Stephanie White, the newly crowned Associated Press WNBA Coach of the Year, will guide her third-seeded Connecticut Sun into Game 1 of their first-round playoff series against the sixth-seeded Minnesota Lynx on Wednesday night in Uncasville, Conn.

White took over after Curt Miller left the Sun for the same position with the Los Angeles Sparks. She guided the franchise to a 27-13 record and its seventh straight playoff appearance.

“I think the biggest thing is just the resilience of this group,” White said before the Sun’s regular season ended with a 102-91 loss to the Chicago Sky. “You know, we’ve been through a lot of situations, injuries and a lot of change and this group has really been resilient and found ways to find success.”

Connecticut, which lost the WNBA Finals in 2019 and 2022, now embarks on another attempt to claim its first league championship.

The Sun have been carried by leading scorer DeWanna Bonner (17.4 points per game) and MVP candidate Alyssa Thomas, who led the WNBA in total rebounds and total assists while averaging 15.5 points, 9.9 rebounds and 7.9 assists per game.

Brionna Jones (Achilles) remains sidelined for Connecticut. DiJonai Carrington (foot) is questionable for Game 1 and Tiffany Hayes (knee) is probable.

The Lynx took an unusual path to their 19-21 record and No. 6 playoff seed. They recovered from an 0-6 start, winning five straight games at one point before the All-Star break, but their win percentage never surpassed .500.

They laid an egg in the regular-season finale on Sunday against the Indiana Fever, losing 87-72. Coach Cheryl Reeve was highly critical of her team’s performance.

“In the first quarter, we came out and we said, ‘We don’t trust you, coaches. We don’t trust you. We don’t trust that team (Indiana) wants to be in the paint,'” Reeve told reporters. “It’s rooted in trust. How do you come out in the first quarter and give up 20 points in the paint?”

Making things tougher for the Lynx, SB Nation reported that Minnesota guard Lindsay Allen (left thumb) and center Jessica Shepard (left ankle) were out for Game 1.

“We have no clue,” Reeve added Sunday. “The team we’re about to play in the playoffs has a big-time clue.”

Napheesa Collier (21.5 points, 8.5 rebounds, 1.6 steals per game) and Kayla McBride (14.3 ppg) have carried the Lynx.

–Field Level Media

Phoenix Mercury legend Diana Taurasi plans to play a 20th WNBA season in 2024, she said Monday.

“I got another year of my contract, and I’m definitely going to fulfill that,” Taurasi told reporters in her season-ending exit interview.

Taurasi, 41, became the first WNBA player to reach 10,000 career points last month. The guard has spent her entire WNBA career with Phoenix and won three championships there (2007, 2009, 2014).

Taurasi was limited to 26 games (all starts) in 2023 due to injuries. She averaged 16.0 points, 4.6 assists and 3.6 rebounds per game.

The Mercury had a rocky year on their way to finishing a league-worst 9-31. The team fired coach Vanessa Nygaard in June and named Nikki Blue the interim head coach the rest of the campaign.

Brittney Griner returned to the league after being detained in Russia for 10 months on a drug-related charge. Griner was harassed when the team was walking through the Dallas-Fort Worth airport during a road trip in June.

She ultimately missed nine games due to a hip injury, health and safety protocol and to address mental health issues, finishing the season averaging 17.5 points and 6.3 rebounds in 31 games.

An unrestricted free agent, Griner — who turns 33 in October, said she wants to stay in Phoenix, where she has spent her entire 10-season career.

“Phoenix is home,” Griner told reporters Monday. “Me and my wife literally just got a place (here). This is it.”

Skylar Diggins-Smith, meanwhile, spent the season on maternity leave and publicly called out the way the Mercury had treated her during that time, claiming she wasn’t allowed to use the practice facility or “any resources” from the franchise.

Taurasi, when asked Monday if she would be open to Diggins-Smith returning to the Mercury in 2024, replied, “Next question.”

In 529 career games across 19 WNBA seasons, Taurasi has averaged 19.1 points, 4.3 assists and 3.9 rebounds per game. She’s maintained a 42.6 percent shooting rate from the floor and shot 36.2 percent from 3-point range. She skipped the 2015 season while playing in Russia.

–Field Level Media

Jewell Loyd scored a game-high 28 points to lock up the WNBA single-season scoring record, but the visiting Los Angeles Sparks rallied from down as many as 19 points to spoil the occasion and beat the Seattle Storm 91-89 in the finale for both teams Sunday.

Loyd came into the day already holding the regular-season scoring record with 911 points, but New York’s Breanna Stewart was just a point behind. Stewart scored nine points in the Liberty’s 90-88 loss to Washington; Loyd reached that number to make history less than three minutes into Seattle’s contest.

Loyd finished the campaign with 939 points.

The Sparks’ Zia Cooke, who provided 14 points off the bench, scored on an and-one layup with 1:39 remaining that cut the deficit to one point.

Layshia Clarendon scored the go-ahead bucket with 47.2 seconds remaining off an assist from Dearica Hamby, then Hamby grabbed the last of her game-high 12 rebounds on a Loyd miss.

Los Angeles held Seattle scoreless for the final 3:18 while mounting its rally.

The Storm (11-29) got 17 of their first 21 points from Loyd and built a lead of as many as 15 points in the opening quarter.

Los Angeles (17-23) chipped away at the deficit in the middle quarters, pulling to within four points late in the third on the strength of a 9-0 run. Four different Sparks scored in that spell, indicative of their offensive balance on the day.

Five Los Angeles players finished in double figures, with Jordin Canada going for 14 points and seven assists; Clarendon added 14 points and six assists; Azura Stevens had 10 points and eight rebounds; and Nneka Ogwumike scored a team-high 22 points.

Ezi Magbegor scored 16 points to go with eight rebounds and seven assists for Seattle, but missed a shot attempt to force overtime as time expired.

Kia Nurse added 18 points off the bench for Seattle and shot 3 of 7 from 3-point range, part of the Storm’s 12-of-22 effort from deep. Los Angeles shot just 5 of 18 from outside, but hit 18 of 24 from the foul line and scored 27 points off 21 Seattle turnovers.

–Field Level Media

A’ja Wilson scored 36 points and the defending WNBA champion Las Vegas Aces concluded the regular season with a 100-85 victory over the visiting Phoenix Mercury on Sunday afternoon.

Kelsey Plum added 30 points and Chelsea Gray had 21 points and eight assists for the Aces (34-6), who will be the No. 1 seed in the playoffs. The Aces, who have won four games in a row, will host the No. 8 seed Chicago Sky (18-22) in a best-of-three series starting Wednesday.

Moriah Jefferson scored 22 points, Brittney Griner had 21 and Sug Sutton, who had the first triple-double in franchise history (18 points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists) in a 94-73 home loss to Las Vegas on Friday, added 14 points for the Mercury.

Phoenix lost its last 11 games to finish the season 9-31 while playing down the stretch without Diana Taurasi (toe injury), Sophie Cunningham (jaw) and Shey Peddy (concussion protocols).

Phoenix scored the first five points of the third quarter to get within seven points before the Aces’ hot shooting took over.

Plum made four 3-pointers and another field goal, Wilson had four field goals and two free throws, and Gray made two 3-pointers as Las Vegas outscored the Mercury 30-18 in the period to take an 83-59 lead into the fourth quarter.

The Mercury got off to a good start just as they did before fading in Friday’s loss.

They took a 23-21 lead late in the first quarter, but Gray made consecutive 3-pointers to complete a 7-0 run that gave Las Vegas a 28-23 lead at the end of the period.

Michaela Onyenwere’s jumper started the second-quarter scoring and the Mercury got within three points three more times before the Aces increased the lead.

Alysha Clark’s 3-pointer pushed the lead to 41-33 before Phoenix crept within two points.

Wilson made four field goals during a closing 10-0 run that gave Las Vegas a 53-41 lead at halftime.

–Field Level Media

Brittney Sykes hit a catch-and-shoot buzzer-beater Sunday afternoon for the visiting Washington Mystics, who squandered a 12-point fourth-quarter lead before snapping the New York Liberty’s eight-game winning streak with a 90-88 victory in the regular-season finale for both teams.

The two teams will meet again Friday in the opener of a best-of-three series in the first round of the playoffs, when the seventh-seeded Mystics (19-21) visit the second-seeded Liberty (32-8).

The Mystics led 84-72 midway through the fourth before the Liberty mounted a 16-4 run capped by Breanna Stewart’s short bank shot with 21.5 seconds left. After a Washington timeout, Stewart blocked Elena Della Donne’s shot with what appeared to be 0.2 seconds left.

Following a review, three-tenths of a second were added to the clock. In one motion, Sykes caught the inbounds pass from Natasha Cloud, shot over Stewart’s extended hand and drained the game-winning jumper.

Sykes finished with a team-high 20 points, seven rebounds and six assists while Cloud had 17 points, six rebounds and five assists. Delle Donne and Ariel Atkins added 11 points apiece.

Sabrina Ionescu had 20 points, seven rebounds and seven assists for the Liberty. Jonquel Jones (19 points, nine rebounds) flirted with a double-double, while Betnijah Laney scored 13 points and Marine Johannes had 11 points off the bench.

The Liberty led by as many as eight in the first half before the teams entered the locker room tied 50-50. Sykes’ 3-pointer began a 9-0 run that gave Washington its first double-digit lead at 67-57 with 3:10 left in the third.

Ionescu converted a three-point play and Stefanie Dolson sank a 3-pointer to pull the Liberty within 71-67 at the end of the third. Delle Donne opened the fourth with a 3-pointer and Stewart answered with a jumper before the Mystics mounted a 10-3 run to go ahead 84-72.

–Field Level Media

Aliyah Boston highlighted her 19-point, 12-rebound performance by scoring 12 of those points in a pressure-packed fourth quarter as the Indiana Fever earned an 87-72 victory over the visiting Minnesota Lynx on Sunday in Indianapolis.

Kelsey Mitchell led all Indiana scorers with 24 points, including 19 in the first half, while NaLyssa Smith scored 16 as the Fever (13-27) snapped a two-game losing streak to end the season on a positive note. Indiana won three of four games against Minnesota this season.

Napheesa Collier tallied 23 points and 10 rebounds for the Lynx (19-21), who fell short of their bid to move from the sixth seed to the fifth for the WNBA playoffs. Kayla McBride scored 24 as Minnesota goes into the postseason caught in the grip of a two-game losing streak.

While the Fever prevailed, it did not come easy despite leading 56-44 at halftime.

Victoria Vivians made an open 3-pointer to increase Indiana’s lead to 13 with 9:01 left in the third quarter, but the Fever struggled the remainder of the period as Minnesota used a 17-4 run that was fueled by Collier, who hit a jumper to tie the score at 63-63 going into the fourth.

Then Boston took over and hit one of her biggest shots with 6:18 remaining on a pullup jumper that put the Fever up 73-70. Boston scored again with 4:09 left, driving inside for a layup for a 75-70 advantage.

McBride made 2 of 3 free throws to bring the Lynx back within three, but they were held scoreless for the final 3:54 of the game.

Indiana led by double digits for the first time with just over a minute left in the opening quarter as Mitchell hit a shot for a 30-18 lead. The Fever led 32-22 after one.

Minnesota kept it interesting as McBride’s jumper closed the gap to 36-28 with 6:55 left. Diamond Miller’s two free throws at the 4:04 mark brought the Lynx within five at 38-33.

Back-to-back 3-pointers from Mitchell and Erica Wheeler closed out a first half where Indiana shot 62.9 percent from the floor.

–Field Level Media