WNBA last Regular Season day: What’s a stake? Who’s in and out of the playoffs?

It all comes down to one game and one available playoff space in the 2024 WNBA season as three teams do battle in their respective bids to extend their season activity.

Seven of the playoff teams are confirmed and all bar one of the seeding positions known with: NY Liberty, Minnesota Lynx, Connecticut Sun and Las Vegas Aces are set to be the top seeded sides in the final eight.

The remaining playoff places will be taken by Seattle Storm, Indiana Fever, Phoenix Mercury and one of Atlanta Dream, Washington Mystics or Chicago Sky advancing.

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Three teams, one playoff place

Tina Charles is the all-time scoring leader for the New York Liberty but five years after her final game for the Liberty, Charles will be looking to push the Atlanta Dream clinch the final playoff spot in Thursday’s visit to New York.

The Dream (14-25) hold the No. 8 seed currently and enter their regular-season finale one game ahead of the Washington Mystics and Chicago Sky. A win gets them into the postseason but a loss brings tiebreakers into play.

If the Dream lose, they will be eliminated if Washington and Chicago both win. With a loss along with a Chicago loss and a Washington win, Atlanta gets into the postseason because of its better record versus opponents with at least a .500 record.

“That’s all we’ve been talking about is trying to control our own destiny and picking up wins when we needed to,” Charles said. “In the second half of the season (we weren’t) holding our heads low about injuries or anything that happened in the first half of the season. We’re just locking in on who we need to be out there on the court.”

Win, wait and hope for Mystics and Sky

That’s what the Washington Mystics and Chicago Sky can both do as their bid to make the playoffs comes down to Thursday’s regular-season finales.

Washington (13-26) are one of three teams battling for the eighth and final spot, but the Mystics have limited control of their postseason fate.

Their only path is a win over Indiana (20-19) coupled with a loss Thursday by the eighth-place Atlanta Dream (14-25) and a win by the Chicago Sky (13-26) who face already qualified Connecticut.

Understanding the WNBA playoffs

In the current playoff format, teams are arranged in a traditional bracket, with the No. 1 seed facing No. 8 in the first round, No. 2 playing against No. 7, and so on.

The first round is a best-of-three series, while the semi-finals and finals are best-of-five with the first round set to see the higher seed host the first two games; if a Game 3 is needed, the lower seed then host that match-up. For the semifinals and finals, the format shifts and the higher seed hosts Games 1 and 2, as well as Game 5, if required.