Ahead of the 2021 WNBA season, the league announced a number of new initiatives, including a brand new in-season competition called the Commissioner's Cup. Select regular season games in the first half of the season counted towards Cup standings, and two teams from each conference with the best records in those games would meet in the championship in August with prize pool of $500,000 up for grabs.
Now, with the Olympics over, it's time to restart the WNBA season and put the money on the line. The Seattle Storm will meet the Connecticut Sun in the Commissioner's Cup championship on Aug. 12 in Phoenix. A few days later, the regular season will resume on Aug. 15.
Ahead of the big game, here's everything you need to know:
How to watch Storm vs. Sun
Date: Thursday, Aug. 12 | Time: 9 p.m. ET
Location: Footprint Center -- Phoenix, Arizona
TV: None | Live stream: Amazon Prime Video
Final Commissioner's Cup standings:
Eastern Conference
- Connecticut Sun: 9-1
- Chicago Sky: 6-4
- New York Liberty: 5-5
- Atlanta Dream: 4-6
- Washington Mystics: 4-6
- Indiana Fever: 2-8
Western Conference
- Seattle Storm: 8-2
- Minnesota Lynx: 7-3
- Las Vegas Aces: 6-4
- Phoenix Mercury: 5-5
- Dallas Wings: 3-7
- Los Angeles Sparks: 1-9
Storylines
Seattle: The Storm have won two of the last three WNBA championships, and will now have a chance to add another trophy to their collection. Despite some offseason changes that were expected to weaken the squad, they picked up right where they left off in the bubble and enter the second half of the season with the best record in the league. Breanna Stewart, Jewell Loyd and Sue Bird, all of whom just won gold in Tokyo, have made sure that standards did not slip in Seattle.
Connecticut: Despite playing without Alyssa Thomas, who tore her Achilles tendon during the offseason, the Sun are right in the mix for a top-two seed. As the second half begins, they sit at 14-6, just 1.5 games behind the Storm for first. That's thanks almost entirely to Jonquel Jones, who is the leading MVP candidate. She's putting up 21 points, 11.1 rebounds, 3.1 assists and 1.5 steals per game and the Sun are 12-3 with her in the lineup.
Prediction
The Storm won both regular season meetings between these teams so far, one by three points and one by 23 points. You can probably guess which game Jones was playing in for the Sun. There's no line out yet for this game, but the spread should be small considering the two teams are pretty evenly matched and are elite on both sides of the ball. This is a tough one to call, especially with the Storm's big three having just returned from Tokyo, but we'll ride with Stewart and Co.
