With Fever, Aces set for winner-take-all Game 3, WNBA first-round playoff format up for debate: 'It might as well be on the street'

INDIANAPOLIS — One would presume that with every air mile the No. 3 Las Vegas Aces and No. 6 Indiana Fever travel back toward Sin City, the advantage shifts to the home squad in a winner-take-all Game 3 in the first round of the WNBA playoffs.

Aces head coach Becky Hammon is not one of those people.

"A Game 3, the amount of pressure and tension that has built up at that point, I throw everything out the door," Hammon told reporters ahead of the series. "It might as well be on the street playing basketball because I wouldn't consider that a huge advantage. Anything can happen in those game scenarios."

The Aces and Fever , each winners on their home court , will see when they tip off on Thursday (9 p.m. ET, USA Network) with a berth in the semifinals on the line.

It's the second season of the 1-1-1 first-round format after the WNBA ditched the 2-1 structure that spanned three seasons. From 2016, when it moved away from conferences, to 2021, the playoffs were single-elimination in the first and second rounds, with the top two seeds earning automatic berths in the semifinals. The 2019 "Hamby Heave" by the then-Aces forward that sent the Chicago Sky packing in the second round helped push the conversation on change.

"We've seen it a lot of different ways," Fever head coach Stephanie White said. "I think the format is the best of the worst-case scenario."

The Fever and Aces each won their Game 3 matchups last year to meet in a semifinals that needed overtime of Game 5 to decide. The Aces did it at home in their first-ever first-round Game 3, while the Fever won on the road after securing home court.

Hammon said she would prefer to go back to the 2-1 format that awards better seeds with two home games to clinch a first-round victory. That drew scrutiny since the worst seed had home-court advantage in the winner-take-all game. In the three series that went to Game 3 over those three years, the better seed won on the road to advance. Seventy-five percent of the series were sweeps.

Also problematic was that not all playoff-clinching teams were guaranteed a home game in an era of increased relevancy that has brought significant ticket sales and TV media rights packages. The Fever led the league in attendance in 2024 by a wide margin — their 17,035 average outpaced the Liberty's 12,729 — but did not host a playoff game in Caitlin Clark 's rookie season. They were swept by the Connecticut Sun , then led by White.

The league could also bring back a postseason format based on conferences, a more broadly accepted approach as the league increases to 18 teams by 2030. It would save the cross-country travel required of the 2025 first-round series between the Phoenix Mercury and New York Liberty . They played their three games within six days. The Fever went immediately from a road finale in Minnesota last Thursday to Las Vegas for the playoffs. The Aces and Fever sandwiched four-hour charter flights between games played Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday.

What Hammon wants most, and what she said she believes fans want and players are ready for, is a five-game series.

"In a five-game series or a seven-game series, I think truly more times than not the better team will win," Hammon said. "In a three-game series, anything can happen. It's just like three NCAA games. That's the kind of pressure and moment it creates, which is great for fans, but not so much for players and coaches sometimes."

The five-game semifinals are a 2-2-1 format, guaranteeing each squad a home game while tipping the advantage scales in favor of the better seed. This is the second season of a seven-game WNBA Finals (2-2-1-1-1), aligning it with major U.S. sports.

The seven regular-season wins separating No. 1 seed Minnesota, which became the first to drop out of the championship race, and No. 8 New York, the team that swept them, marked the smallest since the current eight-team format in 2016.

"I really want it in this series," Reeve said of expanding to a best-of-five series ahead of losing to New York in Game 2 on Tuesday, ending the Lynx's season as the best team in the regular season for another year.

The competition gap between playoff teams is closing rapidly, so much so that teams beyond the top two seeds are legitimate contenders each year. A year ago, three of the four first-round series went to a Game 3, with the Fever the only road team advancing out of the round. Reeve said "there's no question" the postseason format will be a topic of conversation this offseason and in the future when three more expansion teams come on board.

An expanded postseason would, in Hammon's estimation, be the more fair way to determine the better team, and by extension create a better overall postseason product. It would also increase ticket sales opportunities and other business boons that come with hosting games for every team that makes the playoffs. Broadcast partners aren't going to argue against airing more postseason games, and there are more of them than ever to jockey for money-making contests.

"It's your best teams on the biggest stage," Reeve said. "Play as many as we can."

WNBA regular-season games on ESPN averaged 1.24 million viewers, more than the channel's MLB regular-season games averaged (1.08M) through Sept. 23. Games excluding Peacock, which is not Nielsen-rated, also averaged 41% better than regular-season NHL games, a source with knowledge of the total numbers told Yahoo Sports this week.

Game 1 of the Aces-Fever series, which went up against NFL Sunday games, averaged 2.1 million viewers, ABC's most-watched WNBA playoff game ever, and a 122% increase from last year's Fever first-round Game 1 against the Dream. Despite Game 3 going up against "Thursday Night Football," expect major numbers.

The matchup is a showcase of the league's two highest-scoring offenses and three of the league's top average scorers. Three are MVP candidates: A'ja Wilson, Caitlin Clark and Kelsey Mitchell . All are fan draws. There is also beef between the two sides, stemming largely from last year's semifinals series. Aces players have taken shots at the Fever fanbase. Each team's arena announcer this week quietly, quickly and in the dark announced the visiting roster.

In the brief two games, each team has had its own pressure-breaking moments. The physicality for which the WNBA postseason is known will be a major factor in the winner-take-all, as will how each team and coach handles officiating.

"I think they're really going to let us play in Game 3," Clark said. "It's going to be physical. They're going to swallow the whistle a little bit. So we have to come in with that mentality and play aggressive and play smart, but expect not to get a call. Just play through it and make the basket or keep your hands out."

The tension and pressure Hammon anticipated in the early hours of Sunday morning in Vegas exploded on Tuesday night in Indianapolis when Wilson stepped into the crowd, quickly followed by Aces teammates, to yell at a Fever fan courtside . The fan stood up from his seat, stepped to the side and pointed at her; Wilson said she took exception to the man "taking steps toward me and pointing."

It was a loss of composure late in a loss dominated by Indiana's physicality. The Fever felt their own internal version in a Game 1 blowout. Game 3 could go either way.