WNBA Power Rankings: Las Vegas Aces move into top spot

In this week’s WNBA Power Rankings, the Las Vegas Aces finally push the Seattle Storm off their perch, but they’re not the only team moving up.

Another week of WNBA action is behind us and this week’s power rankings feature some movement, specifically at the top of things.

That’s right. After the Las Vegas Aces came away with a 95-92 overtime win on Sunday over the Seattle Storm, things have been shaken up. But did Seattle’s two-game losing streak cost them more than one spot?

Check out the rankings below to find out.

Where does each team rank in this week’s WNBA Power Rankings?

On Sunday, the Fever waived 2020 No. 3 overall pick Lauren Cox. If this was a contending team, you might be able to understand this move, as Cox has played 8.6 minutes per game this year, averaging 1.4 points and 2.0 rebounds per game. But the Fever aren’t contenders: they’re a one-win team that needs to do whatever they can in terms of figuring out which — if any — young players have a future with the franchise. Moving on from Cox just doesn’t make sense for this particular team. Even if you think she’s not going to ever be a starting WNBA big, moving on from her after a season and a half is another bad move by this front office.

Good news: the Dream have Chennedy Carter back. Bad news: Tiffany Hayes is hurt and they’ve lost three games in a row. Two of those were close losses, but then the team was blown out 101-78 by the Liberty. The defense has been struggling, and the while the offense has its moments, it hasn’t been enough. Atlanta has a bright future with Carter, Cheyenne Parker, and Aari McDonald, but they’re beginning to slip out of the playoff hunt in 2021.

The Sparks remain a tough team to figure out. They’ve lost three of their past four games and are still without the Ogwumike sisters. But Te’a Cooper has been providing some strong scoring, with two 20-point games in a row. Add in how Erica Wheeler is playing and you have to feel better than you did before the season about the backcourt situation in L.A. If Nneka and Chiney can return soon-ish, this is a playoff team.

After a big win over Seattle, Washington has lost two games in a row. Injuries have them running outna super small rotation, including having to play Megan Gustafson as the third big right now. Tina Charles is making a case for MVP, but Washington is just too disjointed right now to break out of this current rut that they’re in. If we could ever see them at full health, I still think they can beat anyone, but we’re halfway through the season and there’s still no sign of Elena Delle Donne.

At this point, eight feels high for the Liberty, as they’ve lost four of their past six games. But Saturday’s 101-78 win over Atlanta and an upcoming schedule that seems winnable before the Olympic break have this team still in the playoff mix. Sabrina Ionescu finally had another double-digit scoring game and the team shouldn’t be too far from getting Natasha Howard back. Though, a plantar fasciitis issue for Rebecca Allen kept her out last game and she is a pretty crucial piece for this team’s success.

The Lynx are coming off a huge overtime win over the Aces on Friday, which extended their win streak to two games and finally got them back to .500 for the first time this season. Things are trending up in Minnesota and the Lynx — despite injuries to Aerial Powers and Natalie Achonwa and some major regression for last year’s Rookie of the Year Crystal Dangerfield  —look poised to start challenging for a first-round playoff bye in the second half of the season.

Diana Taurasi is back and all she did in her return was score 25 points in 32 minutes of action in a win over the Sparks. But Taurasi’s return also reminded us of how much this team relies on the starters, as Brianna Turner’s 29 minutes were the lowest number by any of the starting five. With Taurasi back, Megan Walker was cut down to just six minutes and Sophie Cunningham to 11. Considering in the final game without Taurasi both played 20-plus minutes, this redistribution of minutes is interesting and reinforces how top-heavy this team is.

Dallas has won three of their past four games. Charli Collier is starting to look like a player who was worthy of the No. 1 pick. Marina Mabrey is working through some mid-season struggles. Arike Ogunbowale remains an offensive machine. Allisha Gray seems over her post-3×3 slump. The Wings are looking like a good team right now and are pretty far ahead of schedule. That in itself presents some issues with the whole “young players vs. veterans in the rotation” question, but Vickie Johnson’s squad might be good enough to not worry about those questions.

Chicago’s seven-game winning streak came to a halt on Sunday against Connecticut, who weren’t at full strength but still beat Chicago 74-58. With that in mind, I can’t justify putting Chicago over a Sun team that has three fewer losses, even if the Sky are 2-1 against Connecticut this season. If we’re looking at right now and projecting forward some, Chicago is the fourth-best team if we assume the Sun get Jonquel Jones back in the mix within a game or two. But hey, anything can happen, and this team is hard to beat with Candace Parker healthy.

Things looked bleak for the Sun with Jonquel Jones out for EuroBasket, as the team had three bad losses to Seattle and Chicago. But a two-game win streak and the return of Jones this upcoming week has the Sun right there in the hunt for a top playoff seed, as they’re just one game back in the loss column of both Seattle and Vegas. If Jones gets back and returns to playing MVP level basketball, we could potentially see a new team break the Seattle/Vegas stranglehold on the top two power ranking spots.

So, uhh, the Seattle Storm are on a two-game losing streak. One of those was to the Aces in overtime, while the other was a four-point loss to the Mystics. Seattle is still the clear No. 2 team in the league, but a 1-2 record against Vegas has knocked them out of the top spot in the power rankings, even as they still hold a 0.5 game lead for the one seed in the WNBA. [Skip to the Aces section for a longer discussion of these two teams.]

We have a change at the top! Fresh off an exciting, overtime win over the Storm, the Las Vegas Aces have taken the No. 1 spot in FanSided’s WNBA power rankings. So, how did this team go 2-1 against Seattle so far despite losing to them soundly in last year’s Finals? Because it’s a new season and Vegas smartly added the exact kind of player they needed this offseason in Chelsea Gray, whose scoring upside and passing ability help to unlock things on this team. The Liz Cambage and A’ja Wilson pairing that had its troubles back in 2019 runs a lot smoother when you have Gray running the show.

While this team doesn’t have a ton of depth, they do have two Sixth Woman of the Year candidates in Dearica Hamby and Kelsey Plum who give them big minutes off the bench. You can argue that Seattle’s top two players — Breanna Stewart and Jewell Loyd — are a better duo than the Vegas top two of Wilson and Cambage, but Vegas just has such better pieces around those two. Head coach Bill Laimbeer is utilizing that talent better than he has in his whole time with the franchise and great things are happening.