A Hater's Guide to the WNBA Playoffs

The storylines of this year's postseason through the eyes of a hater.

DiJonai Carrington hits her signature “seatbelt” celebration. Source: @ConnecticutSun on X

Welcome to the WNBA Playoffs, where legends are born and memes are made. The lights are at its absolute brightest so the hate has to shine too. Here at No Cap Space, we pride ourselves in engaging in ethical hate, so we’re going to get into the matchups and how you can cheer your team and boo your opps properly. Let’s get into it. 

#1 New York Liberty (1-0) vs. #8 Atlanta Dream (0-1)

Storyline: The New York Liberty are one of the WNBA’s founding franchise and still don’t have a single championship. They couldn’t even repeat as Commissioner’s Cup champs, so as of right now it’s just that one midseason tournament banner waving all lonely in Barclays. It’s also a year where all of the other contenders are quite vulnerable so the pressure is on the Liberty to get the job done this year. Conversely, the Dream are pretty much vibin, negatively though. Head coach Tanisha Wright pulled the starters in the game one loss and the team looked pretty heartless overall. Wright also has interesting outfits so look out for that too.

Hate Factor: The two have bad blood stemming back to last year when Liberty players were taunting the Dream’s home crowd after a hard foul left Atlanta’s Laeticia Amihere bleeding from her nose. The Dream have to wake up in game two and remember that they hate them or the slander will make its way down south. 

#2 Minnesota Lynx (1-0) vs. #7 Phoenix Mercury (0-1)

Storyline: This is the clash of the former titans. You have two storied franchises several years removed from their glory days led by UConn Huskies. This series could be Diana Taurasi’s swan song as the Mercury social team has teased the “If This Is It” campaign and so far she’s going out with a bang after scoring 21 on 50 percent shooting in game one. Napheesa Collier is still playing at an insanely high level, scoring a career-high 38 in the win as the Mercury team rallied back from 20+ to make it a game. This could be one of those instant classic series. 

The Hate: Brittney Griner is being weird and I don’t understand why. She’s had multiple run-ins with the Indiana Fever’s Aliyah Boston and most recently Los Angeles Spark Rickea Jackson. Sunday, she threw another elbow and caught Courtney Williams and was called for the offensive foul, but her statline is too pedestrian for the antics and I don’t like it. Mercury head coach Nate Tibbetts literally used Girl Dad on his resume during his introductory press conference and admitted to not knowing much about the WNBA so there’s no way Cheryl Reeve can let him outduel her. Conversely, Tibbetts has more than enough talent to get the job done so if he squanders DT’s last year, turn the temperature up on his seat. 

#3 Connecticut Sun vs. #6 Indiana Fever 

Storyline: Not only are the Sun still one of the few remaining ringless franchises in existence, but I can’t think of a signature Alyssa Thomas playoff win. Sunday was solid as she put up one of her standard triple-doubles in the big 93-69 win over the Fever, but it was lacking the wow factor as Indiana looked like the struggling team from May. Speaking of the Fever, the expectations for them have been set as they came into the postseason on a hot streak and many believe an upset is possible. Ultimately the Fever have nothing to lose and everything to gain in free agency this offseason if they can put together a strong showing in this series.  

The Hate: It’s several different avenues of hate going on at once. One is DiJonai Carrington’s never ending hate for Caitlin Clark and Indiana Fever fans. She’s been tweeting all season about how social media hasn’t been fun for her and it’s because of Clark and her fanbase so I don’t expect that to stop. There’s also the love/hate dynamic with Na’Lyssa Smith and Carrington being a fan favorite couple. The hate comes from fans who feels like Smith gives nothing in this matchup and so far they have a point as Smith put up 0 points and one rebound in 9 minutes of action. Oh and there’s just general hate directed towards Clark basically for having too much motion. So a lot of people are praying on her downfall.  

#4 Las Vegas Aces vs #5 Seattle Storm 

Storyline: the Aces are looking for the three-peat. A’ja Wilson is officially the reigning unanimous MVP. both of these teams have Hall of Famers and strong veteran presence, but have been pretty middling most of the year as seen by the seeding. If it’s anything like the semifinals in 2022, fans are in for an absolute treat. 

The Hate: Aces fans booed Dearica Hamby and her specifically for filing that discrimination lawsuit and I don’t care what anybody says that’s just trash behavior. The Aces are also playing this perpetual victim card like they can’t quite understand why they rub some people the wrong way and that’s also tiresome. Seattle head coach Noelle Quinn said in a press conference before the series started that she caught wind that the Aces wanted to play them instead of Indiana to which she responded “ok, cool.” When a quiet person says that it is absolutely not ok or cool so there’s a fire lit. In the last meeting between the two teams, Vegas’ Tip Hayes and Seattle’s Skylar Diggins-Smith got into a prolonged back and forth and I fully expect that negativity to not only continue, but escalate. 

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