The New York Liberty will begin the 2024 WNBA season on the road against the Washington Mystics on May 14, the league announced Monday.
The WNBA will kick off the 2024 season with three other matchups following the Liberty-Mystics opener: Indiana Fever at Connecticut Sun, Phoenix Mercury at Las Vegas Aces and Minnesota Lynx at Seattle Storm. Following their opener against the Mystics, Breanna Stewart and her team will hit the road one more time before getting their first homestand of the season: May 16 at Indiana Fever, May 18 vs. Indiana Fever, May 20 vs. Seattle Storm, May 23 vs. Chicago Sky and May 25 vs. Minnesota Lynx.
All teams will be in action on the final day of the regular season on Sept. 19. On that day, the Libs will host the Atlanta Dream.
Each team will play 40 regular-season games, similarly to last season’s record number of games. All-Star Weekend, which will take place in Phoenix, is scheduled for July 19-20, directly followed by a mid-season break for the Paris Summer Olympics until Aug. 15.
The Libs, who defeated the Las Vegas Aces in last season’s Commissioner’s Cup Final, will look to qualify for the final game when it takes place on June 25 at the arena of the team with the best record in Cup play.
After three seasons of the inaugural Commissioner’s Cup, the league announced changes in the tournament format for the upcoming season. Each team will now play five total Commissioner’s Cup games, one against each team in the same conference. For the Libs, the five matchups will be against the Sky, Fever, Dream, Mystics and Sun. This new format differs from the 10 games the Liberty played against in-conference opponents in 2023.
In 2024, all Cup games will be played in a two-week period form June 1-13. The Liberty’s first Commissioner’s Cup game will take place on June 2 against the Fever at Barclays Center. The team will then take on the Sky on June 4 (away), the Dream on June 6 (away), the Sun on June 8 (away) and the Mystics on June 9 (home). All Cup games will be part of the team’s 40-game schedule and will count toward the team’s regular-season win-loss record.
OTHER NOTES
The Libs’ regular-season schedule will feature three matchups against the Aces. The first matchup between the two teams will be a matinee game at Michelob Ultra Arena on June 15. The Aces will host the Libs again on Aug. 17 before the defending champions will visit Barclays Center on Sept. 8.
The Liberty and Aces met five times before the WNBA Finals last season, including the 2023 Commissioner’s Cup Game. Sandy Brondello’s squad won three of those matchups, but eventually fell, 3-1, in the 2023 WNBA Finals.
