We’re nearing the midway point of the 2025 WNBA season and the beginning stages of the playoff picture are starting to come into focus.
While the Minnesota Lynx have blown away the competition, building a four-game lead in the standings ahead of the next closest team, several squads such as the expansion Golden State Valkyries and Dallas Wings have won more games than expected as of late.
While the Lynx’s positioning isn’t a surprise, find out where each team ranks in this week’s edition of our WNBA power rankings.
13) Connecticut Sun
In the midst of a 10-game losing streak, the Connecticut Sun are easily the worst team in the WNBA with just two wins – three less than the next lowest team in the standings.
They’ve had an especially hard time scoring the ball as of late as leading scorer Marina Mabrey (15.2 points per game) is close to being out of action for two weeks with a knee injury. She may miss up to four weeks.
In her absence and with the Sun hurdling towards a last place finish, 2025 No. 7 overall pick Aneesah Morrow has seen an increase in her playing time. She’s played exceptionally well, averaging 12 points and seven rebounds per game in her last six outings. She’s done it largely on her own as Mabrey was the team’s most reliable passer.
Some more hope for Connecticut may be found in its 2025 No. 10 pick, French guard Leila Lacan. The 21-year-old guard spent the first part of the season competing with France in its EuroBasket tournament but arrived for the Sun this week. She’s known as a playmaker and could shoulder some ball-handling duties prior to Mabrey’s return.
12) Los Angeles Sparks
Though the Los Angeles Sparks have a very solid top three of point guard Kelsey Plum (20.1 points, 5.6 assists per game) and forwards Dearica Hamby (16.9 points, 7.6 rebounds, 3.8 assists) and Azura Stevens (14.8 points, 8.5 rebounds), their lack of depth has been crippling.
Outside of those three, guard Rickea Jackson is the only other double figure scorer at 11.9 points per game.
The Sparks have lost six of their last eight games, making a late season postseason push that much more unlikely as they didn’t have a tremendous start to the season either. They sit at 6-13 and with a winning percentage of .316, which is second-worst in the WNBA.
The schedule doesn’t get any easier in their next contest as they’ll begin a three-game home-stand against the 17-2 Minnesota Lynx.
11) Chicago Sky
Following a stretch of six losses in seven games, the Chicago Sky rebounded by winning two games against the Sparks with a loss to the Valkyries in between.
Much of those two victories has been because of the absolute tear that forward Angel Reese is on. Already far and away the leading rebounder in the league at 12.6 boards per game, she’s collected an average of 17.5 rebounds in her past four games.
Reese also scored an average of 17.3 points per game in those contests and led the Sky with six and seven assists, respectively, in their two victories against Los Angeles.
If Reese, who should be named an All-Star on Sunday, July 6, continues her dominant play, then Chicago may be able to make a run and sneak into one of the final playoff spots.
10) Dallas Wings
An 1-11 start wasn’t completely unexpected for the Dallas Wings, who finished 2024 with just nine victories. But what’s happened since has been a surprise and a huge step in the right direction.
Thanks to their 98-89 victory over the Phoenix Mercury on Thursday, the Wings have now won five of their last seven games and hold a 6-14 record. Considering where they were a month ago, that’s a huge win.
No. 1 overall pick Paige Bueckers has been as advertised, playing a terrific all-around game during her rookie campaign. But the player that has stepped up big time is fellow rookie Aziaha James, the 12th pick in the 2025 draft.
In her last six games, averaging 27 minutes per game, James is averaging 15.7 points per game. James capped that off with a 28-point, six-assist, six-rebound effort on 5-of-9 shooting from three-point range and 10 of 20 overall in the Wings’ last win.
In James and Bueckers, it’s beginning to look like Dallas has a backcourt duo to rely on for the years to come.
9) Washington Mystics
The Washington Mystics have hovered around .500 all season before losing their last two games, dropping them to 9-10 on the year.
They weren’t particularly competitive in either game, falling behind 28-9 at the end of the first quarter against the Wings and being outscored 54-28 in the second and third quarters combined against the Lynx.
One of the biggest issues for the Mystics over the last week has been leading scorer Brittney Sykes’ cold streak. In her past three games, she’s scored a combined 21 points on 6-of-25 shooting from the field and 0-for-5 from three-point range.
Kiki Iriafen, an early candidate for the WNBA’s Rookie of the Year award, has scored 23 combined points in the last two games.
Arguably the team’s two most important players, if Washington is to continue its push for the playoffs, then they’ll need both Sykes and Iriafen to be at or near their best the rest of the way.
8) Las Vegas Aces
Since Las Vegas Aces star center A’ja Wilson has returned from a concussion that caused her to miss over a week, in which the Aces lost three consecutive games, she’s played her best basketball of the season.
In her last five outings, Wilson has led the team in scoring in each game, averaging 23.6 points. More importantly, Las Vegas is 3-2 in that stretch.
However, in an 81-54 loss to the Indiana Fever, the Aces’ offense was particularly concerning. The 54 points is one issue, portraying the lack of production from night-to-night outside of Wilson. She scored a game-high 29 points on 9-of-18 shooting. Meanwhile, none of her teammates scored more than six points.
The Fever were also missing All-Star Caitlin Clark, putting the Aces in a favorable position to break free from their 8-8 record and go above .500. Instead, they fell to 8-9 at that time in epic fashion. The Aces are now 9-9 on the season.
Luckily for them, they face the two-win Sun on Sunday. Even if Las Vegas wins that game, it won’t completely blow away the stink from their rough start to the season after looking poised to contend for a title in the preseason.
7) Indiana Fever
Playing without star guard Clark, who’s missed time with a groin injury, the Indiana Fever pulled off a massive upset over the Lynx in the Commissioners Cup championship on Tuesday.
They held Minnesota to just 59 points, running away with a 15-point victory thanks to Natasha Howard’s 16-point, 12-rebound, four-assist effort that earned her the game’s MVP award.
INDIANA IS THE NEW COMMISSIONER’S CUP CHAMPION 🏆
The Fever stop the Lynx from completing the repeat 😤 pic.twitter.com/FQOI7KUCEN
— espnW (@espnW) July 2, 2025
They followed that up with the aforementioned smacking of the Aces before narrowly falling to the Sparks on Saturday night.
As it stands, the Fever are 9-9 with Clark having missed nine games. If anyone on the Fever was asked if they would be satisfied with that outcome knowing Clark’s injuries, then they’d take it. Getting Clark back – and keeping her healthy – will be paramount as Indiana looks to mount a playoff push.
6) Golden State Valkyries
A 2-5 start proved not to be a preview of what was to come for the Golden State Valkyries, who have gone 6-4 in their last 10 games. They fell in their last game to the 17-2 Lynx on the road, a loss that should carry no shame.
Despite dealing with a plethora of injuries, the Valkyries, who are the WNBA’s newest expansion franchise, have been able to use their depth and it’s been a huge strong point. Overall, they have six players averaging in double figures with two others just below the cutoff.
Guard Tiffany Hayes, at 35 years old, has been a steady presence all season. She has played exceptionally well in games against the Lynx and Seattle Storm, totaling 44 points against Minnesota and in Golden State’s 27-point win over the Seattle Storm.
Holding a 9-9 record, the Valkyries head into an interesting slate of opponents that may determine if they’re a legitimate threat as we hit the midway point in the season. Golden State has a three-game road stretch against the Atlanta Dream, Fever and Aces – all teams around them in the standings.
5) Atlanta Dream
Two weeks ago, the Atlanta Dream held a 10-4 record and looked to be among the upper echelon of teams in the WNBA. Now, they’re 12-7 after a 1-3 stretch in which they were handled by the Wings and lost close contests to Lynx and Storm.
Considering the close losses (four points in overtime versus Minnesota and a single point against Seattle), there shouldn’t be a huge cause for concern.
But that doesn’t mean they can cruise through the second half of the season. Several teams are bearing down on them and will push for the top four spot that the Dream currently occupy.
For that to happen, leading scorer and best player Allisha Gray has to perform better. In Atlanta’s last three losses, she’s scoring just 14.0 points per game on 14-of-43 shooting from the field.
Though fellow guard Rhyne Howard and forward Brionna Jones can pick up the slack at times, the Dream can only reach their ceiling when Gray has it going in all facets of the game.
4) Seattle Storm
A promising three-game winning streak has been followed by a 2-2 stretch for the Seattle Storm. Their 84-57 defeat at the hands of the Valkyries was especially concerning, but they followed that loss up with a spirited one-point win on the road in Atlanta.
Seattle knocked off the Dream thanks to a nifty Skylar Diggins game-winning layup in the final seconds. That pushed the Storm’s record to 12-7.
Diggins and forward Nneka Ogwumike have been a tremendous inside-out duo, easily one of the best in the league and a driving force behind the Storms’ nice start to the season.
Seattle will have an opportunity to put more wins on the board after a tough game against the New York Liberty on Sunday. They’ll then play the Sun, who haven’t won since May 30, in consecutive games.
3) Phoenix Mercury
Entering the week with a 12-4 record, the Phoenix Mercury proceeded to lose both games this week, dropping them to 13-6 overall and second place in the standings. They weren’t “good” losses, either, as they came against the flailing Aces and the Wings, who haven’t do enough to be considered even an average team.
Despite the losses, the Mercury present themselves as a dangerous team because of their star-studded trio of forwards Satou Sabally and Alyssa Thomas and guard Kahleah Copper. Copper has played in just six games this season but exploded for a season-high 35 points in Phoenix’s loss to Dallas.
Looking ahead, the Mercury will get a chance at revenge against the Wings on Monday before taking on the 16-win Lynx at home on Monday. This will be a chance to prove themselves amongst the top teams in the league after a rough two-game stretch.
2) New York Liberty
When the New York Liberty jumped out to a 9-0 start to the season, they looked to be a lock to get into the WNBA Finals yet again and even be favored to win it all. Since then, they’ve encountered some problems.
They’ve gone 3-5, settling into their current record of 12-6. While that’s still good for third in the standings, New York is a half-game behind the Mercury and 4 1/2 games behind the league-leading Lynx, who look poised to have homecourt advantage all throughout the WNBA playoffs.
Star point guard Sabrina Ionescu’s scoring has been especially erratic during their recent downturn. Ionescu has had performances of 34 and 20 points mixed with nine- and 11-point duds. She’s also been careless with the basketball, turning the ball over 16 times in her last six outings.
For the Liberty to get back to the way they were playing to begin the season, Ionescu will have to revert back to her All-Star form.
1) Minnesota Lynx
Hands-down the best team throughout the entire season, the Minnesota Lynx continued their dominant ways this week, notching double-digit victories over the Sun and Mystics.
You can look, but you won’t find anyone else like Napheesa Collier, on or off the court.
The Minnesota Lynx SUPERSTAR is the favorite to win MVP this summer.
SLAM 257 is out now. pic.twitter.com/AQG6Ka4uR6
— SLAM (@SLAMonline) June 30, 2025
Forward Napheesa Collier continued her MVP-caliber season with a 28-point, five-rebound, four-assist performance followed by 22 points and six rebounds.
While Minnesota did lose out on $500,000 worth of cash in their Commissioners Cup championship loss to the Fever, the defeat doesn’t go on their regular season record. They remain on a five-game winning streak with a matchup against the Mercury on Wednesday as they look to make it six wins in a row.
