WNBA postseason race heats up with teams jockeying for playoff position behind Minnesota

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With less than a month left in the WNBA regular season, the Minnesota Lynx have a firm lock on the top seed in the playoffs. The rest of the postseason picture is still up in the air, with more than half the league jockeying for positioning.

Minnesota has looked like the best team all season even with star forward Napheesa Collier sidelined for the past few weeks with a right ankle sprain. The Lynx have won five straight and hold a 6 1/2-game lead in the standings heading into Tuesday night's game at New York.

The Lynx look in great shape to have home-court advantage throughout the playoffs, which could be key since they lost a decisive Game 5 in overtime to the Liberty in the WNBA Finals last year.

Atlanta, New York, Phoenix and Las Vegas are all within 1 1/2 games of one another for the second through fifth seeds. No team has been hotter lately than Las Vegas.

The Aces have won seven straight heading into Tuesday night's game against Atlanta. The streak started after a record blowout loss to Minnesota on Aug. 2. Reigning MVP A'ja Wilson has been huge during the winning streak, averaging 26.1 points and 13.3 rebounds. She topped the 30-point mark three times in the past four games.

The Dream have a gauntlet of a schedule in front of them, with two games against Las Vegas and contests against Minnesota and New York over the next eight days.

Indiana, Golden State, Seattle, Los Angeles and Washington all are vying for the sixth through eighth seeds. Only a few games separate them.

The league switched its first-round format this season, with the best-of-three series having each team get at least one home game. In the past, the higher-seeded team would host the first two games of the series with a deciding Game 3 if necessary being on the lower-seeded team's home court.

Minnesota remained the No. 1 team in the poll, with Atlanta still second. Las Vegas jumped two spots to third. New York and Phoenix followed the Aces. Golden State and Indiana were the next two. Washington, Los Angeles and Seattle came after the Fever. Dallas, Connecticut and Chicago rounded out the poll.

The Cleveland expansion WNBA team hired Allison Howard as its president, the franchise announced Tuesday. Howard will continue to serve as executive vice president and chief commercial officer for Rock Entertainment Group and the Cleveland Cavaliers, where she oversees corporate and ticket sales revenue and strategy, corporate partnership, membership sales and service, venue experience, ticket operations and youth sports programming.

Wilson of Las Vegas was the AP player of the week for the second consecutive week. She averaged 27 points, 13.3 rebounds and 2.3 blocks to help the Aces win all three of their games last week. Other players receiving votes included Sonia Citron of Washington and Alyssa Thomas of Phoenix.

New York at Atlanta, Saturday. In a week that features games between Atlanta-Las Vegas, Phoenix-Las Vegas and the Liberty at the Dream, there might be a clearer divide among the top teams. The Liberty have rallied twice to beat the Dream, overcoming double-digit deficits in the victories.

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AP WNBA: https://apnews.com/hub/wnba-basketball