Who will win the third annual WNBA Commissioner's Cup?
The GIST: The WNBA’s third annual Commissioner’s Cup game — an in-season battle for hardware and moola — tips off tomorrow at 9 p.m. ET (on Prime Video), featuring the defending champ and Western Conference–leading Las Vegas Aces vs. the Eastern Conference top-dog NY Liberty. Because who else but the superteams?
How it works: Each team’s first regular-season home and away games against their five conference opponents count toward the Commissioner’s Cup standings. Because the Aces and Libs had the best winning percentages in the West and East, respectively, they advanced to tomorrow’s showdown.
- As for that aforementioned cold hard cash, there’s a prize pool of $500K up for grabs for the players, on top of the approximate $165K in charitable donations that have been awarded throughout the series. Rihanna would be proud.
The matchup: This will be the third meeting of the superteams this season, with the series tied one game apiece. Despite each matchup being considered a potential Finals preview, their head-to-head tilts haven’t been particularly close. In fact, both showdowns were decided by an average of over 27 points. Sheesh.
- But what they lack in tight scorelines, they more than make up for in starpower. Any time the court features MVP favorites, All-Star game captains, and recent 40-point scorers A’ja Wilson of the Aces and Breanna Stewart of the Libs, it’s must-watch TV.
The prediction: Las Vegas is undoubtedly the deeper squad, boasting last year’s Commish Cup MVP, Chelsea Gray, plus All-Stars Kelsey Plum and Jackie Young to support Wilson. But New York is coming in hot — they throttled the Aces earlier this month and enter tomorrow on a six-game win streak.
- While tomorrow’s matchup should be closer than their recent meetings, expect the Aces to hit the jackpot in the end, especially on their home floor. What happens in Vegas…will have us on the edge of our seats.
