WNBA officially releases 2026 postseason schedule

The WNBA is currently on break as many players are participating in the 2026 FIBA World Cup, and the regular season will resume on Sept. 17 while ending on Sept. 24, giving teams a couple of days rest before the start of the playoffs.

This week, the WNBA released the full schedule for the playoffs, all the way through a potential Game 7 of the Finals. In 2025, the league adopted a new format for the playoffs with the Finals being a best-of-seven series, the opening round being a best-of-three series and the semifinals as a best-of-five series.

The opening round of the postseason is scheduled to begin on Sunday, Sept. 27. Each opening round series could be over as soon as Sept. 30 if any team sweeps. If any of those series’ are tied at 1-1 after Game 2, a deciding Game 3 would be played on either Oct. 3 or Oct. 4.

Regardless of how the opening round turns out, the WNBA semifinals will begin on Oct. 4, and could wrap up by Oct. 9 if any teams end up sweeping. Potential Game 4s of the best-of-five series would be on Oct. 11 while any potential Game 5s would be on Oct. 14.

Once the final two teams are standing, the WNBA Finals will tip off on Oct. 17. If either team sweeps in the Finals, a champion will be crowned after Game 4 on Oct. 24. A potential Game 5 is slated for Oct. 26, Game 6 if necessary would be Oct. 29 and if it goes to a do-or-die Game 7, that would be Oct. 31.

As of right now, the top three teams in the league standings, and presumably the top championship contenders, are the Minnesota Lynx, Golden State Valkyries and Las Vegas Aces, respectively.

Final playoff seeding has yet to be determined, but all eight spots have already been clinched with the Atlanta Dream, Indiana Fever, New York Liberty, Washington Mystics and Dallas Wings rounding out the field.

The post WNBA officially releases 2026 postseason schedule appeared first on ClutchPoints.