The 2026 WNBA season is underway. The New York Liberty got their quest for a championship started in style with a 31-point win over the Connecticut Sun, while the Washington Mystics outlasted the Toronto Tempo in the expansion team’s first game. In the evening’s finale, the Golden State Valkyries dominated the second half to beat the Seattle Storm.
Opening weekend continued Saturday with a highly-anticipated showdown between the Indiana Fever and Dallas Wings, which featured the last four No. 1 picks: Aliyah Boston (2023), Caitlin Clark (2024), Paige Bueckers (2025) and Azzi Fudd (2026). The Wings escaped in a thrilling 107-104 shootout after Clark and Kelsey Mitchell both missed game-tying 3-pointers in the final seconds.
Final scores, schedule:
- Liberty 106, Sun 75 (Box score)
- Mystics 68, Tempo 65 (Box score)
- Storm 91, Valkyries 79 (Box score)
- Wings 107, Fever 104 (Box score)
- Phoenix Mercury at Las Vegas Aces — Saturday, 3:30 p.m. ET (ABC)
- Atlanta Dream at Minnesota Lynx — Saturday, 8 p.m. ET (League Pass)
- Chicago Sky at Portland Fire — Saturday, 9 p.m. ET (NBA TV)
- Seattle Storm at Connecticut Sun — Sunday, 1 p.m. ET (League Pass)
- New York Liberty at Washington Mystics — Sunday, 3 p.m. ET (League Pass)
- Las Vegas Aces at Los Angeles Sparks — Sunday, 6 p.m. ET (USA)
- Phoenix Mercury at Golden State Valkyries — Sunday, 8:30 p.m. ET (League Pass)
Now that the season is off and running, let’s take a look at some of the winners and losers from opening night:
Winner: Wings’ offseason overhaul
Last season was a complete disaster for the Wings. Coach Chris Koclanes was in over his head, Arike Ogunbowale struggled to adjust to a lesser and more off-ball role next to No. 1 pick Paige Bueckers, they were crushed by injuries and couldn’t defend a soul. They finished tied for last place with a league-record 34 losses.
The good news for the Wings is they got the No. 1 pick for the second year in a row, and were so bad that general manager Curt Miller had no choice but to essentially start over. He fired Koclanes and replaced him with Jose Fernandez, drafted Azzi Fudd with the top pick, and completely overhauled the roster. Alanna Smith, the 2025 co-Defensive Player of the Year, Jessica Shepard, Odyssey Sims and Alysha Clark arrived in free agency, and they convinced former No. 2 overall pick Awak Kuier to return to the WNBA after two seasons away.
There were plenty of questions about how Bueckers and the new-look Wings would fare this season, and Saturday’s season-opening win over Clark and the Fever answered a lot of them. The Wings aren’t going to shoot 59.1% from the field or 52.2% from 3-point range every night, but this team is going to be electric on the offensive end. They were racing up and down the floor, and their combination of guards who can get into the lane and break down the defense, bigs who can pass and shot-makers is going to be very difficult to slow down.
Bueckers, with 20 points on 8 of 10 shooting, was her usual self, Shepard nearly recorded a triple-double and Sims, who earned a surprise start, was dynamic. But the most encouraging sign was how comfortable Ogunbowale looked in Fernandez’s offense. If she can get back to her best, the Wings’ outlook completely changes. Plus, they barely even got anything from Fudd in this game; she scored just three points in 18 minutes in her debut.
Winner: Breanna Stewart
Stewart’s 2025 was frustrating. She underwent meniscus surgery on her right knee prior to the season, suffered a right knee bone bruise late in the season that kept her out for a month and then sprained the MCL in her left knee during Game 1 of the Liberty’s first-round playoff series with the Phoenix Mercury. Not only did the Liberty’s title defense end in the first round, but Stewart averaged her fewest points since her rookie season and failed to make an All-WNBA team for the first time since 2019.
Entering 2026, Stewart was fully healthy and ready to get back to an MVP level under new coach Chris DeMarco. It didn’t take her long. She scored on the Liberty’s first possession of the season and finished with 31 points, 10 rebounds, one steal and three blocks in a dominant two-way performance to lead New York to a 31-point win despite Sabrina Ionescu and Satou Sabally’s absence.
Including the playoffs, Stewart only had two 30-point games all of last season.
Loser: Connecticut’s defense without Leïla Lacan
The Sun are still in the early stages of their rebuild, so it’s no surprise that they lost to the Liberty — the favorite to win the title — on opening night, especially without star guard Leïla Lacan, who is still overseas. But to give up 106 points was extremely discouraging.
The Liberty shot the ball well early, but it’s not as if they made a million 3s (they were 10 of 31). Rather, the Sun were consistently getting beaten in transition, had no answer around the basket and fouled relentlessly. The Liberty scored 19 fastbreak points, 42 points in the paint and went 26 of 31 from the free throw line.
Regardless of the opponent, Connecticut’s defense was far too sloppy. They need to clean things up, or their final season in Uncasville before relocating to Houston will be even longer than expected. Honestly, you could make Lacan a winner from this game. If this is what the Sun’s defense looks like without her, she should earn Defensive Player of the Year votes from this game alone.
Winner: Canada
Coca-Cola Coliseum was rocking on Friday night, and though the result didn’t go the Toronto Tempo’s way, the expansion team’s first-ever game was a historic moment years in the making. The Tempo, one of two expansion teams that joined the league this season, are the first WNBA team in Canada and the first outside of the United States.
After Marina Mabrey hit a 3-pointer in the middle of the fourth quarter to briefly give the Tempo the lead, the decibel level got up to 105.4 — well above the level at which sustained exposure may result in hearing loss, per Yale University.
Like any expansion team, the Tempo may struggle to win games this season, but Friday night’s opener proved that they’re going to compete and will have plenty of support behind them.
Winner: Sonia Citron
Coming into her rookie season, the general consensus was that Citron, the No. 3 overall pick, had a high floor but a low ceiling. She quickly proved that wrong with an All-Star campaign that saw her lead the league in 3-point percentage (44.2%) and finish as the runner-up to Paige Bueckers for Rookie of the Year.
She picked up right where she left off on Friday during the Mystics’ season-opening win over the Tempo. Citron scored a team-high 26 points — tied for the third-highest scoring performance of her career — on 9 of 12 from the field and 3 of 6 from 3-point range, and chipped in two steals and two blocks. Everyone else on the Mystics combined for 42 points on 16 of 52 shooting and 2 of 18 from behind the arc.
Citron came up clutch, too. Her layup in the middle of the final frame put the Mystics back in front for good after they had blown a nine-point lead, and she followed that up with an and-one. If Friday was any indication, the Mystics are going to rely heavily on Citron this season, and she has the ability to carry their offense.
Loser: Jade Melbourne’s front tooth
Ouch.
Winner: The Valkyries’ 3-point shooting
During their debut season in 2025, the Valkyries set a new WNBA record by attempting 29.9 3-pointers per game. They made just 32.5% of them, however, which ranked 11th in the league. Their inability to shoot was a major reason why they finished 10th in the league in offensive rating (101.5).
After an interesting offseason in which they made few additions, there were once again real questions about the Valkyries’ offense and whether they had enough shooting — particularly after the team revealed that stretch five Iliana Rupert was pregnant. They certainly did on Friday. Janelle Salaün went 5 of 10 from 3-point range to tie her career high, seven different players hit a triple and they shot 15 of 37 (40.5%) as a team in a double-digit win over the Storm.
The Valkyries made 15-plus 3s just twice last season, and shot 40% or better eight times. One game doesn’t make a season, but this was an encouraging start for the Valkyries, who are hoping to get back to the playoffs and will need to shoot better in order to do so.
