The Caitlin Clark effect is quickly making its mark on the big leagues, as WNBA host teams around the country rush to upgrade their Fever games to larger arenas in order to accommodate surging ticket sales.

With Clark mere weeks away from her Indiana Fever debut, both the Las Vegas Aces and Washington Mystics have officially relocated their scheduled home games with head coach Christie Sides' squad. On Thursday, the Mystics became the latest to adjust their plans, moving their June 7th matchup from Entertainment & Sports Arena in Southwest DC to the more centrally located — and much larger — Capital One Arena "due to unprecedented demand."

The Mystics home court's capacity taps out at 4,200, while Capital One Arena — home to the Wizards, Capitals, and Georgetown Hoya's Men's Basketball — can fit nearly five times that crowd at some 20,000 spectators.

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"The move to Capital One Arena will allow for additional fans in the stands as well as premium hospitality options, including Suites and the all-new all-inclusive courtside Hennessy Lofts," the team announced via Thursday's press release.

The Aces were one of the first teams to switch venues, aiming to take on the Indiana Fever in front of as many as 20,000 fans inside T-Mobile Arena on July 2nd. That’s a sizable a boost from their home venue, which holds just 12,000.

For those still planning to face the Fever in their home arenas, ticket prices have skyrocketed. Previously scheduled construction has already forced the LA Sparks to relocate their first five games — including their May 24th clash with the Fever — to Long Beach State's Walter Pyramid. The temporary venue is quite the downsize, holding just 4,000 in comparison to Crypto.com Arena's near-19,000. As of Friday, the get-in price for that game started around $400.

Despite fans launching a Change.org petition urging relocation, the Chicago Sky say they're unable to move their June 23rd Fever meeting from Wintrust Arena's 10,000-seat facility to the 23,500-seat United Center due to a concert. Tickets for that game start around $325 as of Friday.

Elena Delle Donne could be on the move.

While the Washington Mystics extended a core qualifying offer to Delle Donne on Jan. 13, a number of teams have inquired about the availability of the guard, according to Khristina Williams. Among those teams are the Phoenix Mercury.

Any type of deal would have to be completed via a sign-and-trade, and according to Williams, the Mystics are seeking draft pick compensation for the star.

Currently, the Mercury hold the No. 3 overall pick in the draft, as well as the No. 13 pick and the No. 25 pick.

Delle Donne is one of the top free agents this offseason and has played for the Mystics since 2017. In that time, she won a WNBA championship with the team, but appeared in just 53 total games of her contract due to injuries.

Under the core tag, Delle Donne cannot talk to teams unless given the okay by the Mystics. A trade by the team would have to happen with her agreement.

The Washington Mystics aren’t letting Elena Delle Donne go just yet.

Per the WNBA’s transactions page, the Mystics extended a core qualifying offer to the forward. It comes after a report from The Next Hoops last week that Delle Donne was going to sign with another team in the offseason.

Delle Donne is one of the league’s top free agents and has played for the Mystics since 2017. In that time, she won a WNBA championship with the team and was a four-time WNBA All-Star. But she appeared in just 53 total games of her contract after a back injury kept her limited from 2020 through the 2022 season.

Last season, she averaged 16.7 points and 5.4 rebounds, although she did miss time with injuries.

The core tag doesn’t mean that Delle Donne couldn’t realistically sign with another team in the offseason, it just makes it more difficult. Under the core tag, Delle Donne has been offered a one-year, supermax contract by the Mystics. A different deal can still be negotiated with the Mystics.

Delle Donne cannot talk to other teams, unless the Mystics were to give the okay. She can still be traded by the team, although it cannot happen without her agreement.

In September of last year, both sides indicated that the decision about Delle Donne’s future with the team would not be an easy one. Delle Donne, for her part, said she still feels like she has “a lot of really good basketball left in her.”

“I think you always need to take a little bit of time to just kind of reflect and see what your next steps are going to be,” Delle Donne said.

“I just want to win. That’s truly what I care about most. It’s been my whole career, but especially coming back from all the back stuff and feeling like I’m really the strongest I’ve ever been. I’m in great shape. I feel like I have a lot more basketball to play, and I want to win.”

Elena Delle Donne could be on the move.

The two-time WNBA MVP’s contract with the Washington Mystics ended this season, and The Next Hoops has reported that Delle Donne is expected to sign with another team in the offseason.

She’s played for the Mystics since 2017, when she was traded from the Chicago Sky. In that time, she won a WNBA championship with the team and was a four-time WNBA All-Star. But she appeared in just 53 total games of her contract after a back injury kept her limited from 2020 through the 2022 season.

Injuries also caused her to miss time last season, although she still proved to be impactful, averaging 16.7 points and 5.4 rebounds on 48.5 percent shooting.

Both Delle Donne and the Mystics have remained relatively mum about her free agency.

“[Transition] is a word that can be used a little bit,” Mystics head coach Eric Thibault said last September. “I think we have to make a decision about what this is going to look like going forward. And it’s not an easy one.”

“I think the most encouraging thing is that she clearly views herself as having a lot of really good basketball left in her,” Thibault continued. “And that gives me a lot of confidence that that’s true, quite frankly.

Team general manager Mike Thibault also said something similar.

“Any time you have some of your players getting older, whether [Delle Donne] was a free agent or not, we need to make sure that we have other players that we can make focal parts of what we do,” Thibault said. “It can’t just be one player.”

For her part, the seven-time All-Star and two-time WNBA champion has stressed that the most important thing for her at this point in her career is winning.

“I think you always need to take a little bit of time to just kind of reflect and see what your next steps are going to be,” Delle Donne said.

“I just want to win. That’s truly what I care about most. It’s been my whole career, but especially coming back from all the back stuff and feeling like I’m really the strongest I’ve ever been. I’m in great shape. I feel like I have a lot more basketball to play, and I want to win.”

Kristi Toliver is joining the WNBA coaching ranks for the 2024 season as associate head coach for the Phoenix Mercury.

A two-time WNBA champion and three-time All-Star, Toliver played for the Washington Mystics in the 2023 but tore her ACL in September. She has not formally announced her retirement, though her move to the Mercury bench would seem to signal a career transition.

Toliver, 36, brings ample WNBA experience to her new role as an assistant to Mercury head coach Nate Tibbetts, who came to the team with no women’s basketball experience. Tibbetts was hired in October to succeed interim head coach Nikki Blue, who took the helm after Phoenix fired head coach Vanessa Nygaard in June.

In Toliver’s 14 seasons in the WNBA, she played for the Mystics, the Los Angeles Sparks and the Chicago Sky. She won titles with the Mystics in 2019 and with the Sparks in 2016, and she was named the WNBA’s Most Improved Player in 2012.

Toliver also brings coaching experience, as she spent four seasons as an NBA assistant coach. She became the first active WNBA player to do so in 2018, when she joined Scott Brooks’ staff with the Washington Wizards. And then she spent two seasons on Jason Kidd’s staff with the Dallas Mavericks.

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Kristi Toliver spent two years as an assistant coach for the NBA's Dallas Mavericks. (David Dow/NBAE via Getty Images)

The Las Vegas Aces clinched a second consecutive title, winning the battle of the superteams against the New York Liberty in the 2023 WNBA Finals.

The defending WNBA champions, the Aces locked down the No. 1 seed in the playoffs for the second consecutive season. They dominated the Chicago Sky in the first round, then swept the Dallas Wings in the semifinals. The Liberty defeated the Washington Mystics and then the Connecticut Sun to reach the championship series.

The Aces became the first team to win back-to-back titles since the Los Angeles Sparks in 2001 and 2002. The Liberty failed to disrupt their plans, despite entering the playoffs with a 3-2 advantage in the season series against Las Vegas. Both teams entered the playoffs as clear favorites to reach the Finals.

Just Women’s Sports has the full breakdown of the bracket, schedule and results from the Aces’ title run.

2023 WNBA playoffs: Full results

First round

  • (1) Las Vegas Aces eliminated (8) Chicago Sky, 2-0
    • Game 1: Aces 87, Sky 59
    • Game 2: Aces 92, Sky 70
  • (2) New York Liberty eliminated (7) Washington Mystics, 2-0
    • Game 1: Liberty 90, Mystics 75
    • Game 2: Liberty 90, Mystics 85 (OT)
  • (3) Connecticut Sun eliminated (6) Minnesota Lynx, 2-1
    • Game 1: Sun 90, Lynx 60
    • Game 2: Sun 75, Lynx 82
    • Game 3: Sun 90, Lynx 75
  • (4) Dallas Wings eliminated (5) Atlanta Dream, 2-0
    • Game 1: Wings 94, Dream 82
    • Game 2: Wings 101, Dream 74

Semifinals

  • (1) Las Vegas Aces eliminated (4) Dallas Wings, 3-0
    • Game 1: Aces 97, Wings 83
    • Game 2: Aces 91, Wings 84
    • Game 3: Aces 64, Wings 61
  • (2) New York Liberty eliminated (3) Connecticut Sun, 3-1
    • Game 1: Sun 78, Liberty 63
    • Game 2: Liberty 84, Sun 77
    • Game 3: Liberty 92, Sun 81
    • Game 4: Liberty 87, Sun 84

Finals

  • (1) Las Vegas Aces lead (2) New York Liberty, 2-1
    • Game 1: Aces 99, Liberty 82
    • Game 2: Aces 104, Liberty 76
    • Game 3: Liberty 87, Aces 73
    • Game 4: Aces 70, Liberty 69

Free agency is looming large for Elena Delle Donne.

The Washington Mystics were eliminated from the playoffs Tuesday, bringing their 2023 season to an end. And Delle Donne’s time in Washington could be coming to an end as well. Her four-year contract is up, meaning that the Mystics and Delle Donne have choices to make.

“[Transition] is a word that can be used a little bit,” head coach Eric Thibault said Wednesday. “I think we have to make a decision about what this is going to look like going forward. And it’s not an easy one.”

Delle Donne arrived in Washington in 2017, having been traded to the Mystics from the Chicago Sky. She helped the team to a WNBA championship in 2019 and was named league MVP that year. Since then, though, she has struggled with injuries, missing the 2020 season and playing just three games in 2021. She returned to form in 2022, averaging 17.2 points in 25 games. This season, she averaged 16.7 points in 23 games while also dealing with some nagging injuries.

A seven-time All-Star with two WNBA championships under her belt, Delle Donne previously has expressed her interest in staying in Washington. But on Wednesday, her tune was a bit different.

“I think you always need to take a little bit of time to just kind of reflect and see what your next steps are going to be,” Delle Donne said. “I just want to win. That’s truly what I care about most. It’s been my whole career, but especially coming back from all the back stuff and feeling like I’m really the strongest I’ve ever been. I’m in great shape. I feel like I have a lot more basketball to play, and I want to win.”

While this season wasn’t her best, Delle Donne still feels as though she has a lot left to give.

“I think the most encouraging thing is that she clearly views herself as having a lot of really good basketball left in her,” Thibault said. “And that gives me a lot of confidence that that’s true, quite frankly.

“I don’t think it’s fair necessarily to ask her to carry the load she carried when she was 27, 28, 29. But she can still be a big-time player, there’s no doubt about that.”

Even still, it’s time for both the Mystics and Delle Donne to evaluate how they want to move forward.

“I think that’s the discussion we’re having, and I really can’t give you that answer,” general manager Mike Thibault said. “I would say that anytime you have some of your players getting older, whether she was a free agent or not, we need to make sure that we have other players that we can make focal parts of what we do. It can’t just be one player.”

Natasha Cloud may have been talking a lot before the Mystics Game 2 matchup with the Liberty, but she backed it up with a record-breaking performance.

Before the game, Cloud said that Sabrina Ionescu would be in for a “rude awakening” in Game 2. She held Ionescu to just 11 points, a 36.4 percent field goal percentage and just 33.3 percent from three-point range.

“She backed it up,” Mystics coach Eric Thibault said. “It was probably one of the best games of her career.”

“I was going to be a villain and was going to be a dog tonight,” Cloud said postgame. “And I was going to stay on Sabrina for as much as I could. It is what it is. I also want to establish myself. I am a first-team all-defense. I don’t get the credit.”

And for all of the talk, Cloud still holds a lot of respect for Ionescu. The two hugged it out on the court postgame.

“I know I talk s–t, I know I was in Sabrina’s stuff and took a few hard fouls,” she said. “Even though I take that villain role in the game, I have a lot of respect for who Sabrina is, what she is to our league, who she is as a player. Iron sharpens iron, and that’s what I said to her.

“I really do respect her as a player, enough that I had to make her my primary focus in Game 2. But I just wanted to make sure I said that because everyone loves [WNBA] beef. But I talked my s–t and I had to come in and cash that deposit that I made.”

For all of her defensive feats, Cloud was just as good offensively to the point that the Barclays Center crowd cheered her on her way off the court. Her performance caught the eyes of many, including LeBron James.

She had 33 points, six rebounds, nine assists and four steals. In doing so, she became the first player in WNBA playoff history to have 30+ points, 5+ assists, 5+ rebounds and 4+ steals in a game. She also is the first player in WNBA playoffs history to have at least 33 points, nine assists and six rebounds in a game.

Only three other players – Diana Taurasi, Candace Parker and Chelsea Gray – have ever put up those numbers in a WNBA game. And none had more than one steal in those games, which came in the regular season.

“I’ve been in D.C. for eight years,” Cloud said. “This is the only team that looked at me coming out of college. This is the only coaching staff that believed in me. I went through a lot of growing pains throughout my career. To be where I am today, I’m really proud, and I know the young version of myself would be proud.”

The Chicago Sky became the final team to clinch a spot in the 2023 WNBA playoffs on Sept. 8.

With a 92-87 win against the Minnesota Lynx, the Sky join the Lynx, Las Vegas Aces, New York Liberty, Connecticut Sun, Dallas Wings, Washington Mystics and Atlanta Dream in the postseason.

The Aces (32-6) are in the midst of a historic run. On Aug. 1, six weeks before the start of the postseason, they punched their ticket. And they have surpassed the 2014 Phoenix Mercury (29-5) for the most wins in WNBA history.

But Las Vegas has faced a setback in the loss of Candace Parker to a broken foot, an absence felt in the Aces’ 82-63 loss to the Liberty in the Commissioner’s Cup final on Aug. 15. And the Sun are solidifying their spot just behind the superteams as the season reaches the home stretch.

The 2023 WNBA playoffs will begin on Sept. 13, with eight teams qualifying for the postseason and the first-round best-of-three series. Just Women’s Sports is keeping track of which teams have clinched playoff spots — and which teams have been eliminated from contention.

Which teams have clinched WNBA playoff spots?

1. Las Vegas Aces

For the second consecutive year, the Aces are looking to clinch the No. 1 seed in the WNBA playoffs. They booked their ticket to the postseason with a 93-72 win over Atlanta on Aug. 1, led by a 24-point performance by Jackie Young and a 20-point, 11-rebound performance from 2022 MVP A’ja Wilson.

2. New York Liberty

The Liberty secured a playoff spot for the third year in a row following losses by the Minnesota Lynx and Atlanta Dream on Aug. 10. In its 27-year history, New York has reached the postseason 18 times.

3. Connecticut Sun

With a 79-73 win against the Chicago Sky on Aug. 20, the Sun clinched their seventh consecutive trip to the postseason, a franchise record.

4. Dallas Wings

With the help of a 40-point night from Satou Sabally, the Wings clinched their spot in the postseason with a 110-100 win over Indiana on Sept. 1. With the loss, the Fever were eliminated from playoff contention, joining the Storm and the Mercury.

5. Minnesota Lynx

The Lynx clinched their spot in the WNBA playoffs with an 86-73 win over the Mercury on Sept. 3. The accomplishment represents a huge turnaround for a team that started the season 0-6 and missed the playoffs last season.

“When you walked in the gym, you wouldn’t know the team was 0-6,” head coach Cheryl Reeve said. “It was a group that felt like we weren’t that far off. And they believed in themselves, and in each other.

“I just told the group, they deserve this. It’s just a step. We wanted to get back to the playoffs, certainly, after missing last year. But this is a team that’s got a belief in themselves.”

6. Washington Mystics

The Mystics secured their berth with a win over the Mercury on Sept. 5, just two days after the Lynx and with two games to og in the regular season. Washington has struggled with injury all season, but they’ve been heating up as the postseason nears.

“A little bit of relief,” head coach Eric Thibault said about securing a playoff spot. “Now we can just focus on being as good as we can be. We’ve got a couple more games that we want to win, that we want to play better. But, you know, bought ourselves a ticket here. We don’t take these opportunities for granted.”

Of course, now seeding comes into play, with the Mystics having the chance to overtake Minnesota.

“We [kept] saying, ‘Oh, we win, we clinch. Oh, we win, we clinch,’” Mystics guard Brittney Sykes said. “I literally looked at everybody and I was like, ‘Let’s just f—ing win.’ Let’s just win, and then everything else on the back end we can figure out. … Now we can talk about seeding.

“But we still need to win those two damn games because we have a chance to finish out even at the end of the year.”

7. Atlanta Dream

With a win against the Storm on Sept. 6, the Dream secured their first postseason appearance since 2018. Just one player remains from that 2018 squad: forward Monique Billings, who finished with a double-double (14 points, 15 rebounds) in the playoff-clinching win against Seattle.

8. Chicago Sky

With two games remaining in the regular season, the Sky and Sparks had matching 16-22 records, but the Sky hold the tiebreaker. So with Chicago’s win Friday and the Sparks’ loss Thursday, the Sky clinched the final postseason berth with one game to spare.

Which teams have been eliminated from playoff contention?

  • Indiana Fever
  • Los Angeles Sparks
  • Phoenix Mercury
  • Seattle Storm

Natasha Cloud is calling out the inappropriate behavior she experienced from a WNBA fan outside of the Phoenix Mercury’s arena.

Following the Washington Mystics’ 100-77 win, Cloud walked outside the arena and was accosted by a fan. She described the interaction in a series of posts on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.

“I have no issue taking pictures with or signing anything for fans,” Cloud wrote. But what she experienced as she left Footprint Center was “too much.”

The fan “demanded” an autograph, then called out the Mystics guard for the long wait, “as if she was irritated I just played a game,” Cloud wrote. After that, Cloud was “inappropriately grabbed and aggressively spun by that same fan” while taking a photo.

“We are human beings bro. And entitlement and aggressiveness towards us is unacceptable,” Cloud concluded. “I never say no to fans. I don’t want to start to for my own protection. So let’s start showing all of us some respect.”