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

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.