The Minnesota Lynx are the No. 1 seed for the 2026 WNBA playoffs — and they clinched it while losing by 19 points. Minnesota fell 96-77 to the Indiana Fever on Tuesday night, trailing by as many as 29 in the first half, but still walked away with the top overall seed and home-court advantage throughout the postseason after the Golden State Valkyries collapsed in overtime against the Portland Fire in a separate game that same evening.

The Valkyries had opened that game on a 17-0 run, but Portland stormed back, and Carla Leite buried the go-ahead basket in overtime before adding a three-point play to seal a 90-82 win, snapping Golden State's winning streak and eliminating the expansion franchise's chance of catching Minnesota for the top spot.

Reeve chose rest over a meaningless win

What made Minnesota's clinch unusual was how little the Lynx fought for it. With the No. 1 seed already realistically secure and the playoffs opening Sunday, coach Cheryl Reeve benched her entire starting lineup for the second half against Indiana rather than risk injury in a game that carried no playoff stakes for her team.

"I'm old enough to know that chasing wins is a really bad idea. You're playing every other day; you start [playoffs] on Sunday. And that's really, at this point, what it's about," Reeve said.

Minnesota finished the regular season with the best record in the WNBA, powered by MVP-caliber forward Napheesa Collier — who returned in July after offseason ankle surgery — alongside free-agent addition Natasha Howard, who earned her first All-Star selection since 2022, and rookie guard Olivia Miles, the No. 2 overall pick who is widely expected to be a unanimous Rookie of the Year. The Lynx strung together winning streaks of eight and ten games this season, the latter the longest by any team in the league in 2026, and have held first place outright since mid-July.

Thursday marks the final day of the regular season, with the No. 2, 3, 5 and 6 seeds still being sorted out across a five-game slate involving the Valkyries, Las Vegas Aces, Indiana Fever and Washington Mystics. What's already locked in, according to league standings and playoff-tracker reporting, is Minnesota's top seed, Atlanta's No. 4 seed and a first-round meeting between the Lynx and the No. 8 New York Liberty — a rematch of the 2024 WNBA Finals, which Minnesota lost in five games.

Reaction around the league has centered on Minnesota's depth: even playing what amounted to a JV lineup for two full quarters against Indiana, the Lynx's bench mounted a brief rally before the final buzzer, evidence teams point to when explaining why Minnesota enters the postseason as the sportsbook favorite to win it all.

The playoffs tip off Sunday, September 27, with the Lynx hosting the Liberty in Game 1 at Target Center. Minnesota will carry home-court advantage through every round it survives, giving Reeve's club the cushion to keep resting starters and managing bodies right up until the games actually start to count.