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2017 WNBA Playoffs

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2017 WNBA Playoffs
DatesSeptember 6 - October 4
Standings
Eastern Conference Western Conference
3rd New York Liberty 1st Minnesota Lynx
4th Connecticut Sun 2nd Los Angeles Sparks
6th Washington Mystics 5th Phoenix Mercury
7th Dallas Wings
8th Seattle Storm

The 2017 WNBA Playoffs was the postseason tournament of the WNBA's 2017 season.

Format

Following the WNBA regular season, eight teams in the entire league qualified for the playoffs and were seeded one to eight. Regular season records determined the seedings of the teams. The team with the best record received seed one, the team with the next best record received seed two, and so on. The top two seeds get double byes, while the next two seeds get first-round byes.

These seedings were used to create a bracket that determines the match-ups throughout the playoffs. The first round of the playoffs consisted of two match-ups based on the seedings (5-8 and 6-7). The two winners advanced to the second round with a match-up between the number 3 seed and the lower of the advancing seeds and another match-up between the number 4 seed and the other first round winner. The winners of the first two rounds advanced to the semifinals, where the lower ranked seed of the winners faced the number 1 seed, while the other remaining team faced the number 2 seed.

The first two rounds are single elimination games played on the higher ranking seed's home court. The semifinals and WNBA Finals are best-of-five series played in a 2-2-1 format, meaning the team with home-court advantage (better record) hosts games 1, 2, and 5 while their opponent hosts games 3 and 4.

Tiebreak procedures

  1. Better winning percentage among all head-to-head games involving tied teams.
  2. Better winning percentage against teams within conference (for Finals only: better record against teams in # the opposite conference).
  3. Better winning percentage against all teams with a .500 or better record at the end of the season.
  4. Better point differential in games involving tied teams.
  5. Coin toss (or draw of lots, if at least 3 teams are still tied after the first 4 tiebreakers fail).

Playoff qualifying

Seed Team Record Clinched
Playoff berth Bye to Semis Top Record
1 Minnesota Lynx 27–7 Yes Yes Yes
2 Los Angeles Sparks 26–8 Yes Yes No
3 New York Liberty 22–12 Yes No No
4 Connecticut Sun 21–13 Yes No No
5 Phoenix Mercury 18–16 Yes No No
6 Washington Mystics 18–16 Yes No No
7 Dallas Wings 16–18 Yes No No
8 Seattle Storm 15–19 Yes No No

Playoffs and Finals

Bracket

Template:2017 WNBA Playoffs