WNBA playoffs schedule 2018: Full bracket and how to watch

An action-packed WNBA regular season has come to a close, and we jump right into what should be an exciting postseason with eight strong teams. The Seattle Storm and Atlanta Dream earned byes to the semifinals with the two best records in the league, so we’ll catch up with them later, but there are some exciting early round matchups on the books.

If you haven’t watch the last two WNBA playoffs, there’s a new format that’s been in effect since 2016. Gone is conference seeding, in are the eight teams with the highest winning percentage.

Teams will also be re-seeded after each round, which means we don’t know what the later round matchups will look like quite yet. The first two rounds are single-elimination, while the semifinals and finals are best-of-five series.

All times Eastern.

First round (Tuesday, 8/21)

No. 8 Dallas Wings at No. 5 Phoenix Mercury (at Wells Fargo Arena, Arizona State University) — 8:30 p.m., ESPN2 (Pam Ward, Kara Lawson, LaChina Robinson)

No. 7 Minnesota Lynx at No. 6 Los Angeles Sparks — 10:30 p.m., ESPN2 (Ryan Ruocco, Rebecca Lobo, Holly Rowe)

Second round (Thursday, 8/23)

No. 6 Los Angeles Sparks at No. 3 Washington Mystics — 6:30 p.m., ESPN2

No. 5 Phoenix Mercury at No. 4 Connecticut Sun — 8:30 p.m., ESPN2

Semifinals (8/26-9/4)

No. 3 Washington Mystics vs. No. 2 Atlanta Dream:

Game 1 (at Atlanta) — Sunday, 8/26, 3 p.m., ESPN2 — Mystics win, 87-84

Game 2 (at Atlanta) — Tuesday, 8/28, 8 p.m., ESPN2 — Dream win, 78-75

Game 3 (at Washington) — Friday, 8/31, 8 p.m., ESPNews/NBA TV — Dream win, 81-74

Game 4 (at Washington) — Sunday, 9/2, 3 p.m., ESPN2 — Mystics win, 97-76

Game 5 (at Atlanta) — Tuesday, 9/4, 8 p.m., ESPNews/NBA TV — Mystics win, 86-81

No. 5 Phoenix Mercury vs. No. 1 Seattle Storm:

Game 1 (at Seattle) — Sunday, 8/26, 5 p.m., ESPN2 — Storm win, 91-87

Game 2 (at Seattle) — Tuesday, 8/28, 10 p.m., ESPN2 — Storm win, 91-87

Game 3 (at Phoenix) — Friday, 8/31, 10 p.m., ESPNews/NBA TV — Mercury win, 86-66

Game 4 (at Phoenix) — Sunday, 9/2, 5 p.m., ESPN2 — Mercury win, 86-84

Game 5 (at Seattle) — Tuesday, 9/4, 10 p.m., ESPNews/NBA TV — Storm win, 94-84

Finals

No. 1 Seattle Storm vs. No. 3 Washington Mystics

Game 1 (at Seattle) — Friday, 9/7, 9 p.m., ESPNews — Storm win, 89-76

Game 2 (at Seattle): Sunday, 9/9, 3:30 p.m., ABC — Storm win, 75-73

Game 3 (at Washington): Wednesday, 9/12, 8 p.m., ESPN2 — Storm win, 98-82

This post will be updated as the playoffs progress, so stay tuned!