Speeding down the stretch! The sprint toward the finish! The push toward the postseason! The race for the chase!

With such a short, rapid-fire regular season, it often seems like the entire WNBA season is a sprint. But particularly now, with less than three weeks remaining until the final regular season games, it will be a race to the finish for the teams still in playoff contention. For those teams already (or soon to be) out of the race, perhaps the offseason can't get here quickly enough.

Wherever you stand, the season's final nine (or so) games are sure to be filled with excitement, scoring and fact-paced action… just like the last week in the WNBA.

Eastern Standard

If the regular season in the Eastern Conference is a race, the Detroit Shock are pulling away. They've gone 5-1 – including Tuesday night's win over West-leading San Antonio – since losing All-Star Game MVP Cheryl Ford for at least the rest of the regular season. Thanks to the play of Katie Smith (above right), Deanna Nolan and others, the Shock hold a four-game lead in the East – and for home-court advantage throughout the playoffs – heading into Thursday's action.

Since losing their star Tamika Catchings, the once-golden Fever had sputtered, losing six straight before finally winning Tuesday against the Mystics. Indiana is two games up on third-place Connecticut, which has been nearly as hot as Detroit, hustling out to nine wins in its last 10.

Chicago, New York and Washington have all struggled of late and will be fighting it out for the final postseason spot in the East.

Rush for Gold in the West

On the left side of the United States, the teams pursuing the postseason may be largely decided, but the playoff picture is far less clear. The sprinting Silver Stars (and super-quick MVP candidate Becky Hammon) are in a virtual tie with the run-and-gun Mercury for the top spot, but the defending champion Monarchs sit just a single game back.

MVP frontrunner Lauren Jackson has been on one of the more impressive runs in league history of late, including her 47-point performance back on July 24, but the Storm have been inconsistent against their tough Western rivals. Still, they're solidly in the playoff pursuit, three games up on the fifth-place Sparks.

The next few weeks' worth of intra-conference battles will go a long way toward deciding who gallops on to the postseason and who saunters home for the fall.

Dash for the Scoring Title

Lost in all of this MVP talk – with Jackson holding a sizable advantage over Catchings, Hammon and Nolan – is the fact that the scoring race could end up being considerably tighter.

Yes, LJ tied a league record with her 47, but Minnesota's Seimone Augustus notched a career-high of her own with 39 last Sunday against Sacramento. Through Tuesday's games, Jackson's 24.4 ppg hold a 1.5 point lead on Augustus' 22.9. But with the Storm's star slightly dinged up, could LJ end up seeing some more time on the bench in order to rest up for the playoffs?

Meanwhile, the Lynx scorer's young squad is all but eliminated, so they'll be doing all they can to play the spoiler role and to build for next season. Might they give Augustus more shots in hopes of pushing her to the title? We shall see.

Stat Lines of the Week

• Janel McCarville, New York vs. Connecticut (7/26): 24 points, 10 rebounds, 4 steals
• Lindsay Whalen (right), Connecticut vs. New York (7/26): 20 points, 9 rebounds, 8 assists
• Candice Dupree, Chicago vs. Detroit (7/26): 24 points, 12 rebounds, 3 blocks
• Katie Douglas, Connecticut vs. New York (7/29): 26 points, 5 rebounds, 4 steals
• Seimone Augustus, Minnesota vs. Sacramento (7/29): 39 points, 3 rebounds
• Diana Taurasi, Phoenix vs. Chicago (7/27): 26 points, 5 assists, 4 rebounds
• Nicole Powell, Sacramento vs. Minnesota (7/29): 29 points, 6 rebounds, 3 steals
• Becky Hammon, San Antonio vs. Seattle (7/29): 30 points, 4 assists
• Tamika Whitmore, Indiana vs. Washington (7/31): 17 points, 15 rebounds
• Lauren Jackson, Seattle vs. Sacramento (7/31): 30 points, 8 rebounds, 7 blocks

Pull Up a Seat

Whoa, where do you think you're going? There are some great games on tap for the coming week, and you can catch most of them on the tube. Here are the games you absolutely cannot miss, including Saturday's NBA TV matchup of the second- and third-place squads in the East, as the Fever and Sun face off in Connecticut:

• Thursday: Minnesota at New York, 7:30 p.m. ET on NBA TV
• Friday: Detroit at Chicago, 8:30 p.m. ET on NBA TV
• Saturday: Indiana at Connecticut, 7 p.m. ET on NBA TV; Phoenix at Seattle, 10 p.m. ET
• Sunday: Sacramento at Indiana, 7 p.m. ET on NBA TV
• Tuesday: Phoenix at Los Angeles, 10 p.m. ET on ESPN2

Injury Watch

• Shock forward Cheryl Ford has been ruled out for the rest of the regular season while she recovers from a left knee femoral chondral defect. Her status for the postseason is still to be decided.
• Though she missed practice earlier this week to have an MRI on her sore knee, Lauren Jackson has continued to play at a remarkably high level.
• Indiana Fever star forward Tamika Catchings will be out another week or two after suffering a foot injury last week.
• Taj McWilliams-Franklin (right) and her knee were in obvious pain Tuesday against the Liberty. She looked extremely gimpy at times, but still managed to post 13 points and 13 boards in the Sparks' win.
• L.A. point guard Temeka Johnson, playing in just her seventh game of the season after knee surgery over the winter, bashed knees with a Liberty player and was down face-first on the court for a minute or so. She hobbled to the bench for several minutes, but returned to the game shortly thereafter.
• Seattle's Janell Burse and Betty Lennox are both suffering from wrist injuries, but have remained on the court for the time being.
• Sheryl Swoopes has now missed 22 games for the Comets with back issues. No timetable has yet been set for her return.

Closing Number: 558,000

In this edition, we've talked a lot about speed and racing, albeit toward the playoffs. In a speed-based comparison of all of the tangible WNBA team nicknames, the Silver Stars and Sun (OK, stars in general) max out at around 558,000 miles per hour. How's that for a speedy Finals matchup?

The Comets, also out in space, aren't too far behind at around 100,000 mph. The top velocity of the Storm, the Sky and the weather-related Mercury (aka, the things affected by the jet stream) is about 75 mph.

Encroaching a little less quickly into the animal world, the most helpful information readily available on the Web said, "Lynx are not fast runners." Good to know. But coming in last are the slow – but beautiful! – Monarchs (OK, butterflies), who top out around 12 mph.