It is still too early to tell what the playoffs are going to exactly be like yet but there are not many games left in the season and 4 of the 8 spots in the playoffs are already filled. It is a mathematical certainty that the New York Liberty, Connecticut Sun, Minnesota Lynx, and Seattle Storm are going to be in the top seeds. This, as you would expect, gives them and advantageous position as to who they will face first in the tournament.
I think I speak for everyone when I say that I would really like to see the Indiana Fever in the playoffs and when I say "everyone" I am definitely also talking about the networks that will televise the games as well as the venues themselves. When the Indiana Fever are playing, the ratings are massive and the attendance is guaranteed to be sold out, probably at quite high prices.
It is looking very possible that Indiana are going to make the playoffs as they are currently in 6th place and below them are teams that they have beaten more often than not when they have faced one another. However, no matter where they end up, and it seems unlikely that they will manage to make it to 5th place, they are going to find themselves against a far better team in the first round, which is just how these tournaments go.
If they were to win the rest of their games and get into 5th place that would be an ideal spot for them to be in because that would pit them upa against either Las Vegas or Seattle, both of which they stand a really good chance of defeating. The Fever have gotten better as the season has progressed because the players have melded so to speak and are much better playing together than they were at the start. This cannot really be said for the other teams but I will admit that I have not been watching them as closely as the Indiana Fever.
If things remain the same as they are right now as far as standings are concerned the Fever would end up against the Connecticut Sun in round 1 and this doesn't bode very well for the Fever. Connecticut hasn't gotten much press or attention from the masses because Caitlin Clark doesn't play for them, but they have a very impressive record of 22-8. It is also important to look at what things have been like recently though because like I said, Indiana has gotten a lot better in the 2nd half of the season, particularly after the All-Star and Olympic break. The Sun defeated Indiana 3 times, and two of those games were blowouts, before the break. The one time that they faced one another after the break, The Fever won the game 84-80.
Well a point could be made that the Sun were not going all out in this last meetup because they didn't have to. A loss at this point in the season changes nothing about their chances of making the playoffs and while it would be a disservice to the fans to take it easy in a game, it is a tactic that teams frequently use. They obviously don't want to lose, but they also don't need to win.
So we have a bit of a dark horse situation here if the Fever end up matched against the Sun: Indiana is a lot better than they were at the beginning of the season but also, Indiana still needs to play every single game as if their season depended on it....because it does.
The playoffs are yet to be determined because a bit can change before the end of the regular season in 18 days or 8 games away. On the 11th and the 13th we could end up with a bit of a preview of the playoffs as Indiana will play Las Vegas twice in a row. There is a chance that these games could be a determining factor to where both teams are in the playoffs or if anyone has some bad luck in the coming weeks, it could determine whether or not they make the playoffs at all.
No matter what happens the playoffs are going to be exciting and something that people actually watch for the first time since the WNBA was created. It will be interesting to see how much the attendance and viewership trails off if and when Indiana is eliminated. I would guess that they would lose at least half of the audience, perhaps more.