The WNBA standings tell one story, the tape and advanced statistics sometimes another.

We dug into all of it this week to make sense of the increasingly competitive middle tier and the teams that might be under- or over-performing. Here is where we landed on every team over a quarter of the way through the season.

12. Indiana Fever (1-11) —

The Fever play a heavy post game, with 41.7 percent of their points per game coming in the paint. The problem is they’re not finishing those shots efficiently enough — they are eighth in the WNBA with 31.3 paint points per game — and their offense is predictable for opponents.

11. Los Angeles Sparks (4-5) -2

The Sparks’ wins this season have come against the last-place Fever and the Sky without Candace Parker. They rank last in the league in offensive rating, scoring just 74.2 points per game, and will be without Nneka Ogwumike until the first week of July at the earliest.

10. Chicago Sky (4-7) +1

I’m taking the Sky’s back-to-back wins over the Fever with a grain of salt, but Candace Parker rounding into form with a double-double in her second game back is promising for Chicago. Taking care of the ball continues to be a problem, with opponents scoring 18.2 points per game off of Chicago turnovers.

9. Washington Mystics (4-6) +1

When Tina Charles scores 20 or more points in a game, the Mystics usually put themselves in a position to win. But for how long can Washington rely on their center? Charles is leading the league in points per game with 24 as well as in usage percentage, with the Mystics running 32.1 percent of their plays through her.

8. Atlanta Dream (5-6) -1

When the Dream’s offense is on, they’re a hard team to beat. Excluding their win over the Fever, when the Dream have reached the 90-point threshold in a game, they’ve won. When they haven’t, they’ve lost. It’s the inconsistency that raises concerns at this point in the season.

7. Phoenix Mercury (5-6) -3

All of the Mercury’s losses this season — except a drubbing by the Sun on May 21 — have come by single digits. They’re playing teams close and are just a few late baskets away from having a winning record. Their biggest problem is their bench not getting it done, currently last in the league with 11.6 points per game.

6. Minnesota Lynx (4-5) -1

That the Lynx have won four games given all of their roster turnover is a testament to coach Cheryl Reeve. She’ll have to go back to the drawing board again now that both Aerial Powers and Natalie Achonwa are out indefinitely with injuries. I’m not counting her out from finding an answer.

5. New York Liberty (6-4) +3

The Liberty are dealing with injuries to Natasha Howard and Sabrina Ionescu but continue to battle against good teams, mostly due to Betnijah Laney’s MVP-like start to the season. As long as the Liberty are connecting on their league-leading attempts from 3 (currently 40.2 percent), they’ll give themselves a chance.

4. Dallas Wings (5-6) +2

Welcome to another edition of “the Wings are better than their record shows.” They’re fourth in the league in offensive rating — behind only the Sun, Aces and Storm — and their bench is scoring a WNBA-leading 26.3 points per game. This is a deep team that’s only getting better as returning players acclimate to the system.

3. Connecticut Sun (8-3) -1

The Sun’s loss to the Storm on Sunday gave us a taste of what life will be like for Connecticut until Jonquel Jones returns from her EuroBasket commitments. For a team at the top of the league standings, the Sun surprisingly have the second-least productive bench. That could hurt them during this stint without Jones and down the stretch.

2. Las Vegas Aces (8-3) +1

The Aces are getting it done with their post players, scoring a league-leading 39.6 points per game in the paint. That dominance down low is also translating to defense, where they hold opponents to just 30.7 points per game in the paint. Not many teams can compete with that.

1. Seattle Storm (10-2) —

Unlike the Aces, the Storm are giving up the majority of their points in the paint. That doesn’t matter as much when you’re leading the league in offensive rating and 3-point percentage at 40.8 percent.

The grass court chaos of Wimbledon didn't disappoint this week, as the unpredictable surface claimed more than one surprise victim in the 2025 Grand Slam's first round.

A full 10 of the London tournament's 32 seeded players fell in the competition's first round, including four of the WTA's Top 10: World No. 2 Coco Gauff, No. 3 Jessica Pegula, No. 6 Qinwen Zheng, and No. 9 Paula Badosa.

"I should just play no tournaments, get no wins, then roll into Wimbledon, and maybe I'll have better results," US star Pegula joked after her two-set Tuesday loss to Italy's No. 116 Elisabetta Cocciaretto, referencing her recent wins.

Gauff's short Wimbledon outing also represented a new challenge for the 21-year-old standout, as the top-ranked US tennis player struggled to bounce back after winning the 2025 French Open last month.

"I feel like mentally I was a little bit overwhelmed with everything that came afterwards," Gauff told ESPN. "So I didn’t feel like I had enough time to celebrate and also get back into it."

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Just Women’s Sports (@justwomenssports)

The upsets continued as Wimbledon entered its second round on Wednesday morning, claiming several more seeded players like world No. 5 Jasmine Paolini and No. 15 Diana Shnaider, though both No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka and unseeded fan favorite Naomi Osaka cruised into the Slam's third round on two-set wins.

No. 8 Madison Keys now leads the US contingent, with fellow US contender No. 12 Amanda Anisimova joining the 2025 Australian Open champion in snagging their own two-set, second-round victories on Wednesday.

How to watch the 2025 Wimbledon Championships

Second-round play at the 2025 Wimbledon women's singles tournament continues on Thursday, as seven US players — including No. 10 Emma Navarro and No. 28 Sofia Kenin — look to advance to the competition's third round.

Live continuous coverage of the London Grand Slam airs on ESPN.

The world No. 1 USWNT will close out their summer international break against a familiar foe on Wednesday night, facing North American rival No. 8 Canada for the first time this year.

"It's never friendly, you know? It's always like a final," US midfielder Sam Coffey told media earlier this week. "We all know each other super well."

"I'm really excited to be a part of it again for our younger, newer players," she continued. "I think it's going to be a huge learning opportunity on what representing this crest means."

The Northern neighbors are the USWNT's most frequent opponent, with the US entering the pair's 67th meeting with a 53-4-9 all-time record against Canada.

Wednesday's matchup will also mark Canada's first US clash under new head coach Casey Stoney, who joined the team in January following her abrupt June 2024 dismissal by the NWSL's San Diego Wave FC.

As for US boss Emma Hayes, she'll be looking for yet another refreshed set of starters on Wednesday after swapping out all 11 players between the team's two friendlies against Ireland last week.

"It's a testament to players and staff alike that we can rotate to different groups like we did last game, and everybody's understanding [the tactics] to varying degrees," Hayes said on Tuesday.

With months to go before the next USWNT camp in October, Wednesday's showdown serves as the last chance for bubble players to prove their worth, all while the team aims to cap the summer window with a big win over their longtime rivals.

How to watch the USWNT vs. Canada on Wednesday

The USWNT will cap their three-friendly summer break against Canada at 7:30 PM ET in Washington, DC.

Live coverage of the clash will air on TNT.

The Indiana Fever lifted their first trophy since 2012 on Tuesday night, winning the 2025 WNBA Commissioner's Cup with a 74-59 upset victory over reigning Cup champs Minnesota — all while injured star guard Caitlin Clark watched from the sidelines.

To snag the win, Indiana leaned on balanced scoring, with forward Natasha Howard's 16-point, 12-rebound double-double leading the Fever's five double-digit shooters.

At the same time, the Fever employed a shutdown defense, limiting the Lynx to their lowest point total of the season.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Just Women’s Sports (@justwomenssports)

Beyond the $500,000 payout, Tuesday's win gives the 8-8 Fever a momentum boost as the team continues contending with both high-profile departures and the limited availability of their floor general.

"We have a resilient group, you know?" Indiana head coach Stephanie White said after the game. "They're tough, mentally and physically, they pull for one another. I'm just really proud."

"It felt good to get a win under gut-check circumstances," echoed guard Kelsey Mitchell. "To have so much going on and still stay consistently for each other, it was beautiful. It felt really amazing."

As for the league-leading Lynx, the Commissioner's Cup loss won't impact Minnesota's regular-season WNBA standings — and they’ll hope to build on the learnings from last night's ego blow.

Minnesota also has a bit of history one their side, as the last two Commissioner's Cup runners-up went on to win the WNBA Championship in the same year.

"We have to take this game to heart and learn from the mistakes we made, the way we showed up, the way we prepared, and make sure we don't do it again," said Lynx center Alanna Smith.

How to watch the Indiana Fever, Minnesota Lynx this week

Neither 2025 Commissioner's Cup contender will have much time to reflect on Tuesday's game, as both Indiana and Minnesota will dive back into regular-season WNBA play on Thursday.

The Fever will host the Las Vegas Aces at 7 PM ET, airing on Prime, before the Washington Mystics visit the Lynx at 8 PM ET, with live coverage on WNBA League Pass.

Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham turned heads on Tuesday, criticizing the latest WNBA expansion plans in light of ongoing WNBPA CBA negotiations.

Cunningham drew ire from some fans after expressing skepticism about the WNBA awarding expansion teams to Detroit and Cleveland over other possible cities, while also suggesting that the league might be growing too quickly.

"You want to listen to your players, too. Where do they want to play?" she told reporters ahead of Indiana's Commissioner's Cup win. "I'm not so sure what the thought process is there, but at the end of the day, you want to make sure that you're not expanding our league too fast."

"It's kind of a hard decision-making situation. But man, I don't know how excited people are to be going to Detroit or [Cleveland]."

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Just Women’s Sports (@justwomenssports)

Elsewhere, Phoenix Mercury forward Satou Sabally also voiced her expansion concerns on Tuesday, calling on the WNBA to keep player support at the forefront when adding expansion teams.

"We really have to put an emphasis on the players that are in our league right now," she told reporters. "Maybe focus on the teams that find excuses continuously to lack investment in their players before we focus on adding more to the grain of people that can't really be sustained."