It's getting serious in the WNBA as the regular season winds down, and we're starting to get a decent look at what some of the most likely battles will be. To clarify what's going on and what needs to happen, let's take a look at what the three teams competing for the bottom three spots need to do to get in.
The standings are giving us a clearer picture. The Chicago Sky and the Atlanta Dream are separated by just a single game in their battle for the eighth spot, while the Indiana Fever is looking to move up from the seventh spot and currently have a 2.5-game lead over Chicago.
What the Atlanta Dream have to do to get in
The Dream struggled during the first half of the season, and they gave up their first-round pick, Allisha Gray, to boot. Getting Gray was a good move for Atlanta, but bad health hurt them during that all-important first half, especially on the offensive end.
They're healthy now, though, and there's still time for Atlanta to catch Chicago. The key names to watch are Gray, Tina Charles, Rhyne Howard, Naz Hillmon, and Jordan Canada, and if the Dream can get and keep those five players on the floor consistently, they could improve their offense and make a serious run.
Another big issue is time--with just 11 games left and a brutal West Coast swing coming, there isn't a lot of it left for these healthy players to hone their chemistry going forward.
What the Chicago Sky have to do to make the playoffs
Like the Dream, the Sky have had a rough-and-tumble season to date, and to some extent they're still rebuilding while trying to land a posteason berth on the fly.
The big news for Chicago has been the play of rookie Angel Reese, who's been in a neck-and-neck battle for Rookie of the Year with fellow phenom Caitlin Clark, although Clark has been steadily pulling away of late. Kamilla Cardoso is part of their core going forward, and Chennedy Carter has been a spark plug as a scorer in several of their recent games.
The question going forward into a possible playoff run is the role of Dana Evans. She'll be a restricted free agent, and she's made no secret of the fact that she's not getting enough minutes. Evans has basically disappeared from the Sky lineup recently, and Chicago needs to make a call about whether to keep her around, so she needs to prove she is worth going forward.
What the Indiana Fever have to do to get in
There's no secret to what Indiana has to do to get in--they just need to keep doing what they're doing, which is improving and consistently winning as they head down the stretch.
The real question for the Fever is how far they can rise in the playoff seedings in the next couple of weeks. They stumbled in Minnesota after impressive wins against Phoenix and Seattle, then recovered to post a road win against Atlanta going into their much-anticipated home battle against the Connecticut Sun.
Whether this will happen depends largely on the answer to two questions: (1) Can they improve defensively? (2) Can Caitlin Clark keep her turnovers down?
They've established themselves as an offensive force with Clark leading the charge, Kelsey Mitchell's sharpshooting, and Aliyah Boston making plays off the pick-and-roll, but the defensive intensity of their opponents is going to pick up down the stretch, and they'll need to be able to respond in kind. They have back-to-back games coming up against Dallas and LA, which should give them a chance to get it together, but there are plenty of challenges ahead as well.
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