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2025 WNBA Power Rankings (Week 8): Storm surge; Lynx rebound from Commissioner’s Cup loss

  
Published July 8, 2025 04:57 PM

The Minnesota Lynx may have lost the Commissioner’s Cup to the Indiana Fever, but right now, it’s them and then every other team. The Seattle Storm are working their way up the rankings, while teams like the Los Angeles Sparks, Chicago Sky and Dallas Wings shuffle spots at the bottom.

Between the Commissioner’s Cup and All-Star announcements, it was another busy week in the WNBA, and with another week, comes updated power rankings.

WNBA Power Rankings

These rankings reflect where each WNBA team stands after week eight of the 2025 season. Teams are ranked 1-13 and are grouped by tiers.

Past Rankings: Preseason, Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, Week 4, Week 5, Week 6, Week 7

Tier 1: Contenders

  1. Minnesota Lynx (17-2) | Prior Rank: 1 - The Minnesota Lynx played 4 games last week, which included the 2025 Commissioner’s Cup, a game that they lost. But since the Cup doesn’t count towards the regular season standings, the Lynx were a perfect 3-0 in week 8, which includes a gritty, come-from-behind win over the Chicago Sky on the second night of a back-to-back. All the Minnesota Lynx do is win, and they were rewarded with two All-Stars, Napheesa Collier and Courtney Williams, as a result. They will also grab the top spot in these power rankings for the third week in a row.
  2. Phoenix Mercury (13-6) | Prior Rank: 2 - The Mercury will hold on to No. 2 for another week after snapping a two-game losing streak. What’s concerning for the Mercury is after just recently becoming whole, both Satou Sabally and Kahleah Copper had to miss their game against the Dallas Wings on Monday due to ankle and hamstring injuries, respectively. Sabally, one of the team’s two All-Stars this year, was spotted in a walking boot on Sunday during the team’s practice.
    Fortunately for the Mercury, their other All-Star is Alyssa Thomas, and with Thomas on the court, the team will always have a chance. She connects everything for the Mercury. She’s their best, most important and most valuable player.
    Thomas stuffed the stat sheet and notched the 12th triple-double of her career in the Mercury’s dominant 102-72 win over the Dallas Wings.
    However, her teammate Sami Whitcomb, stole the show with a career-high 36 points and seven made threes on the night. Her 29 points in the first half is the most points scored in a half by a WNBA player this season.
    The Mercury have been winning games all season with starters missing from the lineup. This is what they do. They get key contributions from across their team, and based on recent reporting, more help may be on the way. With the second best record in the league, they land the No. 2 spot for the third week in a row.

Tier 2: Likely Contenders

  1. Atlanta Dream (12-7) | Prior Rank: 3 - The Dream are 1-1 in their last two home games with a one-point loss to the Seattle Storm and a win over the Golden State Valkyries. The Dream were without Rhyne Howard for their matchup with the Storm, but a familiar foe is why they lost that game. They have not been able to consistently overcome their late game execution issues in close games. Against the Valkyries on Monday, they did, and it resulted in a win. The Dream and Storm have identical records and they have split their head-to-head matchups this season. The Storm do have the most recent win, but Atlanta was missing one of their two All-Stars, Rhyne Howard (Allisha Gray being the other). More importantly, while Seattle and Atlanta are nearly tied in Defensive Rating (99.7 and 99.9 respectively), the Dream have a better Offensive and overall Net Rating (6.6 as compared to 3.9). For now, that’s enough for Atlanta to edge out Seattle for No. 3 this week.

  2. Seattle Storm (12-7) | Prior Rank: 6 - The Seattle Storm bounced back from their blowout loss to the Golden State Valkyries by going 2-0 in week 8. Those two wins came against the shorthanded Atlanta Dream, who were without Rhyne Howard and the New York Liberty who were missing Jonquel Jones. The Storm’s record this season against the two teams ranked immediately ahead them is 2-1 versus Phoenix and a 1-1 split with Atlanta.

    It’s worth noting that in their matchups with both the Mercury and Dream, both opponents were missing at least one star player, while Seattle had their three recently named All-Stars (Skylar Diggins, Nneka Ogwumike and Gabby Williams) all available to them. Seattle can only play who is in front of them, but it’s important context for assessing how to rank these teams against one another. With that context, Seattle will still move up two spots this week to No. 4, but they won’t overtake Atlanta (same record) or Phoenix (one-game lead in the standings ) just yet.

  3. New York Liberty (12-6) | Prior Rank: 4 - While New York has a half game lead over both Atlanta and Seattle for third in the standings, they will fall another spot this week to No. 5. Even with the return of Leonie Fiebich to the lineup, the Liberty are losing at a faster rate than they are winning in the last few weeks and that’s largely due to the loss of Jonquel Jones, who is not expected to return to play until after the WNBA All-Star break because of a right ankle injury.

    New York is 2-4 in their last six games. In week 8, they went 1-1 with the Los Angeles Sparks and Seattle Storm, and they had to overcome a deficit to beat the Sparks. Fortunately for New York their next six games are at home, where both of their All-Stars, Sabrina Ionescu and Breanna Stewart, typically play very well. Hopefully, they can use home court to their advantage to steady the ship, but with so many losses recently, they fall to fifth this week.

Tier 3: In the Mix

  1. Golden State Valkyries (9-9) | Prior Rank: 5 - The Valkyries drop one spot this week after losing two games in a row. They are in the middle of a four-game road trip, in which they have started 0-2. The Valkyries have a much better home than road record. Of their nine wins this season, only two have occurred on the road, both against the Los Angeles Sparks. The Valkyries will likely need their sole All-Star, Kayla Thornton, to go to another level for them on the road because if that trend continues, they could be in for a tough stretch, as they only have two games at home between now and August 3.
    The Valkyries are in a three-way tie for the sixth best record in the WNBA with the Indiana Fever and Las Vegas Aces. Since they have beaten both teams in their head-to-head matchups, they will get the No. 6 spot this week.
  2. Indiana Fever (9-9) | Prior Rank: 8 - The Fever played three games during week 8, which includes a win in the Commissioner’s Cup, and went 2-1. Unfortunately for them, the Cup does not count towards standings, so they are still .500 on the season. However, it will be considered for purposes of these rankings. The Fever went into Minnesota, without the services of Caitlin Clark, and beat the best team in the WNBA on their home court. Couple that with finally getting their first win over the Las Vegas Aces since 2020, in dominant fashion, and snapping a 16-game losing streak and that’s how they end up ahead of the Aces this week at No. 7.
    Also, there is more good news for the Fever. Even though fellow All-Stars, Aliyah Boston and Kelsey Mitchell, have been holding it down for the Fever during her absence, their All-Star Captain, Caitlin Clark, is expected to return to play from a groin injury for their matchup on Wednesday with the Golden State Valkyries.

  3. Las Vegas Aces (9-9) | Prior Rank: 7 - Even though the Aces are still at .500 this week, they fall one spot to eighth after going 1-1 in week 8. While their win in NaLyssa Smith’s first game as a starter looked great, it was against the Connecticut Sun, a team with the worst record in the league and only two wins on the season. It also followed one of their worst losses of the season, a 27-point beatdown at the hands of the Indiana Fever.

    A positive for the Aces is that Smith looked good in her second game while securing a double-double and was moved into the starting lineup after the beating they took from Indiana. Her addition to the team should improve their offense and help to keep defenses honest against the Aces. For now, the Aces get the No. 8 spot this week.

  4. Washington Mystics (9-10) | Prior Rank: 9 - The Mystics snapped a two-game losing streak on Tuesday by defeating the Chicago Sky in a two-point win to pull back within one game of .500. The Mystics have gotten better at executing in close games, but they need to string together a few wins in a row to rise in the standings and in these rankings.

    Even though they will remain at No. 9 this week, things are trending up for the youngest team in the league. It was announced Sunday that two of their rookies, Sonia Citron and Kiki Iriafen, had been selected as All-Star reserves. They will join Paige Bueckers as the only other rookie All-Stars from the 2025 class.

Tier 4: Rebuilding

  1. Los Angeles Sparks (6-13) | Prior Rank: 10 - The Sparks went 1-1 in week 8, losing to the New York Liberty and beating the Indiana Fever on the road. This is who the Sparks have been all season. It’s really a toss up between LA, the Chicago Sky and Dallas Wings for spots 10-12 in these rankings. These teams are within a half game of each other, are all playing shorthanded and have kept pace with each other over the course of the season. Since the Sparks have the longest win streak of the three teams at a whopping one game, they will move up two spots to No. 10 this week.
  2. Chicago Sky (5-13) | Prior Rank: 10 - The Sky drop one spot this week because they are on a two-game losing streak, but there’s no way to ignore the improvement in their play over their last several games, which starts with their sole All-Star this season, Angel Reese.
    The Sky are 2-3 in their last five games. Their three losses were all on the road against the Valkyries (by five points), Lynx (by 5 points) and Mystics (by two points). All of these games were close and Chicago was without Kamilla Cardoso for all three. Chicago’s improved play also coincides with an impressive six-game stretch from Angel Reese.
    While Chicago will fall to No. 11 this week, they should feel encouraged that the team is starting to move in a better direction.

  3. Dallas Wings (6-14) | Prior Rank: 11 - The Wings are 1-1 in their last two games and if the Sky hadn’t beaten them in all of their head-to-head matchups this season, they would have a case to be ranked ahead of them this week.

    The Wings’ most recent loss was a 30-point blowout to the Phoenix Mercury, a team who they had just beaten on their home court while Phoenix was at mostly full strength. So while Dallas is down some key players in Arike Ogunbowale and DiJonai Carrington, losing to the Mercury, albeit on the road, while they were without both Kahleah Copper and Satou Sabally is a bad loss.

    Despite that loss, the Wings had a very impressive win over Phoenix that was led by their three rookies. Paige Bueckers had already been playing well which is why she’s a first-time All-Star and earned Rookie of the Month honors for June.

    But in their win over the Mercury, Aziaha James led the way with a career-high 28 points and JJ Quinerly also stuffed the stat sheet to help Dallas secure the win.

    Like Chicago, things are looking up for the Wings. Once they get Arike and DiJonai back, the team may be able to string together some wins, but for this week, they will land at No. 12.

  4. Connecticut Sun (2-16) | Prior Rank: 13 - It’s officially been over a month since the Sun last won a game on June 6. They have the worst record in the league and two wins on the season. This will keep them at No. 13 for another week.