The playoff picture is at last set in the WNBA with the playing of the final regular season games. On Friday August 26, the Washington Mystics lost to the Connecticut Sun, eliminating Washington from the playoffs and rendering Saturday's game between Washington and the Detroit Shock irrelevant as far as playoff contention. In other words the Shock were in regardless of whether they won or lost to the Mystics. Four of Detroit's starters saw no action in this game (Cheryl Ford, Swin Cash, Deanna Nolan, and Ruth Riley) and the other current starter (Katie Smith) only played sparingly. Perhaps not surprisingly, the Shock's reserves were not quite able to get the job done and so Detroit heads to the postseason with a losing record of 16-18. Of course, if not for their chronic inconsistency, they could and should have had a much better record and seeding for the playoffs.

As it is, Detroit will face East regular season champ Connecticut in the opening round. The Shock, for all their struggles in 2005, did well against the Sun with three wins in four games. I will go with the regular season trend and my heart here and pick the Shock to win in three.

In the other East opening round series I'll go with Indiana over New York, also in three games.

In the West, the old guard Los Angeles Sparks are in the unfamiliar role of underdog against the West regular season champion Sacramento Monarchs. I think this one will also go the full three games with Sacto coming out on top.

The 2004 champion Seattle Storm face off against a solid and perennially tough Houston Comets team. The teams split their four regular season games and I see this one being just as close...the slight underdog Comets will win in three.

I will make predictions for the next round when the first round is over.