How the Aces' remaining schedule could impact the WNBA playoff seedings

The Las Vegas Aces are the reigning WNBA champs, having won back-to-back titles in 2022 and 2023. But right now, it doesn't feel like it.

An up-and-down campaign in 2024 paired with a few key injuries has placed them fourth in the current WNBA standings. With only seven games to go, the Aces are six games out of first place and only have a one-game lead on the fifth-place Seattle Storm.

Las Vegas also has the toughest strength of schedule remaining in the league, so this tight race is suddenly amplified.

Las Vegas Aces remaining schedule

The final seven games of the season for the Aces are as follows:

• @ Connecticut Sun
• @ New York Liberty
• @ Indiana Fever
• @ Indiana Fever
• vs Connecticut Sun
• @ Seattle Storm
• vs Dallas Wings

This means that the team will play five of their last seven games on the road, all against teams that have clinched playoff berth. Of the seven total games, six will be against playoff teams, and the one team who has not clinched, the Dallas Wings, just beat the Aces last week.

While the Aces are really just two or three wins back from being the No. 2 or No. 3 seed and feeling a sense of comfortability heading into the playoffs, they are also just a game away from not having homecourt advantage at any point in the postseason.

To boot, Las Vegas has to play two of the hottest teams in the league right now, with both the Liberty and Fever going 8-2 in their last 10 games, and the Fever are winners of seven straight.

Not to mention, two of these teams, the Storm and the Fever, are significantly better at home than on the road. Unshockingly, they will play in the comfort of their home arena when they face the Aces down the stretch of the season.

Seattle is 12-5 at home as opposed to 8-8 on the road, and the Fever are 10-5 at home compared to 8-11 away from home. The caveat is that the Aces get to host the Dallas Wings, who are 2-14 on the road this season.

The silver lining is that the Aces have a winning record against four of these five teams this season, going a combined 6-3 in the nine contests played against them.

Only the Liberty have a winning record (2-0) against the Aces from this crop, whereas the Aces have bested the Storm in both contests and beat the Sun and Fever in their only matchups as well. Las Vegas is also 2-1 against Dallas but lost the most recent matchup.

Teams change over the course of the season, however, and the Aces have not played the Sun since late June. As far as the Storm and Fever go, the Aces have not faced either of them since early July.

While the Aces are a different group than they were at that point in the season, so are their opponents.

Recently, Jackie Young and Kelsey Plum have taken games off to rest, but Becky Hammon had this to say in regards to resting players down the stretch:

Simply put, if the Aces can go on a run to end the season, they may climb the ranks and become one of the hottest teams in the W at the right time. This would mean homecourt advantage for most, if not all, of the postseason.

The other route could be the Aces crumbling with such a difficult schedule and dropping to a spot where they will have to play spoiler and win tough games on the road if they want a chance to three-peat.

It's almost playoff time, but we've got some great -- and important -- games to monitor before we get there.