WNBA Commissioner's Cup Championship: What is it, when and how to watch/live stream
The WNBA is set to return tonight from its Olympic break with the inaugural Commissioner's Cup championship game between the Seattle Storm and the Connecticut Sun.
The Commissioner's Cup is a new in-season tournament that the WNBA launched this season as part of its 25th anniversary celebration. Throughout the league's games prior to the Olympic break, 10 contests per team were designated as Commissioner's Cup games. The two teams with the highest winning percentage across those games face off for the championship and a $500,000 prize fund.
The Storm and the Sun are both ranked No. 1 in their respective conferences, and the Storm have won both times the teams faced off earlier in the season. However, the Sun have a major advantage coming into the Commissioner's Cup championship.
The Sun's entire roster was in the U.S. during the Olympic break practicing as a unit. The Storm, on the other hand, had five players in competing in Tokyo — with three helping Team USA win its seventh consecutive gold medal in women's basketball. Katie Lou Samuelson, who was supposed to compete on the U.S. 3x3 team in Tokyo, also missed significant training time after she contracted COVID-19.
Breanna Stewart averaged more than 30 minutes per game at the Olympics, and Sue Bird told reporters she felt tired after the gold-medal game. Jewell Loyd, Bird and Stewart have had only a handful of practices since returning to readjust to playing with the Storm, and it could be the opening that Jonquel Jones and the Sun need to dethrone the reigning league champions with half a million dollars on the line.
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When does the game tip off?
The first-ever Commissioner's Cup championship game will begin at 9 p.m. ET.
Where is it being played?
The championship is hosted at a neutral site, the Footprint Center in Phoenix. Fans will be in attendance, which will be a change for the athletes who competed in largely empty arenas at the Tokyo Olympics.
How to watch
The game is not available to watch on television. It will be live streamed on Amazon Prime Video.
Contact Emily Adams at eaadams@gannett.com or on Twitter @eaadams6.