The 2025 WNBA Finals will begin Friday featuring the second-seeded Las Vegas Aces (30-14) facing off versus the fourth-seeded Phoenix Mercury (27-17). With this past season being the longest in league history—each team played 44 games—it’s only fitting that these Finals could be the longest ever, since they’re the first to be a best-of-seven series.
Phoenix is making its sixth Finals appearance, which is tied for second-most in WNBA history, and it is seeking a record-tying fourth championship. Punching a ticket to the Finals makes the franchise the only one to reach the championship round in all four decades of the league’s existence. The Aces are in the Finals for the fourth time, and they won two of those prior trips.
These franchises have faced off five times previously in the WNBA playoffs, with the Mercury going 4-1 in those series. However, the Aces have the more recent edge as they went 3-1 versus Phoenix in the 2025 regular season.
To reach this stage, Phoenix defied the odds twice, as it was the underdog in both the first and second rounds of the postseason. First, the Mercury knocked off the defending champion New York Liberty in three games after falling into an 0-1 hole. Then Phoenix upset the No. 1 seed Minnesota Lynx in four games, after again dropping the first outing of the series.
As for the Aces, they were pushed to the limit in both series. They knocked off the Seattle Storm in the first round, winning the deciding Game 3 by a single point. They then needed overtime in a deciding Game 5 to get past the undermanned Indiana Fever, as they’re finding the postseason is a completely different ballgame from the regular season. Las Vegas ended the regular season on a 16-game win streak but haven’t won more than two games in a row this postseason.
Las Vegas is led by four-time MVP A’ja Wilson, who not only won that award again this year but also collected her third Defensive Player of the Year award. The two previous years she won both awards (2022, 2023), Vegas also won the championship. She finished second in the league in total blocks and third in total steals, with the latter often being the barometer for team success for Vegas.
Jumping into passing lanes or swiping the ball isn’t something Vegas is particularly known for, but perhaps it should be more of an emphasis considering the team’s success when it logs steals. The Aces were 16-0 in the regular season when they collected at least nine steals, compared with a 14-14 record when they had eight or fewer. Phoenix is likely aware of that, and the Mercury have been careful with the ball recently. Outside of the regular season finale, in which bench players logged heavy minutes, the Mercury have allowed an opponent to reach nine steals just once over their last 15 regular plus postseason games.
Phoenix doesn’t have a regular season MVP winner like Wilson, but it does have a fellow Finals MVP in Kahleah Copper. She’s looking to become the sixth player to win multiple WNBA Finals MVP awards and is one of three Phoenix players averaging at least 15 points per game. Another of those is Alyssa Thomas, who led the WNBA in assists per game while ranking third in rebounds per game. She logged her fifth playoff triple-double in the first round, while all other players in WNBA history have combined for two postseason triple-doubles.
The Mercury are a team that lives by the three and dies by the three, as it attempted both the fourth-fewest free throws and fourth-fewest two-pointers. Sometimes, efficiency isn’t as important as sheer volume—Phoenix went 12-2 in the regular season when it had over 30 three-point attempts, but a 15-15 mark with 30 or fewer attempts. Meanwhile, the Aces excel at defending outside the arc, as they forced the second-lowest three-point percentage by opponents, a 31.6 percent mark in the regular season, though they haven’t been quite as successful in the postseason, allowing 36.7 percent.
As the higher seed, the Aces will have home-court advantage, and the Finals will use the 2-2-1-1-1 format. Phoenix has shown in its first two series that it can go on the road and win, while the Aces have shown vulnerability in Sin City as they dropped Game 1 versus the Fever at home.
An interesting fact about this series is that both head coaches hail from the fifth-least populated state in America—South Dakota. Vegas’s Becky Hammon is from Rapid City, while Phoenix’s Nate Tibbetts is a native of Sioux Falls. While they share being South Dakotans, what they don’t share is experience on this stage. Hammon is a two-time WNBA champion as a coach, while Tibbets, who is in his second season, had never won a WNBA playoff game prior to this year.
We’ll see if that proves to be a difference maker when the Finals tip off on Friday at 8 p.m. ET, with the broadcast on ESPN. A potential Game 7 would take place on Friday, Oct. 17 at 8 p.m. ET.
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