The Las Vegas Aces meet the Untouched York Self government in Tuesday’s Commissioner’s Cup championship (9 p.m. ET), a matchup many be expecting to be a preview of the WNBA Finals. The groups are 1-2 within the WNBA standings and can meet two times this hour at Las Vegas’ Michelob Extremely Area, first for the Cup and next in a regular-season recreation Thursday.i

However what does the Commissioner’s Cup, which started in 2021, in reality heartless to WNBA avid gamers?

“It’s still very new,” mentioned ahead A’ja Wilson, whose Aces received the Cup ultimate past. “Even when it comes to Cup games throughout the season, for me it doesn’t register until the end.”

Probably the most important side of the Cup, in fact, is chilly, parched money. The overall has a prize lake of $500,000 for the avid gamers — the successful staff’s avid gamers obtain $30,000 each and every and the shedding staff’s avid gamers get $10,000 — with no less than $165,000 in charitable donations made by and for all 12 groups during this season layout. The Aces play games for the Nationwide Alliance on Psychological Infection of Southern Nevada, and the Self government for the Callen-Lorde Nation Condition Middle, which supplies services and products for Untouched York’s LGBTQIA+ people.

“What I think it means to us is really a game to win some money,” Untouched York ahead Breanna Stewart mentioned later a victory Sunday, “and continue to build chemistry at the same time. It’s a big game, but we couldn’t focus on it until now. And we’ll focus on it for the next few days, try to go win some money.”

Wilson seconded that: “It’s an honor to play in it, because it’s an opportunity to win some money and raise money for our charities.”

Cathy Engelbert, the commissioner who presented the Cup, wouldn’t be disillusioned to understand how much cash is a motivation. She presented the development for this reason — to provide the avid gamers some other alternative to earn extra — and broadcasting the Cup championship recreation could also be key to the WNBA’s Amazon High tv do business in.

This past, the Commissioner’s Cup within the WNBA will probably be adopted via the NBA Cup. It’s a unused in-season match founding in 2023-24, with the NBA divided into six five-team teams. It’s an concept that have been floating across the NBA for a number of years sooner than coming to fruition.

Aces lecturer Becky Hammon, who spent 8 years as an workman with the San Antonio Spurs and was once inducted into the Basketball Corridor of Reputation this age weekend, mentioned she’s no longer positive how the NBA avid gamers will react to their Cup tournament.

“Overseas, they’ve been doing this a long time,” Hammon mentioned of in-season cup competitions for males’s and ladies’s leagues. “Most people have bonuses written into their contracts overseas for those games.

“I like that the avid gamers get an difference bite of cash, and particularly in our league, that’s a weighty do business in. Within the males’s league … what incentivizes those guys to travel out and play games? They assemble a dozen of cash; that’s already there. So how will you assemble it that a lot more fascinating? I’ll be curious to peer the way it performs out.”

With the WNBA’s 40-game regular season only half as long as the NBA’s (82), a separate in-season tournament isn’t practical. Instead, the Cup competition is incorporated into the WNBA’s season, adding the final as an extra game.

All WNBA teams have 10 regular-season games against others from their conference designated as “Commissioner’s Cup video games,” with the top teams in the Eastern and Western conferences then facing off in the final. It’s a way to bring back some semblance of East vs. West rivalry. That used to be how the league’s standings and playoffs were divided, but in 2016 the playoffs moved to the top eight teams being seeded for the postseason, regardless of conference.

In 2021, the Cup final was held at a predetermined site — Phoenix — and the Seattle Storm beat the Connecticut Sun 79-57 for the title soon after the Summer Olympics ended. Last year, the game was moved to the site of the contestant with the best overall record, the Chicago Sky, and the Aces won 93-83. That ended up being a predictor of both the WNBA title, which Las Vegas won over Connecticut, and the Finals MVP, as Chelsea Gray won the honor in the Cup championship game, too.

This year, Las Vegas went 9-1 in Commissioner’s Cup play, easily winning the West. New York and Connecticut both went 7-3 in the East, but the Liberty were 2-0 against the Sun to get the tiebreaker.

The Aces and Liberty have split their two meetings in 2023. The Aces won 98-81 in Las Vegas on June 29, and the Liberty won 99-61 on Aug. 6 in New York. Along with the two games this week, they play once more, on Aug. 28 in New York.

“It’s about techniques,” New York guard Courtney Vandersloot said of the multiple games against the Aces in August. “It’s about making changes from Recreation 1 to Recreation 2 to Recreation 3. We will be able to’t simply be expecting the similar recreation plan that helped us in Recreation 2 beat them in Recreation 3. They’re simply too just right.”

Vandersloot has played extensively overseas, including in some in-season cup competitions. And she played for the Sky in last year’s Commissioner’s Cup final. She likened these types of games to being somewhat like an early-round playoff game.

“It’s competitive, you know you’re playing for something, but there’s not quite the pressure of a Finals series,” Vandersloot mentioned. “But you are going into this game with much more focus than, I would say, a regular game. I don’t know if that’s the Commissioner’s Cup as much as playing another best team. This is one of our goals; it’s a good stepping stone for us.”

The Aces mentioned it was once superb successful the Commissioner’s Cup identify ultimate past, however clearly no longer the endmost function. They went on to reach that with a 3-1 WNBA Finals victory. In the meantime, the Self government are nonetheless on the lookout for their first championship relationship to the league’s get started in 1997.

Untouched York ahead Jonquel Jones mentioned when media individuals first requested what it could heartless to deliver the Commissioner’s Cup “hardware” to the Self government, it didn’t sign up together with her how weighty that will be. Later some idea, it accident her.

“It kind of put it into perspective a little bit more,” mentioned Jones, who was once with the Solar after they misplaced within the 2021 Commissioner’s Cup ultimate. “I think that would be cool to have that first here in a New York Liberty jersey.”