WNBA playoff race heating up post-Olympics break

The GIST: Today marks exactly one month until the end of the WNBA regular season, and the playoff push is just heating up, after fiery games dominated the weekend slate ahead of tomorrow’s trade deadline. Ball so hard.

NY Liberty clinch the season’s first playoff berth: The Libs are postseason bound for the fourth consecutive year after locking in one of eight playoff spots with Saturday’s 79–67 win over the two-time defending champ Las Vegas Aces.

• The top of the league seafoam stars have been glowing thanks to standout play from Sabrina Ionescu and Jonquel Jones, with Ionescu dropping a team-high 23 points in their win over the Aces, while Jones contributed a double-double.

Cailtlin Clark–led Indiana Fever surging: All-Star rookie Clark proved she really is that girl with back-to-back standout performances in the Fever’s two weekend wins.

• First, she scored 29 points in Indy’s 98–89 Friday win over the Phoenix Mercury, then broke the league rookie assist record yesterday in her squad’s impressive 92–75 victory against the Seattle Storm. We see you, C-squared.

Connecticut Sun sell out first-ever women’s pro basketball game at Boston’s TD Garden: The second-place team in the W sold 19,156 tickets to tomorrow’s 7 p.m. ET game against the LA Sparks, which will be played at the Boston Celtics’ home venue in front of the biggest crowd in franchise history. A historic day in the Hub.