2021 WNBA playoffs

The 2021 WNBA playoffs was the postseason tournament of the WNBA's 2021 season. The Chicago Sky won their first WNBA championship.

Following the WNBA regular season, the top eight teams in the overall league standings, without regard to conference alignment, qualified for the playoffs and were seeded from one to eight. Seedings were based strictly on regular-season record. The team with the best record received the #1 seed, the team with the next best record received the #2 seed, and so on. The top two seeds earned double byes (i.e., advanced directly to the semifinals), while the next two seeds received first-round byes.

These seedings were used to create a bracket that determines the matchups throughout the playoffs. The first round of the playoffs consisted of two matchups based on the seedings (5-8 and 6-7). The two winners advanced to the second round with a matchup between the number three seed and the lower of the advancing seeds and another matchup between the number four seed and the other first round winner. The winners of the first two rounds advanced to the semifinals, where the lower-ranked seed of the winners faces the number one seed, with the other remaining team facing the number two seed.

All playoff games were broadcast on the ESPN family of networks, with games being shown on ABC and ESPN2.

^{[note 1]}New York earned the eight seed by virtue of winning the first tiebreaker over Washington and Los Angeles. New York was 3–2 in games between the three teams, while Washington was 3–3 and Los Angeles was 2–3.

With their 12–20 record, the Liberty had the worst regular season winning percentage of any playoff team in WNBA history.

For the fifth straight year, five teams from the Western Conference qualified for the playoffs, while only three from the Eastern Conference qualified. New York returns to the WNBA Playoffs for the first time since 2017, while Dallas returns for the first time since 2018.

Note: Teams re-seeded after each round.