All-Star weekend in Chicago brought plenty of thrills and a bit of history with Azzi Fudd becoming the first rookie to win the 3-Point Contest and Jonquel Jones becoming the first player to claim all four MVP honors that the league presents — regular season, Finals, Commissioner’s Cup and All-Star Game.

With the All-Star festivities now in the rearview, what lies ahead is the stretch run as the race for the postseason intensifies in the coming weeks. Teams have between 15 and 18 games remaining to either hold their playoff position, improve their seeding, or climb into the playoff picture.

With the season set to resume on Tuesday with a five-game slate, we look at a key storyline, player or stat to watch from each squad down the stretch. 

Note: Teams are presented in order of the standings at the All-Star break.

Minnesota Lynx (22-6)

Olivia Miles #5 of the Minnesota Lynx

Count me among those who were skeptical of the Lynx entering this season after losing some key players from last year’s 34-win team in the offseason and being without MVP runner-up Napheesa Collier for the first half of this season. Well, they went 21-6 without Collier, Cheryl Reeve became the WNBA’s all-time leader in coaching wins, and they found a new star in rookie Olivia Miles.

This year’s No. 2 overall pick leads all rookies in points (19.3) and assists (6.0) per game, while ranking eighth in the entire league in both categories. She is on pace to become only the eighth player ever to average at least 19 points, 4 rebounds and 5 assists in a season, and only the second rookie to ever do so, joining Caitlin Clark in 2024.

Golden State Valkyries (19-8)

A season ago, the Valkyries became the first expansion team in league history to reach the playoffs in their inaugural season. This season, they’re following it up by making a run at the No. 1 overall seed. Fueled by a nine-game win streak before the All-Star break, the Valkyries are poised to challenge the Lynx for league supremacy in the standings race. How have they done it? Led by All-Star Gabby Williams (14.8 ppg, 1.7 spg), the Valkyries have been the league’s best defensive team, holding opponents to a league-low 76.4 points per game, and touting a league-best defensive rating of 100.9.

Another factor that can play into this race — Golden State (.454) has the easiest remaining schedule (based on the combined win percentage of their remaining opponents), while Minnesota (.555) has the toughest.

Las Vegas Aces (18-8)

The Aces open the stretch run in familiar territory. They are on pace to earn a top-four finish in the regular season for the eighth straight season as they set their sights on winning a fourth title to tie the Houston Comets and Minnesota Lynx for the most in league history.

• 2019: 4 seed (lost Semis)
• 2020: 1 seed (lost Finals)
• 2021: 2 seed (lost Semis)
• 2022: 1 seed (won title)
• 2023: 1 seed (won title)
• 2024: 4 seed  (lost Semis)
• 2025: 2 seed (won title)
• 2026: 3 seed

Also in familiar territory is A’ja Wilson, who has reached the point where she is competing with herself. She’s already the only player with four league MVPs and is among the favorites this season to make it five. She’s not only on pace to win her third straight scoring title — leading the league at 26.1 ppg — she’s on pace to post the second-highest season scoring average in league history. The only one better? A’ja Wilson in 2024 at 26.9 ppg.

Dallas Wings (18-9)

With a .667 win percentage entering the stretch run, the Wings are on pace for their best season in the Dallas era (since 2016). In franchise history (dating back to Detroit through Tulsa), every time this franchise has posted a .600+ win percentage, they have made the WNBA Finals:

• 2003: .735 (won Finals)
• 2007: .706 (lost Finals)
• 2006: .676 (won Finals)
• 2008: .647 (won Finals)

A key to Dallas’ success has been how well they share the ball without turning it over. The Wings lead the WNBA in assists (22.5 per game), while ranking second in fewest turnovers (11.6 per game), giving them the league’s top assist/turnover ratio (1.94). Considering Dallas’ starting backcourt consists of a rookie and a sophomore, they are taking care of the ball like seasoned veterans.

Indiana Fever (17-10)

Kelsey Mitchell #0 of the Indiana Fever

The Fever are on track to set an all-time single-season team record by averaging 95.5 points per game. The current record of 93.9 ppg set by the 2010 Phoenix Mercury has stood for 16 years. Fueling the Fever offense is the All-Star trio of Kelsey Mitchell (23.3 ppg, 2nd in WNBA), Caitlin Clark (21.0 ppg, 4th) and Aliyah Boston (17.3 ppg, 12th), who all rank in the top 12 in the league in scoring.

While the Fever play at the league’s fastest pace (82.9 possessions per 40 minutes), allowing them more scoring opportunities, they are also extremely efficient with those possessions. In fact, the Fever’s 114.2 offensive rating is also on pace to be the highest in league history.

• 114.2: IND in 2026
• 113.2: LVA in 2026
• 113.0: LVA in 2023 (won title)
• 112.9: WAS in 2019 (won title)
• 112.4: MIN in 2026

Only two teams have completed a season with an offensive rating of 112 or better, and both went on to win the WNBA title that same season: the 2019 Mystics (112.9) and 2023 Aces (113.0).

Atlanta Dream (16-10)

The five-player lineup of Allisha Gray, Jordin Canada, Rhyne Howard, Naz Hillmon and Angel Reese has played the second-most minutes in the league (363) and has the best net rating (+19.5) of any lineup that has shared the court for at least 100 minutes.

Led by that lineup, the Dream lead the league in multiple categories, including: points off turnovers (18.9), second-chance points (14.4), fast break points (13.2) and points in the paint (44.5).

The Dream have outscored their opponents by an average of 6.7 points on fast breaks this season as they allow the fewest fast break points (6.5) while scoring the most.

New York Liberty (15-12)

While Jonquel Jones stole the show in Chicago this past weekend to earn All-Star MVP honors, let’s take a close look at Jones’ frontcourt partner Breanna Stewart, who is stuffing the stat sheet with averages of 21.1 points (3rd in WNBA), 8.6 rebounds (9th), 3.0 assists, 1.2 steals and 1.4 blocks (7th) per game.

This is nothing new for Stewart, who is on pace to average 20+ points, 8+ rebounds, 3+ assists, 1+ steals and 1+ blocks in a season for the third time in her career. There are only five such seasons on record in league history, and Stewart has two of them (2023 and 2024). The others: A’ja Wilson (2025), Napheesa Collier (2024) and Lisa Leslie (2006).

Washington Mystics (14-12)

The Mystics have 14 wins so far this season, and 11 of those wins have come in games featuring clutch time — defined as a score within five points in the final five minutes. That means a league-high 78.6% of Washington’s wins have come in clutch games.

While Washington is 11-6 in 17 clutch games, they have been even better when the games are even tighter, posting a league-best 6-2 mark in games decided by three points or less.

Leading the way for Washington with the game on the line is the All-Star duo of Sonia Citron (69 clutch points on 45.9% shooting) and Kiki Iriafen (51 points on 51.4% shooting). They not only lead the Mystics in clutch scoring, but they also lead the entire league.

Portland Fire (11-16)

Sitting in ninth place in the standings, Portland enters the stretch run as the first team on the outside looking in at the playoff picture. The Fire open the home stretch 3.5 games back of No. 8 Washington as they seek their first postseason berth in franchise history — Portland did not reach the playoffs in any of their three seasons from 2000-02.

The Mystics and Fire split their first two meetings, with Washington winning a 4OT marathon on June 28 before Portland answered three weeks later with a 19-point win. A rubber match that could determine a much-needed tiebreaker for the Fire will be played on Aug. 23. That game will take place in Portland, where the Fire are 6-7 on the season compared to 5-9 on the road.

Toronto Tempo (10-16)

Marina Mabrey #3 of the Toronto Tempo

Marina Mabrey not only earned her first All-Star appearance this season, but she also made history as the first All-Star in Toronto Tempo franchise history. Mabrey has already tied the WNBA single-game record for points (53 on June 25) and 3-pointers made (9 on two occasions) and has a chance to make more history down the stretch.

Mabrey, who ranks 5th in the league in scoring with a career-best 21.0 ppg, leads the WNBA in total 3-pointers made (82) and 3-pointers made per game (3.3), while shooting 39.2% from beyond the arc. Mabrey needs to make 47 more 3-pointers to break the WNBA record for most 3s in a single season (128 by Sabrina Ionescu in 2023). With 18 games left to play, Mabrey is on pace to reach 141 threes this season to set a new benchmark.

Los Angeles Sparks (10-16)

When looking at the official leaders page for this season, Kelsey Plum’s name does not appear among the top scorers despite her 23.9 points per game average. That is because she does not meet the statistical minimums to qualify for league leaderboards — appearing in 70% of her team’s games played (31 in a 44-game season) or scoring 525 points.

Without the minimum requirements, Plum would rank 3rd in the league behind A’ja Wilson (26.1 ppg in 24 games played) and Napheesa Collier (24.0 ppg in 1 game played). Plum, who has appeared in 12 of L.A.’s 26 games so far this season, will not meet the 31-game minimum even if she plays in all 18 of the Sparks’ remaining games.

However, she can still qualify by reaching 525 total points scored. She’s already at 287, which means she needs 238 more points to qualify. At her current scoring rate — 23.9 ppg, which is on pace to be the sixth highest for a single season in league history — she would reach that mark in 10 more games.

Phoenix Mercury (10-18)

Two weeks ago, Alyssa Thomas recorded her 2,000th career assist, joining Mercury legend Diana Taurasi as the only players in WNBA history with at least 4,000 points, 2,000 rebounds and 2,000 assists. Thomas is only the seventh player ever to reach 2K assists, and she is the only non-guard among the top 10 on the all-time assist list.

Averaging 8.3 assists per game this season, Thomas is on pace to win her second straight assist title. She’s also been the WNBA’s season leader in rebounds (2023) and steals (2020) during her career, and is the league’s all-time leader in triple-doubles (20).

Thomas isn’t the only Mercury player climbing the all-time ranks. DeWanna Bonner has played in all 28 of Phoenix’s games so far this season. If she keeps that up and appears in each of the Mercury’s final 16 contests, she will finish the season one game shy of Sue Bird (580) for the most games played ever. She needs only three to pass former teammate Diana Taurasi for second place.

Chicago Sky (9-18)

Undrafted rookie Sydney Taylor has been a bright spot for Chicago this season. Taylor ranks 2nd among rookies in scoring (14.2), trailing only All-Star Olivia Miles. And Taylor is doing so in only 20 minutes per game, which ranks 14th among all rookies.

Among active players who have played more than one game this season, Taylor ranks fifth in points per 36 minutes (25.5), trailing only All-Stars A’ja Wilson (29.7), Kelsey Mitchell (26.0), Caitlin Clark (25.9) and Marina Mabrey (25.7).

Connecticut Sun (7-20)

After a 2-15 start, the Sun have gone 5-5 since, including a marquee win over league-leading Minnesota on July 6. The Sun are 4-2 in games decided by three points or less, tied with Dallas for the second-most wins in such close games.

This season has already seen Brittney Griner become the league’s all-time leader in blocked shots. At 1.8 blocks per game this season, Griner ranks 3rd in the league behind A’ja Wilson (2.0) and Kiah Stokes (1.8), as she goes for an unprecedented 9th blocks title and first since 2021. Griner has never finished a season ranked lower than 7th in blocks and has ranked in the top four in all but one of her 13 seasons.

Seattle Storm (6-23)

While the Storm may sit at the bottom of the standings, they are building a foundation for future success. Three of their top four scorers are either first- or second-year players: Dominique Malonga (16.3 ppg, age 20, sophomore), Flau’jae Johnson (13.7 ppg, age 22, rookie) and Awa Fam (11.1 ppg, age 20, rookie).

Malonga, who is averaging 16.3 points and 8.5 rebounds in just 25.8 minutes per game, earned her first All-Star nod this season. She provided one of Saturday’s top highlights as she became the youngest player to dunk in All-Star Game history.

Malonga is on pace to join Liz Cambage (2013) as the only players to average at least 16 points and 8 rebounds in under 26 minutes per game while appearing in at least 20 games.