The 2016 WNBA playoffs is the postseason tournament of the WNBA's 2016 season.
Format The WNBA changed its playoff format in 2016. 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 Better winning percentage among all head-to-head games involving tied teams. Better winning percentage against teams within conference (for Finals only: better record against teams in # the opposite conference). Better winning percentage against all teams with a .500 or better record at the end of the season. Better point differential in games involving tied teams. 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 ClinchedPlayoff berth Bye to Semis Top Record 1 Minnesota Lynx 28–6 July 25 September 6 September 12 2 Los Angeles Sparks 26–8 July 25 September 6 — 3 New York Liberty 21–13 September 7 —— 4 Chicago Sky 18–16 September 10 —— 5 Indiana Fever 17–17 September 10 —— 6 Atlanta Dream 17–17 September 10—— 7 Seattle Storm 16–18 September 11 —— 8 Phoenix Mercury 16–18 September 14 ——
Notes
Bracket
Note: Teams re-seeded after the second round and semifinals.
First round All times are in Eastern Daylight Time (UTC−4)
(5) Indiana Fever vs. (8) Phoenix Mercury
+Regular-season seriesIndiana won 2–1 in the regular-season series
(6) Atlanta Dream vs. (7) Seattle Storm
+Regular-season seriesSeattle won 2–1 in the regular-season series
Second round All times are in Eastern Daylight Time (UTC−4)
(3) New York Liberty vs. (8) Phoenix Mercury
+Regular-season seriesNew York won 2–1 in the regular-season series
(4) Chicago Sky vs. (6) Atlanta Dream
+Regular-season seriesAtlanta won 2–1 in the regular-season series
Semifinals All times are in Eastern Daylight Time (UTC−4)
(1) Minnesota Lynx vs. (8) Phoenix Mercury
+Regular-season seriesMinnesota won 3–0 in the regular-season series
(2) Los Angeles Sparks vs. (4) Chicago Sky
+Regular-season seriesLos Angeles won 3–0 in the regular-season series
WNBA Finals
All times are in Eastern Daylight Time (UTC−4)
(1) Minnesota Lynx vs. (2) Los Angeles Sparks
+Regular-season seriesMinnesota won 2–1 in the regular-season series
References