The WNBA season kicked off with a bang. The New York Liberty received their rings and hung their championship banner. Paige Bueckers made her season debut against the Minnesota Lynx, a team she idolized growing up. Caitlin Clark gave us a triple double to start off the season, and the Washington Mystics concluded opening weekend with a better record (2-0) than the New York Liberty (1-0).
Now that week one has concluded and some regular season games have been played, it’s time to update the preseason power rankings.
WNBA Power Rankings
These Power Rankings reflect where each WNBA team stands after week one of the 2025 season. Teams are ranked 1-13 and are grouped by tiers.
Past Ranking: Preseason
Tier 1: Contenders
New York Liberty (1-0) | Prior Rank: 1 - The Liberty are the reigning champs and looked every bit of it on Saturday after they collected their rings and raised their first championship banner in franchise history.
What a historic day for the 2024 @WNBA CHAMPS 🏆💍 pic.twitter.com/M6kjxGTp7Y
— New York Liberty (@nyliberty) May 17, 2025Any concerns over the Liberty having potential championship hangover were quickly debunked as they handled the Aces pretty easily in a 14-point victory. New York’s defense stifled the Aces all game, particularly in the paint, where they held Vegas to only 32 points.
The player of the game was Natasha Cloud who stuffed the stat sheet in her Liberty debut. She punished the Aces all game and helped secure the win for New York. Ahead of the season, NBC Sports Staff highlighted Cloud as a potential player who would be most impactful on a new team this season. The addition of Cloud to this Liberty squad has them looking virtually unbeatable, and this is why they grab the top spot in this week’s rankings.
🔥 FINAL SCORES AND TOP PERFORMERS 🔥
— WNBA (@WNBA) May 18, 2025
Natasha Cloud made her presence felt in her New York Liberty debut. She brought leadership, intensity, and control on both ends of the floor... powering the Liberty to a dominant home opener win.
Final stat line: 22 PTS, 6 REB, 9 AST, 3… pic.twitter.com/uOCPVUi1d1Minnesota Lynx (2-0) | Prior Rank: 2 - There are no ties in basketball, so there will be no ties in these power rankings. However, if a team could be tied for the top spot with the Liberty, it would be the Lynx, but here, they will come in second.
The Lynx have already played two games this season, both without their starting shooting guard, Kayla McBride. And in their season opener against the Dallas Wings, they were also missing their starting center, Alanna Smith. It didn’t matter though. No starters, no problem. The Lynx won both games by a combined margin of victory of 29 points (15 and 14 points respectively).
The Lynx already have a case for No. 1. They have a larger win total than the Liberty and they did it with key players missing in both games on the road, while the Liberty were at home. New York will keep their spot because their win came against a better team (Aces) than the Lynx played in their first two games (Wings, Los Angeles Sparks respectively), but the Lynx look every much as lethal as the Liberty. They get the second spot in these power rankings for now.
Indiana Fever (1-0) | Prior Rank: 4 - The Fever move up one spot in this week’s rankings overtaking the Aces for third. So far the new-look Fever are living up to expectations. They defeated the Chicago Sky 93-58 on Saturday. Caitlin Clark led all scorers with 20 points and notched the third triple-double of her career.
Caitlin Clark made history on Opening Day 🔥
— WNBA (@WNBA) May 17, 2025
She recorded a triple-double (20 PTS, 10 REB, 10 AST) to lead the @indianafever to a dominant win.
She’s now the fastest player in WNBA history to reach 3 career triple-doubles (41 games)
…and ties Candace Parker for 3rd-most… pic.twitter.com/50uDmazdo8As if enough history wasn’t already being made, DeWanna Bonner passed Tina Thompson to move into 3rd all-time on the WNBA scoring list with 7,489 total points.
a whole lot of buckets 👏
— Indiana Fever (@IndianaFever) May 18, 2025
yesterday, DeWanna Bonner moved into third on the WNBA all-time scoring list with 7,489 points & counting.#NowYouKnow pic.twitter.com/GHEJ7L5AE6The Fever looked impressive in their season opener, but they were playing against a team they were expected to beat and they were at home. Last season the Fever played much better at home than on the road. Before they can move up past the Lynx or Liberty, they will need to perform against some better teams, but a dominant win to open the season is a great start and stark contrast to their start last season. For this week, they get third in the power rankings.
Tier 2: Potential Contenders
Phoenix Mercury (1-0) | Prior Rank: 5 - The Mercury jump the Aces to take the fourth spot in this week’s rankings. A lot of questions surrounded the Mercury before the season started because their roster, at least on paper, appeared to be top heavy with a lack of depth surrounding its new big three of Kahleah Copper, Satou Sabally and Alyssa Thomas who had no prior experience playing together as a unit.
The Mercury wasted no time answering those questions. Satou Sabally and Alyssa Thomas didn’t look like new teammates as they combined for 47 of Phoenix’s 81 points in their rout of the Seattle Storm. Their defense was excellent, holding Seattle to 59 points. Obviously this was just one game but the Mercury looked good.
Big debuts. Big impact.
— WNBA (@WNBA) May 18, 2025
Alyssa Thomas and Satou Sabally powered the @PhoenixMercury to a home-opening win in their first game with the squad:
Thomas – 20 PTS, 7 REB, 5 AST
Sabally – 27 PTS, 6 REB (franchise record for debut) pic.twitter.com/2apYxnYPHgPrior to the season opener against the Storm, the Phoenix Mercury announced that Kahleah Copper would be out for 4-6 weeks after undergoing left knee surgery. That’s a substantial amount of time to be without Copper, so questions still around the Mercury. It’s unclear how Copper’s time out will impact the team, but a duo of Sabally and Thomas is still formidable. For now, they land at fourth.
Las Vegas Aces (0-1) | Prior Rank: 3 - The Aces’ attempt to play spoiler on the Liberty’s Championship Ring and Banner Ceremony fell flat. Not only did the Aces lose the game, but they didn’t look like they belonged in the same conversation as New York.
The second quarter is where the game was lost for the Aces. The Liberty outscored them 28-13. The Aces made a run in the third quarter and cut New York’s lead to five points by the end of the quarter, but the Liberty found another gear in the fourth and closed out the Aces. Even though Las Vegas pulled within four points at one point during the game, New York was in control the entire time.
Despite the loss, it’s not time to hit the panic button on the Aces just yet. If anything, facing New York to open the season was a litmus test for Vegas to see what they need to work on. Plus, the Aces have one of the most talented cores in the league led by A’ja Wilson who dominated on Saturday afternoon and made history by securing the 100th double-double of her career. For now, the Aces drop two spots and a tier in these power rankings to No. 4.
A’ja Wilson’s dominant performance earlier today secured her 100th career double-double, making her just the 6th player in league history to reach the milestone 👑
— WNBA (@WNBA) May 18, 2025
FINAL STATS: 31 PTS | 16 REB | 2 STL#WelcometotheW pic.twitter.com/h9Uq6ARuaQ
Tier 3: In the Mix
Washington Mystics (2-0) | Prior Rank: 12 - The Mystics are the surprise team coming out of opening weekend. They’re a team that’s developing on the fly. They were missing one of their young stars, Shakira Austin, for the season opener and were without their 2024 6th overall draft pick, Aaliyah Edwards, for their first two games as well. Despite missing key players, they opened the season 2-0, led by Brittney Sykes and two of their newest rookies, Sonia Citron and Kiki Iriafen.
What’s impressive about the two wins is the Mystics had to come back from deficits in both games, one of the wins was on the road, both rookies were pivotal in each game and they were poised down the stretch to close out the game. That kind of poise and confidence will bode well for them and the Mystics as they continue to develop and rebuild.
These rooks are something special 🌟
— WNBA (@WNBA) May 18, 2025
Kiki Iriafen: 17 PTS, 14 REB, 7-10 FG (career-highs)
Sonia Citron: 15 PTS, 3 AST, 2 STL, 5-10 FG
Their big time buckets in the 4Q helped push the Mystics to a 2-0 start this season!#WelcometotheW pic.twitter.com/z3npqULnGTIt’s too early to tell how good the Mystics will be this season, but with so many questions about many of the other teams in the Association, the sixth spot is suitable for them in this week’s rankings.
- Los Angeles Sparks (1-1) | Prior Rank: 9 - The Sparks move up two spots to No.7 in this week’s rankings. They’re one of three teams who have already played two games and one of six teams who secured a win over opening weekend. They played spoiler to the Golden State Valkyries in their home opener and Kelsey Plum did not disappoint in her first game as a Spark, while playing the entire game.The Sparks did lose their second game of the season and home opener to the Lynx, but they still have a better record than most of the teams in the league. There’s no shame in losing to the Lynx. Most of the teams in the league won’t be able to beat them. It’s still much too early in the season to have a read on the Sparks or any team for that matter, but seventh seems appropriate right now based on the games they’ve played.
Setting the standard Game 1. pic.twitter.com/eeP8XhYz9w
— Los Angeles Sparks (@LASparks) May 17, 2025 Atlanta Dream (0-1) | Prior Rank: 6 - The Atlanta Dream lost their first game of the season on the road to the Washington Mystics. They will look to bounce back on Tuesday against the Fever, which will not be an easy feat. In fact, their next two games are against the Fever.
The Dream were competitive against the Mystics, but they couldn’t close it out and they looked like a team that was still new to playing with one another. There are still questions about this team and how all the pieces will fit together, particularly with both Brittney Griner and Brionna Jones on the team, two players who typically operate in the same space on the court. More games need to be played to really gauge the Dream, but since they were more competitive in their matchup than the rest of the 0-1 teams, they land at No. 8 in this week’s power rankings.
Seattle Storm (0-1) | Prior Rank: 7 - Like the Dream, the Storm fall two spots this week. The Storm went on the road to face the Phoenix Mercury for their season debut and it did not go well. They lost by 22 points. The Mercury’s defense frustrated the Storm all game and the only player who could get going was Skylar Diggins.
A positive take away from this game for Seattle is that, unlike last season, Skylar looks like she is in a good rhythm to begin the season, which is carrying over from Unrivaled and the latter half of last year. The Storm will need to have short -term memory as they are set to take on the Wings in Dallas Monday night.
Seattle will have to deal with DiJonai Carrington’s disruptive defense Monday, but they shouldn’t struggle to score the basketball as much as they did against the Mercury. Until we see more from Seattle, they get the ninth spot in this week’s rankings.
Dallas Wings (0-1) | Prior Rank: 10 - The Wings played their first game of the season at home against the Minnesota Lynx, which is somewhat fitting since it was Paige Bueckers’ debut and the Lynx are the team she grew up watching and admiring.
The Wings seemed to be holding their own in the first half and went into halftime tied with the Lynx. Then, in the second half, Minnesota reminded everyone why they were in the Finals last season.
Dallas will face off against the Storm on Monday night and will be seeking their first win of the 2025 season. The Wings are another team, in which it’s too early to tell what they will be. For now, they will remain at No. 10.
Chicago Sky (0-1) | Prior Rank: 8 - The Sky fell to the Fever in their first game of the season 93-58. While the 35-point loss likely doesn’t reflect the team that Chicago will be over the course of the season, it was a bad enough loss to drop them a few spots this week.
Like many teams this season, the Sky are dealing with a lot of new players on the roster. It’s only been one game, and it takes time to build chemistry and gel. The Sky will face the Liberty in their next matchup, which will be another challenging test for them. For now, the Sky remain another wait and see team and land at No. 11 this week.
Connecticut Sun (0-1) | Prior Rank: 11 - It feels wrong to drop the the Sun this week because they were very competitive in their first game against the Washington Mystics and almost won, but, a loss is a loss.
It’s notable that the Sun were competitive in their game against the Mystics while missing rookies, Aneesah Morrow and Saniya Rivers. Early indications are that the Sun may be a better team than expected. They fall one spot to No. 11 due to the loss, but they move up one tier because they may have been discounted too soon as a team that cannot make the playoffs.
Tier 4: Building
Golden State Valkyries (0-1) | Prior Rank: 13 - The Valkyries fell short to the Sparks in their sold out inaugural game, but it was a great watch and fun game for the league’s newest expansion team. The Valkyries hosted 18,064 fans at Chase Center, which is the highest attendance for a team’s debut in WNBA history.
The Valkyries will have another chance at home on Wednesday to get their first win of the regular season when they face off against the streaking Mystics (2-0). Until they have played more games, the Valkyries will hold steady at No. 13 this week.
