No. 8 Washington is locking in, as the young Mystics carry a five-game winning streak into twin weekend clashes with 15 regular-season games to go.
DC earned a key midweek win over No. 5 Dallas, overcoming a 20-point deficit to silence the Wings 96-92 behind center Shakira Austin’s 27-point, 13-rebound double-double.
“Toughness and togetherness — it’s a connected group,” said head coach Sydney Johnson. “Any lineup we put out there, we’re really trusting how connected they are.”
Washington sits 5.5 games above the playoff line. However, it faces a tough test tonight in No. 4 Atlanta.
The Dream bounced back from Monday’s steep 109-87 loss to No. 2 Las Vegas. Atlanta handled No. 12 Phoenix 96-82 on Wednesday, with sharpshooters Rhyne Howard and Allisha Gray combining for 43 points.
“The first half they were just unbelievable,” head coach Karl Smesko said of the duo. “Gave us a bit of a cushion.”
Washington takes on Atlanta tonight at 7:30 PM ET (ION).
July’s top WNBA stars headline tonight’s Aces vs Fever showdown, as Players of the Month A’ja Wilson and Kelsey Mitchell take the court when No. 2 Las Vegas visits No. 5 Indiana.
Mitchell earned Eastern Conference honors after putting up a league-high 272 points across 10 games, averaging 27.2 points to fuel her team’s 8-2 run.
Wilson claimed her record 16th career Western Conference POM after averaging a league-leading 28.3 points and 10.6 rebounds last month. She achieved those stats despite missing two games with an ankle injury.
Indiana leads the pair’s regular-season series 2-0. The Fever pulled off two statement wins over the defending WNBA champion this year.
Indiana toppled the Aces 84-68 on July 5th, before securing July 12th’s 109-75 victory behind Mitchell’s 27 points and All-Star center Aliyah Boston’s 19-point, 11-rebound double-double.
“Our group is one of the most resilient groups I’ve been a part of,” Mitchell said. “I’m gonna ride or die with my group no matter what, and I think that’s our edge.”
Where to Watch Tonight's Aces vs Fever WNBA Game
Indiana hosts Las Vegas tonight at 7 PM ET (Prime).
The NWSL dropped its 2027 schedule footprint, as Commissioner Jessica Berman confirmed plans to kick off next season on February 11th — the earliest start in league history — to allow for the Women’s World Cup in Brazil.
Set for Angel City’s BMO Stadium, the season-opener coincides with Super Bowl LXI at nearby SoFi Stadium — deliberately capitalizing on US sports’ biggest weekend after seeing a boost from this year’s Summer of Soccer initiative.
“We have intentionally — again, seeing the success we’ve had leaning into the halo of the Men’s World Cup — [applied] the same thesis for next year,” she said, noting significant growth across social channels.
The 2027 Challenge Cup precedes regular-season kickoff on February 6th, with this year’s Shield winner battling the 2026 NWSL champion at a neutral stadium.
The early start makes room for a seven-week summer pause from June 7th to July 25th, covering both the CBA-mandated rest and World Cup, which featured 61 NWSL players in 2023.
Each of the 16 clubs will again play a 30-match schedule, with Decision Day returning October 31st before the November 20th championship.
Two NWSL stars are putting it all on the line, as Temwa Chawinga’s Malawi squares off with Barbra Banda’s Zambia in today’s win-or-go-home WAFCON 2026 Group C closer.
Entering the tournament ranked No. 153 in the world, Malawi turned Cinderella after the KC Current standout and her sister Tabitha (OL Lyonnes) fueled the WAFCON debutant to back-to-back wins.
But the unbeaten Scorchers aren’t safe yet, facing a 1-1 Zambia side looking to avenge Saturday’s 1-0 loss to 10-time winner Nigeria.
If Malawi falls to the Copper Queens and Nigeria tops Egypt, Chawinga’s fairytale run could end via tiebreakers — though the three goals the sisters hung on the Super Falcons may prove their saving grace.
A one-goal Zambia win would pull all three contenders level at six points, throwing Group C into a head-to-head scramble that currently favors Malawi.
Reigning champion Nigeria controls its own fate, clinching a quarterfinal berth with a win over Egypt but risking a shock first-round exit with a draw and a Zambia victory.
Temwa Chawinga and Barbra Banda take the pitch in Rabat today at 4 PM ET (CAF TV).
A rubber match tips off in Washington, as No. 4 Dallas visits No. 8 Washington to decide the Wings vs Mystics regular-season series tonight.
The Mystics took Friday’s most recent meeting 81-75 behind Shakira Austin’s 28 points and 10 rebounds, with the center notching her 11th double-double this season.
Dallas then bounced back by routing No. 14 Connecticut 83-63 on Sunday, with Jessica Shepard and Arike Ogunbowale each dropping 15 points while Shepard also tacked on nine rebounds.
Washington is on a four-game winning streak — its longest since 2020 — powered by Austin’s scoring alongside sophomore guard Sonia Citron’s two-way spark.
The Wings haven’t won in DC since 2023. However, they hope to harness momentum after announcing they’ll move all 2027 home games from UT Arlington to Dallas’s 20,000-seat American Airlines Center.
“We’re the Dallas Wings, at the end of the day. We’re not the Arlington Wings,” Ogunbowale told the Dallas Morning News. “Being actually in the city, in the culture — that’s going to be really good.”
Washington hosts Dallas tonight at 6:30 PM ET (WNBA League Pass).
Top NWSL stars are dominating in Morocco, as 11 league players across eight WAFCON 2026 nations battle for four 2027 World Cup berths this week.
Back-to-back MVP Temwa Chawinga made history in Malawi’s debut, as the Current star scored her country’s first-ever WAFCON goal and added the stoppage-time winner to upset 10-time champion Nigeria 3-2. Chawinga's sister Tabitha netted her own along the way.
“We are going to compete, not just to participate,” Chawinga told The Athletic ahead of Monday’s Group C opener.
“We can think like we’re underdogs, but we’re just going there to show up like we can do it.”
Golden Boot-leader Barbra Banda (Orlando) was even more prolific in her Group C clash, ripping a 27-minute hat trick en route to four goals in Zambia’s clinical 6-0 rout of Egypt.
Banda landed the final 96th-minute blow off a cut-back cross from Bay FC’s Racheal Kundananji, producing WAFCON’s steepest scoreline since Nigeria shut out Mali by the same margin in 2016.
“We are not relaxed,” Banda said postmatch. “We’re focused on the next game.”
The WAFCON group stage runs through August 6th, with select matches streaming on CAF TV.
No. 7 New York and No. 2 Las Vegas are running it back, as a 2026 Commissioner’s Cup final rematch lands in Vegas with tonight's Liberty vs Aces clash.
New York is reeling after dropping six of its last 10 matchups, giving up 94.1 points per game during the skid despite forward Breanna Stewart’s 21.4 points and 8.4 rebounds a night.
Las Vegas is rolling at 7-3 through the same stretch, backed by A’ja Wilson’s 26.2-point, 9.7-rebound, and 2.0-block average.
The Liberty holds this season’s edge, tallying two wins over the Aces last month — including the 93-85 Commissioner’s Cup triumph.
Though both teams are coming off post-WNBA All-Star Weekend victories, with the Aces stomping No. 9 Portland 98-83 before New York quieted No. 12 LA 113-109 on Monday.
“We have what we need to get it done. We need to just really focus on the now,” Stewart told the New York Post. “I feel like the first half of the season there was a little bit of hesitancy from everybody... I don’t want to have excuses.”
Las Vegas tips off against New York tonight at 10 PM ET (Prime).
No. 2 Gotham held on last night, as Midge Purce’s early goal secured the defending champion’s 1-0 win over No. 14 Bay FC — despite a remixed starting XI.
Purce polished off Jaelin Howell’s knock-down header to register her 10th regular-season game-winner, breaking a club record previously shared with now-departed Esther.
Bay goalkeeper Jordan Silkowitz limited the damage with nine saves on the night — but even USWNT vet Abby Dahlkemper’s 84th-minute return from maternity leave wasn’t enough to turn things around after a disallowed Kennedy Fuller goal.
A reconfigured Gotham lineup took the pitch in San Jose, as interim coach Shaun Harris started reserve keeper Shelby Hogan over Ann-Katrin Berger, replaced injured Emily Sonnett with Jess Carter, and missed Esther’s attacking prowess up front.
Harris said he opted to give Berger “a little bit of a rest,” while failing to provide an update on Sonnett’s status beyond Tuesday’s brief mention of knee surgery.
“Jess had a really good game and she really showed her class, defending not just off the ball, but on the ball as well,” he said of the England international. “She’s a world class player that we really rely on.”
Gotham moves on to face No. 12 Houston on Saturday at 8 PM ET (NWSL+), before Bay hosts No. 10 Seattle at 8:45 PM ET (ION).
Two playoff hopefuls collide in Texas tonight, as No. 6 Atlanta visits No. 4 Dallas with the Wings looking to avoid a sweep in the final regular-season Dream vs Wings showdown.
The Wings return from All-Star Weekend averaging 91.7 points on 47.1% shooting, taking seven of their last 10 matchups behind star sophomore Paige Bueckers’s 21.4 points per game.
Atlanta also looks to pick up where it left off, building on a three-game winning streak after All-Star guard Allisha Gray dropped 29 points to lift the Dream over No. 13 Chicago.
Atlanta is 2-0 against Dallas this year, racking up back-to-back May wins behind offensive outpourings from Gray and forward Rhyne Howard.
The Dream has since stuttered to a 16-10 record, while the 18-9 Wings are riding high after No. 1 pick Azzi Fudd became the league’s first-ever rookie 3-Point contest winner.
“With the break, it was about making sure we got back to doing what we do,” Dallas coach Jose Fernandez said. “There’s a lot of excitement for the second half of the season, as there should be.”
Atlanta tips off against Dallas tonight at 8 PM ET (USA).
No. 3 Utah hosts No. 1 Washington in tonight’s Royals vs Spirit matchup, as two surging teams square off atop the NWSL standings.
Utah arrives hot off Saturday’s 4-1 rout of No. 9 North Carolina. On Saturday, four players contributed to the club’s highest-ever scoreline, as star striker Cloé Lacasse tied Christen Press’s 2019 single-season Royals scoring record.
“What this group is — and [Lacasse is] a great example of it — is humble,” coach Jimmy Coenraets said. “We’ll enjoy this win, but we also know that the hustle will start tomorrow.”
Utah remains unbeaten against Washington through three straight meetings — including March’s Mina Tanaka-fueled 1-1 draw.
The Spirit has conceded just 12 goals this season after Sunday’s 1-0 win over No. 11 Denver, where US star Trinity Rodman connected with forward Sofia Cantore to net the game-winner from deep.
“Tactically, the team is improving and growing every week,” manager Adrián González said. “We are finding different ways to win games, and I think that’s really positive.”
Washington visits Utah tonight at 9 PM ET (NWSL+).