WNBA playoffs semifinal set for Sunday with Dream–Liberty and Valkyries–Aces Game 1s on ABC and NBC/Peacock

By Vancouver Television Sports Desk

The WNBA announced that the 2026 Semifinals will begin on Sunday, Oct. 4, with a pair of Game 1s in the best-of-five series that follow the completion of the first round. In Atlanta, the Dream will host the Liberty starting at 2 p.m. ET on ABC, and later in the day the Golden State Valkyries will host the Aces at 4 p.m. ET on NBC/Peacock, according to the league’s official semifinal preview.

In the Semifinals matchup between the (2) Golden State Valkyries and the (3) Las Vegas Aces, the league’s preview frames it as an offense-versus-defense contrast shaped by recent postseason history and regular-season head-to-head results. Golden State, in its second season, finished the regular season with the WNBA’s second-best record at 32–12 and will carry home-court advantage through the rest of the postseason. The Valkyries’ home-court strength is highlighted as an 17–5 record at home, and the league also points to Golden State’s first-round run as its first-ever playoff series win, including a Game 3 comeback after being down by 16 against the Dallas Wings.

The Aces entered the Semifinals as the No. 3 seed after closing the regular season with seven straight wins. The WNBA notes that Las Vegas earned its conference matchup after defeating the Indiana Fever in five games in last year’s Semifinals, and that this season’s first-round series against the Fever went the distance again, with the deciding Game 3 in Las Vegas. The league’s preview specifies that Stephanie Talbot was ruled out late in that season-ending game, and that Las Vegas’s “Big Three” of A’ja Wilson, Jackie Young and Chelsea Gray carried the offense, with Young and Gray playing all 40 minutes in the series-deciding win and Wilson playing 37 minutes despite foul trouble.

The league’s semifinal preview also underscores that the Aces and Valkyries met three times in the regular season and that Las Vegas swept the series 3–0. It adds that although the Aces are described as having averaged the fifth-most points in a season in WNBA history and as having faced the WNBA’s top-ranked defense, the one notable outlier versus Golden State’s regular-season defense was Las Vegas’s ability to score, which the league lists as a league-high 89.0 points per game against the Valkyries this season. The preview likewise describes Golden State as needing to avoid a shootout centered on limiting Wilson and Young, citing their combined production and shooting in the three meetings earlier this year.

In the other Semifinals matchup, the (4) Atlanta Dream will face the (8) New York Liberty, again in a best-of-five series. The WNBA notes that Atlanta entered the playoffs as the No. 4 seed after winning nine of its last 10 regular-season games to match a franchise record 30–14 mark. The league also points to the Dream’s first-round sweep, describing how Atlanta overcame a slow start in Game 1, used a dominant second half to turn things around, and never trailed in Game 2 to reach the Semifinals for the first time since 2018.

For New York, the league’s preview describes the Liberty as finishing the regular season as the No. 8 seed after a late-season shift: the team entered the final two games tied for sixth, dropped two straight to Atlanta to close out the schedule, and then drew Minnesota as the top seed in the first round. The WNBA’s semifinal primer highlights that New York responded by sweeping the Lynx, while also naming Breanna Stewart’s two-way impact across the series, including points, rebounds, assists, steals and blocks as provided by the league in its preview. The league frames the Liberty as having carried momentum into the semifinals after the unexpected outcome of that first-round upset.

The WNBA’s preview also situates the Dream–Liberty matchup in postseason history and player movement. It says the teams met in the 2024 Playoffs first round, when the Liberty swept the Dream, a run the league connects to New York’s path to its first WNBA title. For the 2026 matchup, the preview identifies Angel Reese’s arrival in Atlanta and veteran DeWanna Bonner’s presence as major differences from 2024, while also describing postseason experience as an area where the Liberty hold an edge, referencing back-to-back Finals runs in 2023 and 2024.

With the Semifinals set to begin Sunday, the WNBA’s scheduled Game 1s mark the start of two simultaneous best-of-five series featuring teams seeded (2) through (4) against (3) and (8). The league’s preview emphasizes that home-court is a central storyline in both matchups, but the immediate next step is straightforward: Game 1 tips in Atlanta at 2 p.m. ET on ABC, followed by Game 1 in Golden State at 4 p.m. ET on NBC/Peacock.