10 Games To Watch In 2024
The top WNBA games to tune in for this season.
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Today’s the day! The 2024 WNBA season tips off later this evening with a four-game opening night slate. There’s a lot of great basketball set to be played this season, and here are 10 games that you should go ahead and circle on your calendar already.
Tuesday, May 14
Indiana Fever @ Connecticut Sun
7:30 p.m. ET - ESPN2
Opening night has some great games, including a fun matchup between the new-look Mercury and the defending champion Aces. Still, we all know where people’s eyes will be glued, which is Caitlin Clark’s WNBA debut.
Clark smashed college scoring records at Iowa and captivated the nation. That hype is set to extend to the WNBA in 2024. I can anecdotally say as an Iowa resident that I’ve never seen more people in local area Facebook groups posting questions about WNBA League Pass than I’ve seen over the last two weeks.
Will Clark be able to replicate her college success in the pros? Tune into Fever games and see.
Monday, May 20
Seattle Storm @ New York Liberty
7:00 p.m. ET - ESPN3
Last season, the Liberty went 4-0 against Seattle, as a struggling Storm team was unable to get a win off of former Seattle star Breanna Stewart’s new team. In 2024, Seattle looks to be in a much better position after adding Skylar Diggins-Smith and Nneka Ogwumike in the offseason. Getting to see Stewart play a Storm team that’s actually competitive will be a lot of fun.
Friday, May 24
Indiana Fever @ Los Angeles Sparks
10:00 p.m. ET - ION
We have the battle of the top two picks in the WNBA Draft as Clark and the Fever take on Cameron Brink and the Sparks. Add in that the Sparks also have lottery pick Rickea Jackson and the Fever have last year’s No. 1 pick, Aliyah Boston, and the uber-talented NaLyssa Smith, and you get a game that represents the future of the WNBA.
Tuesday, June 4
Phoenix Mercury @ Seattle Storm
10:00 p.m. ET - CBS Sports Network
The first game between Skylar Diggins-Smith and the Phoenix Mercury is going to be a powder keg. I mean, I’ll believe that anything can happen in this one. On the Seattle side, you’ve got SDS, whose departure from Phoenix was pretty messy. On the Phoenix side, you have a whole roster full of players who refuse to back down from anything. This one could get really chippy.
Saturday, June 15
New York Liberty @ Las Vegas Aces
3:00 p.m. ET - ABC
Just about a month into the season, we’ll get our first meeting of last season’s WNBA Final participants and our first chance to see how the Liberty stack up to the Aces this season. Last year, the teams split the season series, with the Liberty winning the Commissioner’s Cup final over Vegas and the Aces winning the WNBA Finals over the Liberty.
Heading into 2024, these two teams are the favorites once again. Last year, they were the only WNBA teams with a double-digit net rating, and while the Sun and Storm should be viewed as threats to make the Finals, New York is a step ahead of those two teams on paper.
Sunday, June 30
Atlanta Dream @ New York Liberty
1:00 p.m. ET - ESPN
There are a number of Dream games I could have put here, because I really just wanted an excuse to talk about the return of Tina Charles. I opted for the game against the team she’s most known for playing for, the New York Liberty.
It’ll be interesting to see what Charles has left in the tank after sitting out the 2023 season. The last time we saw her, she was splitting time between Phoenix and Seattle in 2022, averaging 14.8 points and 7.3 rebounds per contest. In 2021, Charles — who sat out the 2020 season — finished fifth in the MVP race. Could sitting out last year give us another big, rejuvenated season from the 2012 MVP?
Tuesday, July 16
Seattle Storm @ Los Angeles Sparks
3:30 p.m. ET - League Pass
Nneka Ogwumike returns to Los Angeles as a visitor for the first time. After 12 seasons wearing purple and yellow, Ogwumike moved on from the Sparks this offseason, opting to join the new-look Seattle Storm. It’s going to be really, really weird to see Ogwumike walk into Crypto.com Arena with the Storm, and it’ll also be fun to see the past of the Sparks take on the potential future in Brink and Jackson.
Thursday, August 15
Phoenix Mercury @ Chicago Sky
8:00 p.m. ET - Prime
I’m really excited to see Kahleah Copper head back to Chicago to take on the Sky for the first time, but that’s not the only reason this game will be worth tuning into. In fact, I’d say the bigger reason is that this contest marks our return to WNBA action after the Olympic break. We’ll go almost a month without WNBA basketball, so it’ll be nice to re-kick things off with a Copper Revenge Game.
Friday, August 16
Connecticut Sun @ Dallas Wings
9:30 p.m. ET - ION
The timeline for Satou Sabally’s return is still a little unclear, but it sounds like it’ll be right around the Olympic break. That could mean early July, but I think a better time to expect Sabally’s return will be this contest, Dallas’ first after the Olympics.
The Wings are really reliant on rookies right now. Of the 10 healthy players on the roster, only five have played a game in the WNBA. There’s really no telling what that will mean for the Wings and their shot at making the playoffs, but getting Sabally back for those final 15 games could change the fortune of the team’s 2024 season.
Sunday, September 15
Connecticut Sun @ Las Vegas Aces
6:00 p.m. ET - CBS Sports Network
It’s tough to know ahead of time what games will have playoff implications at the end of the season, so I’m not going to go that direction. Like…maybe the Sept. 19 game between the Sparks and Lynx will be worth watching because both teams are battling for a playoff spot, but it’s so hard to know.
Instead, tune into what should be a really good contest between the Sun and Aces right before the regular season ends. This one could have playoff implications, but it might be more likely to have MVP implications with A’ja Wilson taking on Alyssa Thomas.
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