With only five regular-season NWSL matchdays left, every point counts as teams jockey for postseason seeding, with this weekend’s lineup potentially shifting the standings.

After Spirit star Trinity Rodman exited last week's match with a back spasm, the forecast for Friday's bout between 10th-place Angel City and second-place Washington went from fairly uneventful to decidedly uncertain.

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Rodman's now-confirmed absence, as well as that of teammate Casey Krueger, opens the door for ACFC to capitalize and snatch the three points LA needs to catapult them over the postseason cutoff line.

Two tight top-six tilts are also on deck later this weekend. First, third-place Gotham and fourth-place Kansas City will battle for a possible second-place spot on Saturday afternoon.

Then on Sunday evening, sixth-place Chicago will try to enhance their own playoff security against a North Carolina team whose fifth-place positioning is all but guaranteed.

Golden Boot race leaders headline NWSL MVP buzz

Also catching fire entering the NWSL's final stretch are individual award races, with 2024 Golden Boot race​ frontrunners Temwa Chawinga and Barbra Banda leading the charge for MVP.

With 16 goals, Chawinga's on pace to lap ex-Red Star Sam Kerr's 2019 single-season scoring record of 18, while Banda's 13 goals has tied Orlando teammate Marta's 2017 franchise best and her six game-winners put her on par with the NWSL’s single-season record.

Even amid Portland's struggles, last year's Golden Boot winner Sophia Smith's 11 goals and six assists on the season can’t be discounted. 

MVP race aside, despite her season-ending injury, Washington’s Croix Bethune still seems like a lock for Rookie of the Year with five goals and a league record-tying​ 10 assists.

Meanwhile, Pride keeper Anna Moorhouse and her single-season record 12 shutouts leads the Goalkeeper of the Year campaign.

Portland's Weaver takes this week’s top NWSL celly

Making her case for this week's top NWSL celly is Thorns striker Morgan Weaver, who capped off her 49th-minute goal with a team-wide "rockabye baby" party in Monday's 2-2 draw with Angel City.

The celebration was well-warranted: Still working back to full fitness after a May knee injury sidelined her for the summer, the goal was Weaver's first since returning to the pitch.

Weaver later told reporters that the celly was a shout out to teammate Bella Bixby's newborn daughter and assistant coach Vytas Andriuškevičius's soon-to-arrive baby.

Welcome back to Fast Friends with Kelley O'Hara and Lisa Leslie! In today's episode, our hosts cover the WNBA playoffs, three-time MVP A'ja Wilson, the Defensive Player of the Year debate, Kelley's somewhat sudden retirement, and the NWSL playoff race.

Coming off the success of JWS's Olympic commentary show The Gold Standard, Fast Friends features two legendary athletes serving up insider insights and unique takes on the biggest stories in women's sports every week.

Subscribe to Just Women's Sports on YouTube to never miss an episode.

The higher seeds handled business on Tuesday, as twin first-round sweeps saw the Liberty and Aces emerge 2-0 from the best-of-three series to advance to the semifinals of the 2024 WNBA playoffs.

Fueled by Sabrina Ionescu's 36 points, which tied New York's single-game playoff scoring record, the Liberty came from behind to defeat the Atlanta Dream 91-82 before the Aces held off the Storm 83-76.

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The wins set up an electric second-round matchup between 2023 championship foes New York and Las Vegas.

Last year, the back-to-back defending champion Aces needed just four Finals games to beat New York for the title. To take aim at the elusive three-peat, No. 4-seed Las Vegas will have to advance past the top-seeded Liberty in the 2024 semifinals, which will tip off on Sunday, September 29th.

Despite four Finals appearances, the Liberty is the only remaining original WNBA franchise without a championship.

Could tonight's WNBA playoff game be Diana Taurasi's last?

Wednesday night's WNBA playoffs could see the end of legend Diana Taurasi's professional career, as her No. 7-seed Phoenix Mercury attempts to avoid elimination against No. 2-seed Minnesota.

Now in her 20th season, 42-year-old Taurasi — an 11-time All-Star, three-time WNBA champion, former league and Finals MVP, and the WNBA's all-time leading scorer — has hinted that this year might be her last.

Caitlin Clark and the No. 6-seed Fever will also be playing ​for survival tonight after Sunday's blowout loss to No. 3-seed Connecticut. An Indiana win would send the best-of-three series to Indianapolis, known for their rocking crowds.

How to watch round one of the WNBA playoffs tonight

The Fever will tip off against the Sun at 7:30 PM ET tonight. Immediately following, the Mercury will take on the Lynx at 9:30 PM ET. Both games will air live on ESPN.

On Tuesday, the Los Angeles Sparks parted ways with head coach Curt Miller. The LA team finished the season 12th in the WNBA standings with a record of 8-32.

After leading Connecticut to the 2022 WNBA Finals, Miller joined the Sparks ahead of the 2023 season. He went on to oversee a 2024 rebuild that added top rookies Cameron Brink and Rickea Jackson to LA's roster.

Miller showed "courage" during an LA Sparks rebuild

"Takes courage to come into a situation as such and do the dirty work that essentially you don’t and won’t get credit for. Everyone not built for that. He wanted that challenge! Some people like and only want gold handed on a platter," Sparks All-Star Dearica Hamby tweeted after the news broke.

Miller began his head coaching career at Bowling Green in 2001, where he coached the Falcons to a 258-92 career record including 135-41 in conference play and a trip to the Sweet Sixteen in 2006. He departed Ohio in 2012 to helm Indiana University's women's basketball team.

After three seasons with Indiana, Miller left college sports for the WNBA in 2015, spending a year-long stint as an assistant coach with the LA Sparks.

Establishing a WNBA career with the Connecticut Sun

Miller spent the bulk of his pro career with the Connecticut Sun, joining the team for the 2016 season and assuming general manager duties that same year. In 2017, Miller went on to win both WNBA Coach of the Year and WNBA Basketball Executive of the Year.

While he led the Sun to the playoffs in 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022, Miller never won a WNBA title with the franchise.

LA currently has the best odds to land 2025's No. 1 draft pick via the WNBA lottery, with UConn guard Paige Bueckers expected to fill that slot.

With Aces star A'ja Wilson snagging her third MVP honors last weekend, the 2024 WNBA Defensive Player of the Year (DPOY) award has now taken centerstage. Both Wilson and Lynx standout Napheesa Collier are frontrunners, sparking heated debates.

Aces coach Hammon speaks out on A'ja Wilson

Last Thursday, Las Vegas head coach Becky Hammon called out ESPN journalists who revealed their 2024 WNBA votes. Notably, Hammon went to bat for players not on her roster, like New York's Sabrina Ionescu, but particularly took voters to task for giving their DPOY nod to Collier.

"They got the MVP stuff right," she told the press. "The Defensive Player of the Year? If you have to, as a journalist or a reporter, go down a rabbit hole to find somebody else to be in the conversation, you already have the answer."

Lynx coach Reeve fires back in support of Napheesa Collier

As the previously scheduled guest on Monday’s episode of Good Game with Sarah Spain, Minnesota head coach Cheryl Reeve was asked if a DPOY vote for Collier “is a vote deserving of anger.”

In response,​ Reeve​ — the 2024 Coach of the Year favorite — explained that while she had not seen Hammon's press conference, "most people that I talk to think [Collier's] a unanimous decision."

"You look at the top three or four defensive teams — in A'ja's case, can you be the Defensive Player of the Year when your defense isn’t in that?" Reeve continued. "She's had an incredible year, but she can have MVP and Napheesa Collier is Defensive Player of the Year."

Who deserves to win WNBA Defensive Player of the Year?

Reigning back-to-back DPOY Wilson, whose 451 rebounds set the WNBA's new single-season rebound mark this year, has certainly made her case for a threepeat. She led the league in blocks per game, plus recorded a career-high steal rate this season.

Collier, who slightly trails Wilson in rebound and block rate this season, shines in steals, with a per-game average good for second in the league. But it's the Lynx forward's ability to defend multiple positions, plus her role in positioning Minnesota as the WNBA's second-best defense per possession — a measure that sees the Aces claim fifth in the league — that reportedly is giving her the edge with DPOY voters.

Ultimately, the choice between the two stars seems to be about individual prowess versus team contribution. It's a decision Reeve summed up as simply, “it depends on what you value when you vote.”