The WNBA playoffs begin Wednesday, a best-of-three series format that pits Los Angeles vs. Seattle, Phoenix vs. San Antonio, Atlanta vs. Detroit and Indiana vs. Washington.Here's a look at the top postseason storylines as the first-round series begin:
Atlanta's Dream: The Dream won four games as an expansion team last year. In year two, they had a 14-game improvement (the second-biggest turnaround in league history) and secured the team's first playoff berth.
Atlanta's quick ascension has come due to an infusion of young talent, international experience and the small matter of bringing Chamique Holdsclaw back to the game.
Holdsclaw is a Comeback Player of the Year candidate after taking time away to deal with depression. She's played 25 games and was the Dream's second-leading scorer, but hasn't been in the lineup since Aug. 20 with a knee injury. She may not be much help in this series.
And so it will fall to Brazilian guard Iziane Castro Marques and the post tandem of Sancho Lyttle and Erika de Souza. Castro Marques leads the Dream at 14.4 points a game. Lyttle is having the best season of her career, averaging 13.0 points and 7.5 rebounds. De Souza, another Brazilian who missed most of 2008 with a fractured leg, has 11 double-doubles this season.
Rookie Angel McCoughtry has been playing in Holdsclaw's place and playing well enough to be considered a WNBA Rookie of the Year candidate.
Atlanta coach Marynell Meadors has a pretty airtight case for the WNBA Coach of the Year for taking this team a million miles in one season.
Atlanta, however, has a tough task in the opening round, taking on defending champion Detroit, which went 9-2 to close the regular season.
Hurting in Seattle: Without Lauren Jackson in the lineup and with Sue Bird trying to play through a neck injury, the Seattle Storm's title chances are starting to look pretty shaky.
When they played their regular-season finale Saturday against San Antonio, five mainstay Storm players were out of the lineup. Seattle has lost three of its last four games headed into the postseason.
Bird, the league's assist leader, sat out with her neck injury, but is expected to be in the lineup for the playoff opener against Los Angeles, the team that knocked the Storm out last year. Swin Cash, who missed Saturday's game because of a funeral, should also be back in the fold.
Jackson's absence is most worrisome. The standout Australian center who leads Seattle in scoring at 19.2 points a game, has a back injury that has been diagnosed as stress fractures, and she hasn't played since Aug. 29. She may not be available for the playoffs. She missed the 2008 playoffs with an ankle injury.
Since winning the title in 2004, Seattle has not advanced out of the first round, losing early in each of the past four years.
Leslie's last go-around: The Sparks are in the playoffs, preparing to take on the hobbled Storm, and Lisa Leslie's legendary career will go on as long as Los Angeles' postseason run.
She surely has Candace Parker to thank for lengthening her career. Since missing the first eight games of the season following the birth of her daughter in May, Parker, the 2008 league Most Valuable Player, has been outstanding. She has collected a league-leading 15 double-doubles in 25 games, six in a row to close the season.
Parker closed the season with a 24-point, 14-rebound effort against title favorite Phoenix Sunday night, indicating that she is back to the form that makes her the best all-around player in the league, and arguably, the world.
The Sparks, whose coach Michael Cooper will leave following the season to take over the women's program at USC, are 10-3 in their last 13 games, completing a run from the Western Conference cellar to the playoffs. While Leslie was out with a knee injury and Parker was working her way back, the Sparks received veteran production from former Olympians Tina Thompson and DeLisha Milton, which could be key against a Seattle team missing its best inside presence in Jackson.
Phoenix The Favorite: The Mercury will enjoy home-court advantage throughout the WNBA playoffs by virtue of their league-best 23-11 record this season.
Diana Taurasi is a big reason why. The former UConn star, who faced up to a DUI arrest early in the season with admirable accountability, shook off the distraction to win the league scoring title for the third time and the second consecutive season, averaging 20.4 points a game.
Fellow guard Cappie Pondexter trailed closely at 19.1 points per game.
The Mercury are the most potent scoring team in the league and stopping their run to the league title -- they won in 2007 and then missed the playoffs last season -- will mean stopping them on the offensive end.
First-round predictions
Los Angeles over Seattle. Parker's playing too well and Jackson's absence will be felt.
Phoenix over San Antonio. Can't stop the Mercury this early.
Detroit over Atlanta. Experience matters here. The Shock have it.
Indiana over Washington. The Fever are title contenders.
