The 2026 WNBA Playoffs are now underway. At press time, all four first-round contests are still in play, including Minnesota (1) vs. New York (8).
“I think this will be the most hotly contested championship push we have seen in the league’s 30-year history,” declared veteran broadcaster Cindy Brunson last week. She told MSR, “There is not much separation between first-place Minnesota and eighth-place New York.”
Brunson likes the Lynx’s playoff chances. She loves rookie guard Olivia Miles, who on Sept. 29 was named the unanimous 2026 WNBA Rookie of the Year. She also likes shooting guard Kayla McBride and forwards Napheesa Collier and Natasha Howard.
Miles has “legit star power,” Brunson said of the point guard. On McBride, she said, “Nobody’s talking about how great of a two-way player she is. As a big guard, the fact that she is willing to really get in and use her body and create the mismatches, posting up down low and that she creates space for Howard to score.”
But don’t count out Washington, the league’s youngest squad, coached by Sydney Johnson, the only Black head coach in the playoff field this season. The fifth-seeded Mystics “are a really big wild card for me because they don’t know and they don’t care,” said Brunson. “They are just young … Sydney Johnson I think has done a brilliant job in what everybody was calling a rebuild. He has just unleashed all of that youth on the league, and I think it is those young and fresh legs that are going to serve them well and give them an opportunity to be in an upset state of mind, no matter what matchups they find themselves in when the postseason starts.”
Washington faces Atlanta (No. 4). “I think Angel Reese should be Defensive Player of the Year,” said Brunson of the third-year forward, who is in her first season with the Dream. “With her ability to have steals instead of blocks, where the prototypical DPOY lives, is a big part of the reason why Atlanta will be so dangerous heading into the postseason.”
Indiana (6th) vs. Las Vegas (3rd), and Golden State (2nd) vs. Dallas (7th) round out the 2026 playoff field.
“Golden State has the best defense in the league pound for pound,” continued Brunson, “because VB (guard Veronica Burton) is the tip of that spear. She makes the night for the opposing point guard nightmarish. Oh my gosh, she’s just so good at not only leading the offense efficiently. How many games has she had this season with double-digit assists with no turnovers?”
Vegas is led by A’ja Wilson and guard Jackie Young, who Brunson pointed out “is on an unbelievable roll.”
Brunson also likes Wilson’s MVP chances. If Wilson wins the honor, it will be her fifth.
Brunson predicted this year’s playoffs will be can’t-miss: “At the end of the day, defense wins, right? The shot clocks are going to wind down, the pace is going to slow down in the playoffs, and the teams that can rebound and defend are usually the ones that cut down the (nets).”
The case for keeping award votes private
There are some on social media who are demanding so-called transparency from WNBA media voters on individual awards. I have never been selected as a voter despite the fact that I have covered the W from day one. But if I were a voter, my votes would always be secret.
“I don’t remember exactly when I was tapped to be a WNBA voter, and I regard it as a huge honor,” wrote Erica L. Ayala last week in her Black Rosie Media weekly newsletter. “It’s disheartening to see people vilifying media members (on their votes). I’d prefer you showed a modicum of respect, even in these crazy times in 2026.”
Finally …
In her weekly WNBA30 column for The Guardian, Jordan Robinson pointed out several record-setting performances this season.
Indiana guard Kelsey Mitchell, who should be a strong MVP candidate, set a new single-season scoring record. Olivia Miles, who also should receive MVP votes, set a rookie scoring record. “O has put on a show. Seeing her in her first playoff series will be popcorn-worthy,” stressed Robinson.
Atlanta’s Angel Reese set a new single-season rebounding record: “When her WNBA career is all said and done, she will be the greatest rebounder to ever do it,” predicted Robinson.
Reese (12.1 RPG), Wilson (26.2 PPG) and Phoenix’s Alyssa Thomas (8.5 APG) were this season’s Peak Performers.
Charles Hallman welcomes reader responses at challman@spokesman-recorder.com.
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