The Liberty-Lynx WNBA Finals went to a decisive Sport 5 in October. Catalina Fragoso/NBAE by way of Getty Photographs
The WNBA’s 2025 regular-season schedule will give us an instantaneous take a look at each the latest crew and the latest No. 1 choose on opening day on Could 16. However we should look ahead to the primary WNBA Finals rematch.
The league launched its 2025 schedule Monday — broadcast and streaming particulars shall be launched subsequent spring — with the Dallas Wings and their prime choose (anticipated to be UConn’s Paige Bueckers) and the growth Golden State Valkyries each taking part in on the primary day. The Wings will host the Minnesota Lynx and the Valkyries will host the Los Angeles Sparks.
However the New York Liberty and the Lynx will not meet till July 30, the primary of their 4 matchups within the 44-game regular-season slate. That is except they meet once more (as they did final season) within the Commissioner’s Cup last, which is July 1. The Lynx received that 2024 title, however the Liberty received a hotly contested five-game Finals collection for his or her first WNBA championship.
So much will occur between now and the beginning of the league’s twenty ninth season, together with the Golden State growth draft Friday (6:30 p.m. ET, ESPN), free company signings starting in February, and the 2025 draft in April. All of it should have an effect on rosters and matchups. However primarily based on what we all know now, listed below are the ten must-see video games of the 2025 common season.
One of many WNBA’s geographic rivalries — Chicago’s Wintrust Heart and Indiana’s Gainbridge Fieldhouse are 182 miles aside — grew to become spicier final season. Rookies Caitlin Clark of Indiana and Kamilla Cardoso and Angel Reese of Chicago introduced extra eyes to this collection than ever earlier than. Indiana, which received the season collection 3-1, made the playoffs; Chicago did not. The Sky are slotted so as to add one other lottery choose — No. 3 — within the draft, and each groups have new coaches (Stephanie White for the Fever, Tyler Marsh for the Sky). Will probably be the primary of 5 conferences between the groups in 2025.
Could 21: Dallas Wings at Minnesota Lynx
It is the second assembly between these groups within the season’s first 5 days, however this one initiatives as Bueckers’ homecoming recreation in Minneapolis. The Wings missed the playoffs final season, ending 9-31, and fired coach Latricia Trammell regardless of her main Dallas to the semifinals the yr earlier than. Longtime coach Curt Miller is now Dallas’ basic supervisor; the Wings have not employed a coach but. Bueckers, one of many front-runners for the 2024-25 nationwide participant of the yr with UConn, initiatives as the favourite for WNBA Rookie of the Yr.
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Could 27: Atlanta Dream at Los Angeles Sparks
Two of the league’s new coaches, the Dream’s Karl Smesko and the Sparks’ Lynne Roberts, left their school groups early this season to go to the WNBA. This shall be their first matchup as professional coaches, and an opportunity to see some big-time younger stars like Atlanta’s Rhyne Howard and Los Angeles’ Rickea Jackson (and Cameron Brink if she has returned from a knee damage that reduce quick her rookie season).
June 7: Las Vegas Aces at Golden State Valkyries
This would be the first assembly between Aces coach Becky Hammon and her former assistant Natalie Nakase, coach of the Valkyries. One other of Hammon’s former assistants, the Sky’s Marsh, will first meet up with the Aces on Aug. 25 in Chicago.
June 17: Las Vegas Aces at Minnesota LynxTop tales of the week from
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Las Vegas’ A’ja Wilson was the unanimous MVP final season, whereas Minnesota’s Napheesa Collier was one vote shy of unanimous runner-up and received the WNBA Defensive Participant of the Yr award. The 2 stars are within the primes of their careers, and this shall be their first assembly of 2025.
July 13: Dallas Wings at Indiana Fever
This initiatives because the second assembly between Clark and Bueckers, who confronted off within the NCAA match twice. UConn received their 2021 Candy 16 recreation; Iowa received their 2024 nationwide semifinal. Indiana and Dallas first meet on June 27 in Texas.
July 15: Indiana Fever vs. Connecticut Solar (Boston)
Stephanie White left the Solar to return to her residence state of Indiana and her second stint as Fever coach. She led Connecticut within the WNBA’s first recreation at Boston’s TD Backyard final season in August, a 69-61 win over Los Angeles. Now she returns with Indiana and star attraction Clark for what’s prone to be one other sellout at TD Backyard.
Aug. 10: Minnesota Lynx at New York Liberty
That is the primary time the groups will meet at Barclays Heart because the decisive Sport 5 of the 2024 championship collection. (Except, once more, they play there for the Commissioner’s Cup in July.) Sport 5 and the title went to the Liberty, 67-62 in extra time on Oct. 20. Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve was livid with the officiating afterward, proclaiming, “This s— was stolen from us.” The league opted to not fantastic her.
A’ja Wilson capped her record-setting 2024 season together with her third MVP award. Ian Maule/Getty Photographs
Aug. 13: New York Liberty at Las Vegas Aces
The Aces beat the Liberty within the 2023 Finals, however New York avenged that with a 3-1 semifinal collection victory over Las Vegas final season on the way in which to its first WNBA title. This would be the third assembly of the season between the Liberty and Aces, and Las Vegas’ Wilson and New York’s Breanna Stewart, who between them have 5 MVP awards.
Did we see Diana Taurasi’s last WNBA recreation final season? Or would possibly she come again for a twenty first yr within the league, during which case this might be her regular-season finale. If Taurasi returns, this might be her fourth assembly of the season towards fellow UConn star Bueckers. The primary could be June 11, Taurasi’s forty third birthday, in Phoenix.