and-Older team.

At point guard, Natasha Cloud. In her first season in Phoenix, Cloud is posting the best 2-point percentage of her career, along with her highest assists, blocks and steals per game. The 32-year-old guard is the fulcrum of the Mercury’s unique defensive approach, as she guards the point of attack and the post, and she allows Phoenix to play without a traditional power forward because she can defend fours. When the Mercury missed three starters against the Sparks last week, Cloud stepped in as the No. 1 offensive option, scoring a career-high 31 points, including the…

The 2024 WNBA All-Star Game rosters are set with Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese making their debuts in the annual showcase later this month.

Clark, the No. 1 pick by the Indiana Fever in this year’s WNBA Draft, received the most votes in the fan-voting portion of the balloting. Having already won Rookie of the Month in May, she is leading all first-year players in scoring (16.2 points per game), assists (6.9 per game), and is second league-wide in 3-pointers made (56).

On Tuesday, Reese, the No. 7 pick to the Chicago Sky, was named Rookie of the Month for June. This past weekend, she set a single-season WNBA record for consecutive double-doubles (10), and she led the WNBA in rebounding entering Tuesday night’s action. Like Clark, Reese finished in the top five of the fan vote.

The countdown begins…

Get ready to witness the ultimate clash of talent as #WNBAAllStar meets the USA Women’s National Team on July 20th at 8:30pm/ET on ABC pic.twitter.com/oEyJciHmEx

— WNBA (@WNBA) July 3, 2024

The two rookies are the only two first-time participants in the exhibition, which is set for July 20 in Phoenix.

“I’m just so happy. I know the work I put in,” Reese said. “Coming into this league, so many people doubted me, didn’t think my game would translate and I…

The Athletic has launched a new series of sports debates in which two writers break down a specific topic. In this WNBA edition, Sabreena Merchant and Ben Pickman consider the candidates for their All-Star ballots.

Ben Pickman: It’s that time of the year again when we think about who should make the WNBA All-Star Game. The annual exhibition is scheduled for July 20, with fan voting set to end Saturday. Sabreena, we both have official media ballots, which are due Friday. So let’s inevitably upset some people about where our heads are at for who should be in Phoenix. How’s that sound?

Sabreena Merchant: I’m more of a Commissioner’s Cup gal myself, but during Olympic years, the All-Star Game does take on a different level of intrigue because Team USA plays a roster of the *other* All-Stars in the WNBA. When I was putting together my initial ballot of who should make Team WNBA, I found myself drawn to which players create the best storylines competing against the national team.

Pickman: Already we have a difference of opinion as that didn’t cross my mind at all, though I guess maybe it should have considering this is an exhibition for the fans. When I was putting together my ballot, I tended not to think about Team USA at all, frankly. The exercise we’re tasked with…

The Athletic has launched a new series of sports debates in which two writers break down a specific topic. In this WNBA edition, Sabreena Merchant and Ben Pickman discuss the league’s rivalries.

Ben Pickman: Sabreena, did you know it was rivalry weekend last weekend in the WNBA? A stretch in which the league scheduled matchups, or at least markets, that are actual rivalries. Let’s use that as a jumping off point for this week’s conversation. Was there a rivalry game last week that caught your attention?

Sabreena Merchant: If you’re referring to Skylar Diggins-Smith’s first return to Phoenix, absolutely. I’d argue that prior to 2023, when Sue Bird retired, the Storm-Mercury games had a good run as the best rivalry in the WNBA. The 2018 semifinals: What a time!

Pickman: I think the recent Storm-Aces playoff series rivaled (no pun intended) that, too. I guess we’ll see what happens now, though, with Seattle and Phoenix.

Let’s really jump in, though, with another rivalry that some key participants —notably Indiana Fever coach Christie Sides — say has been around for a few years: Fever-Sky.

Merchant: Enlighten me, Ben. Prior to the arrival of this rookie class, when have Chicago-Indiana games been hotly contested?

Pickman: Well, I assume geography plays into it, and…

Kate Martin wants to make one thing clear: She is a punctual person.

That bus in Dallas that left her in the parking lot after a Las Vegas Aces team meal? “They set me up,” Martin says of her teammates’ recent viral prank on the rookie. “Come on, now. I would never be late.

“Coach (Becky Hammon) said she had to talk to me, and then I was talking to her — of no substance. I was really confused. I thought it was something important, and then they had been planning it the whole time.”

The Aces’ bus almost left without Kate Martin

@_ajawilson22 pic.twitter.com/GXPQzSRdUc

— The Athletic WBB (@TheAthleticWBB) June 5, 2024

In fairness, everyone on the Aces acknowledges Martin’s discipline. As Hammon says, “She just doesn’t make mistakes.” It’s one of the many reasons Las Vegas — the players, the coaches, the fans — has come to love Martin, as she keeps living the best feel-good story in the WNBA.

One month into the season, Martin is averaging more than 20 minutes per game for the two-time defending champs and is often Hammon’s first sub off the bench, which makes it easy to forget how noteworthy it is that Martin is in this position. She averaged double-digit scoring once in her five years at Iowa, while playing in the national spotlight cast on…

The U.S. women’s basketball roster was officially announced Tuesday, and in six weeks, the 12 players will go after a record eighth consecutive Olympic gold medal. With seven players who’ve already appeared on Team USA (and an additional two who were on the three-on-three team, known as 3×3, the last time around), this is an experienced group that enters the Games as the favorite.

Experience and maturity are only heightened considering the roster skews toward players in their late 20s; the youngest players are 26 and Diana Taurasi at 42 is the oldest. Unlike previous iterations of Olympic rosters, no recent college grads were included. Indiana Fever rookie Caitlin Clark’s exclusion from the roster has been the subject of much debate, and reigning WNBA Rookie of the Year Aliyah Boston also wasn’t selected.

The next chapter in The Greatest Dynasty Ever.

The 2024 USA Women’s National Team is here.

#USABWNT x #ParisOlympics pic.twitter.com/BdDki5De5O

— USA Basketball (@usabasketball) June 11, 2024

With 12 versatile, slightly older players, coach Cheryl Reeve has plenty of flexibility with lineups and rotations, similar to how the defensive-oriented coach operates with her Minnesota Lynx squad. She is known for getting the most out of her players, orchestrating…