2011 WNBA Playoff Schedule: Eastern Conference Field Set After Atlanta Dream, Connecticut Sun Wins

by Nate Parham on Sep 12, 2011 5:00 AM EDT in WNBA Playoffs 2011

With the Atlanta Dream sweeping the regular season series with the Indiana Fever yesterday and the Connecticut Sun beating the New York Liberty, the Eastern Conference playoff field is finally set.

The full playoff schedule is available at WNBA.com (click here).

We'll have previews and such later, but for now we take a look back at the regular season series for the two pairings to get a preliminary sense of how they match up.

Below are the scores of the relevant regular season meetings for each series (with links to the stats via Lynx Data, with efficiency, Four Factors, plus/minus, and miscellaneous stats).

Indiana Fever (1) vs. New York Liberty (4)

Regular season series: 2-2 split

First game: Thursday, September 15 at 8 p.m. EDT (ESPN2) in Indianapolis

Date	Location	Score	Note
June 10	Indiana	81-80 Liberty
June 11	New York	86-80 Fever
August 13	Indiana	82-71 Fever	First meeting post-Kara Braxton trade First meeting after Briann January injury
September 9	New York	83-75 Liberty	Erin Phillips out

Connecticut Sun (2) vs. Atlanta Dream (3)

Regular season series: 2-2 split

First game: Friday, September 16 at 7 p.m. EDT (NBA TV) in Uncasville, CT

Date	Location	Score	Note
July 31	Uncasville	99-92 Sun	McCoughtry came off the bench
August 19	Atlanta	94-88 Dream	First meeting after Shalee Lehning injury
August 21	Uncasville	96-87 Sun
September 6	Atlanta	85-74 Dream

Notes:

This might actually be the best possible pairing for the Fever, considering the Dream swept them and the Sun just blew them out 83-55 in Connecticut recently. This should be an exciting series.
The Sun won home court advantage with yesterday's win against the Liberty and that's probably a good thing: the Dream have won 11 of their last 12 home games while the Sun have only lost twice at home all season, tying the Seattle Storm for best home record.
Another small note looking ahead: with the Seattle Storm's win against the Chicago Sky last night, the Storm won the privilege of home court advantage over the Dream should those teams meet in the WNBA Finals.

There is clearly more parity in the Eastern Conference, but who would you consider the favorite to make the Finals given the final seedings?

Feel free to drop your insights and links in the comments.

For a look at the Western Conference Playoff pairings, click here.

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