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WNBA Finals matchups

Most Common WNBA Finals Matchups of All Time

The WNBA is a relatively young league, and there haven’t been tons of WNBA Finals matchups that have repeated themselves. But there are some that have, and they’ve created the most common WNBA Finals matchups of all time.

The 2021 WNBA Finals will be the 25th in the league’s history, and not many of the first 24 have been repeat pairings of the past. But some have, especially if you look back at the earliest days of the W.


Most Common WNBA Finals Matchups of All Time

The most common WNBA Finals matchup ever is Houston Comets/New York Liberty. In the first four years of the league, these two teams played in three WNBA Finals against one another (1997, 1999, 2000), and that remains the most common matchup. Unfortunately for the Liberty, the series never went their way as the Comets built the WNBA’s first and most dominant dynasty.

Only a few other pairings have happened more than once since the WNBA began in 1997, all involving the Lynx: Minnesota Lynx/Atlanta Dream (2011, 2013), Indiana Fever/Minnesota Lynx (2012, 2015), and Los Angeles Sparks/Minnesota Lynx (2016, 2017). Otherwise, every other WNBA Finals matchup has been unique.

How Many Different WNBA Finals Matchups Have Happened?

There have been 19 different WNBA Finals matchups in the league’s history. These are the pairings that have happened only once:

Houston Comets/Phoenix Mercury (1998)

Los Angeles Sparks/Charlotte Sting (2001)

Los Angeles Sparks/New York Liberty (2002)

Detroit Shock/Los Angeles Sparks (2003)

Seattle Storm/Connecticut Sun (2004)

Sacramento Monarchs/Connecticut Sun (2005)

Detroit Shock/Sacramento Monarchs (2006)

Phoenix Mercury/Detroit Shock (2007)

Detroit Shock/San Antonio Silver Stars (2008)

Phoenix Mercury/Indiana Fever (2009)

Seattle Storm/Atlanta Dream (2010)

Phoenix Mercury/Chicago Sky (2014)

Seattle Storm/Washington Mystics (2018)

Washington Mystics/Connecticut Sun (2019)

Seattle Storm/Las Vegas Aces (2020)

Most Common NBA Finals Matchups

Check out our similar breakdown of the NBA Finals matchups history.

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