How about that for entertainment?
The first round of the WNBA playoffs provided three Game 3s, all of which delivered madness in the waning moments.
Let’s look at the final plays of each game that decided who moved on.
Las Vegas Staves Off Seattle’s Upset Bid
Las Vegas dodged a massive series upset in a thrilling Game 3. Down one, their final play was simple — get the ball to their superstar, A’ja Wilson, and let her operate on an island. It’s about the jimmies and the joes.
Wilson creates space to get to her spot and just misses the jumper.
Notice the shaded help towards Wilson off the weakside. That allows Jackie Young to crash the glass from the corner. Wilson’s miss was a great one — the ball bounces off to the right side and into Young’s hands for the rebound and putback all in one motion.
https://twitter.com/TSN_Sports/status/1968885150487347560
On the final sequence, Seattle tries to respond with their jimmies and joes — Skylar Diggins.
They set a pair of screens to get Diggins going downhill. Jewell Loyd switches onto Diggins to force a dribble pick up. From there, it’s a broken play and Erica Wheeler misses a jumper at the nail.
On the rebound, Diggins makes a good heads up play to see Gabby Williams open on the baseline, but Williams couldn’t get off the potential game winning shot in time.
Las Vegas moves on to the second round.
Indiana Wipes off Atlanta’s Hopes and Dreams
Indiana became the first lower-seeded team to advance out of the first round since the playoff format was changed in 2022.
They made history without their superstar, Caitlin Clark, and amongst other injuries.
Down three, the Fever came up with two buckets to take the lead.
Kelsey Mitchell gets ball denied aggressively on the initial action, so the ball reserves to the other side to Brianna Turner.
The play becomes a dribble handoff action where Lexie Hull catches the ball and has a straight line drive to the rim. Notice how much space Hull has to operate — she had the entire right side of the floor to drive.
On the second play, Mitchell gets the ball this time on the empty side. As she attempts to make the pocket pass, Brionna Jones deflects the pass but can’t secure the steal on the dive attempt.
With Jones on the ground, the Dream defense is in a scramble and the ball finds Aliyah Boston wide open below the rim for the go-ahead bucket.
Indiana came up with two defensive stops to complete the upset.
With a final chance to answer, it appears that Atlanta wanted to get the ball to Jordin Canada, but Indiana countered by switching off the screen. Now, Atlanta is getting close to the five count and the ball goes into a tight space where Lexie Hull easily peels off her assignment for the steal.
https://twitter.com/IndianaFever/status/1968862616379433246
Down two on the final play, Atlanta goes to Jones for the win. Jones connected on a three-pointer earlier in the game — her first three ball since August 10. For Indiana, they will certainly live with the percentages as Jones shoots just 26 percent from downtown.
Jones misses, and the Indiana Fever move on to the second round.
Defending Champs Bow Out
Phoenix took out the defending champions, taking the final two games over New York to advance to the semifinals.
Kahleah Copper scored 12 points, shooting just 5-of-15 from the field, but came up with a bucket when it mattered most.
Up three, Phoenix was trying to get DeWanna Bonner a touch in the post. Copper took matters into her own hands, driving to her strong hand, leaning her shoulder into the defender to create space and banked the game sealing basket.
In the regular season, New York was second in three-point percentage (35.5). They were last in offensive rebounds per game (6.8).
Down five, they were in desperation mode to hit three-pointers and get offensive rebounds if they couldn’t connect from deep.
On this play, Jones gets a clean look, misses, and New York can’t even at least tap the ball to make it a contested rebound.
They shot 7-32 (21 percent) from downtown in Game 3 and were out-rebounded eight to one on the offensive glass.
Take a Deep Breath Before Round Two
The 2025 playoffs provided three epic finishes to the first round that saw stars shine in the biggest moments and team defense rise to the occasion.
The semifinals is already underway, but if we’ve learned one thing so far this postseason, it’s that all these teams are ready to go the distance.
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