The 2026 FIBA Women's World Cup break has arrived. The WNBA will take the next two-plus weeks off as the best of the best travel to Berlin for the right to be crowned world champions. Young stars Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese will make their major tournament debut and, along with veterans like Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier, will hope to lead Team USA to a fifth consecutive gold medal.
When the WNBA's regular season resumes on Sept. 17, there will be just one week of action remaining. Following the Dallas Wings' win over the Portland Fire on Tuesday, all eight playoff spots have been locked up, but there's still plenty to be determined.
As the WNBA takes a rare late-season break, here's a look at where things stand:
The Minnesota Lynx still have not locked up the No. 1 seed, but have a two-game lead on the Golden State Valkyries and the tiebreaker between the teams. With four games remaining for both clubs, it would take a real meltdown for the Lynx to fall out of the top spot.
The Valkyries, meanwhile, have won four games in a row to keep their hopes of the No. 1 seed alive and hold off the hard-charging Las Vegas Aces. While Golden State has a two-game lead, Las Vegas has the tiebreaker there, which gives them hope.
Below the Lynx and Valkyries are two separate groups: 3-5 and 6-8.
The Aces (No. 3), Atlanta Dream (No. 4) and Indiana Fever (No. 5) are separated by one game. The Aces have the tiebreaker over the Dream, the Fever have the tiebreaker over the Aces and the Dream currently have the tiebreaker over the Fever, though that could change by the end of the season.
Two games separate the Fever from the New York Liberty, Washington Mystics and Dallas Wings, all of whom have identical 24-16 records. The Liberty have the tiebreaker over the Mystics, the Wings have the tiebreaker over the Liberty and the Mystics have the tiebreaker over the Wings. The second tiebreaker in this scenario is record against .500+ opponents. The Liberty are 11-10, the Mystics are 10-10 and the Wings are 8-15, which is why the Liberty are sixth, the Mystics are seventh and the Wings are eighth.
Down at the bottom of the standings, there's also a major battle brewing for the best odds for the No. 1 overall pick in the 2027 WNBA Draft. Expansion teams will use single-year records, while non-expansion teams will still use two-year aggregate records. The Connecticut Sun are 21-63 over the last two seasons for a .250 winning percentage, while the Toronto Tempo are 11-29 this season for a .275 winning percentage, which means they could "catch" the Sun for the best odds.
We'll have to wait nearly a month for all of the playoff seeds and lottery odds to be determined. For now, here are CBS Sports' latest WNBA Power Rankings:
Rk | Teams | Chg | Rcrd | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  | The Valkyries kept their dream of catching the Lynx for the No. 1 seed alive with a huge win in Minneapolis on Monday, in which their defense absolutely dominated, then followed that up with victories in Uncasville, Brooklyn and Portland. Even if the Valkyries don't end up chasing down the Lynx, which remains unlikely, this huge four-game winning streak has kept the third-place Aces at bay. The Valkyries had an absurd 88.1 defensive rating in their three wins this week. | 1 | 29-11 |
| 2 |  | After a surprise defeat to the Fire, the Dream responded by beating the Lynx for arguably their best win of the season. They're now 5-1 since their overtime defeat to the Fever and have signed veteran forward DeWanna Bonner to give them some much-needed depth and championship experience. Bonner, the league's all-time leader in playoff appearances, has been in 98 playoff games. The rest of the Dream's roster has a combined 127 postseason appearances - and the injured Brionna Jones accounts for 41 of those. | 1 | 26-14 |
| 3 |  | The Lynx's march to the No. 1 overall seed hit a stumbling block this week as they fell to the Valkyries and Dream and lost back-to-back games for just the second time all season. They're still two games up on the Valkyries and own the tiebreaker, but they would have preferred to wrap up the top spot before the World Cup break. "These past two games are a wake-up call for us," coach Cheryl Reeve said. | 2 | 31-9 |
| 4 |  | The Aces announced this week that starting forward NaLyssa Smith will be out for the rest of the season due to a non-contact leg injury. The defending champs have won three in a row -- two against the Tempo, one over the Sun -- and will be fine for the remainder of the regular season, but Smith's loss is a major blow to their title chances. She was averaging 11.7 points and 6.4 rebounds on a league-leading 63.8% shooting, was their best rebounder behind A'ja Wilson and was the most reliable member of their supporting cast. | -- | 27-13 |
| 5 |  | Just one game this week for the Fever, who destroyed the lowly Sun thanks to another brilliant showing from Caitlin Clark and Kelsey Mitchell, who each put up 34 points. The backcourt duo are now the first pair of teammates to each score 30 points in consecutive games and have each scored 30 points in four games this season, which is a single-season record. Mitchell also extended her 20-point streak to 24 games and became the second player in WNBA history to surpass 1,000 points in a season. | 1 | 26-14 |
| 6 |  | Two more wins this week for the Wings, who clinched the final playoff spot with their victory over the Fire and now boast a four-game winning streak. Climbing out of the No. 8 seed seemed unlikely when Azzi Fudd went down with a season-ending injury, but is now a real possibility. Alanna Smith's emergence has been a real boost for the Wings. After averaging just 3.8 points and 2.9 rebounds on 38.5% shooting pre-All-Star break, she's at 9.8 points and 5.8 rebounds on 52.3% shooting post-break. | 2 | 24-16 |
| 7 |  | Up and down the Liberty go. This week, a blowout loss to the Valkyries before a blowout win over the Sky. Sabrina Ionescu scored nine points on 2 of 22 shooting in those two games, including 1 of 12 from behind the arc. She's now 8 of 53 from 3-point range over her last eight games and down to a career-low 29.5%. The Liberty, who are tied with the Mystics and Wings at 24-16, will hope she can reset after the World Cup break. | 2 | 24-16 |
| 8 |  | The Mystics looked out of gas in their fourth game in six days to close out a West Coast swing, and fell apart in the second half against the Sparks. The loss snapped a three-game winning streak and left the Mystics in a tie with the Liberty and Wings as they battle for the No. 6 seed. Georgia Amoore, who had a brutal start to her rookie season, set new career-highs with 25 points and six 3-pointers in their win over the Mercury. She's quietly shooting 39.4% from 3-point range since the All-Star break. | 1 | 24-16 |
| 9 |  | The Fire were officially eliminated from the postseason with their defeat to the Wings, but impacted the seeding battle in the middle of the playoff picture with their upset win over the Dream. Emily Engstler continued her career season with a huge night against Atlanta: 25 points, six rebounds, four steals and four blocks. She set a new career-high in points and tied her career-high in steals and blocks. This was her second game this season with four steals and four blocks; no one else has done it once. | -- | 16-24 |
| 10 |  | The Sparks have won two in a row and three out of four since Lynne Roberts' comments about ownership asking her to play the bench more. Nneka Ogwumike appears intent on not letting her final few games in the league go to waste. She's scored at least 20 points in three consecutive games for the first time this season, and is averaging 19.2 points, 9.8 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 1.2 steals on 54.2/46.2/92.3 shooting splits since she announced her retirement. | 2 | 15-25 |
| 11 |  | Two more defeats this week for the Sky, who are running out the clock on another frustrating season. On Saturday, Natasha Cloud spoke to reporters about the Enes Kanter Freedom incident for the first time. She referred to him as an "irrelevant person" and asked the WNBA to follow the Sky's lead and ban him from all arenas. | 1 | 15-25 |
| 12 |  | With nothing left to play for this season, the Mercury agreed to release franchise icon DeWanna Bonner ahead of the deadline for playoff eligibility from waivers, and she signed with the Dream for the remainder of the season. In their win over the Tempo on Saturday, Shay Ciezki became the first Mercury rookie to have a 15-point, five-rebound, five-assist performance since 2012. On Monday, the team announced that Kelsey Plum will sit out the remainder of the season to rehab her left leg injury. Plum only played in five games for Phoenix after the midseason trade. | 1 | 14-26 |
| 13 |  | The Sun beat the Sky to begin the week thanks to a career-high 26 points from Aaliyah Edwards, then promptly lost three in a row to maintain their narrow lead on the Tempo in the race for the best odds for the No. 1 pick in the 2027 WNBA Draft. Notably, the Sun and Tempo play each other on the final day of the season in what could be one of the most important games of the entire campaign for any team. | -- | 10-30 |
| 14 |  | Flau'jae Johnson had back-to-back 20-point games this week to conclude the best month of her rookie season. In August she averaged 15.9 points on 44.8% shooting overall, including 36.4% from 3-point range - all of those marks were her best in a single month. It remains astounding that the Storm were able to get Johnson from the Valkyries on draft night for a pair of second-round picks. | 1 | 8-32 |
| 15 |  | Three more defeats for the Tempo this week, all by double digits. They're now 2-20 since a 9-9 start, and have nearly "caught" the Sun for the best odds for the No. 1 pick in the 2027 WNBA Draft. They have a .275 winning percentage, while the Sun are at .250. In actual on-court news, Laura Juskaite continued a solid under-the-radar rookie campaign with her sixth consecutive double-digit scoring effort. | 1 | 11-29 |
