The WNBA is undoubtedly bigger than ever before. With viewership numbers increasing year-upon-year, the league has acted accordingly and has plans to integrate an additional four brand new teams beginning in the 2026 season through to 2030. Clark and Reese are viewed as the faces of the WNBAGettyBut with superstar Caitlin Clark ruled out of the Indiana Fever‘s cinderella postseason campaign with injury, and Angel Reese‘s Chicago Sky having a woeful campaign which saw them fail to even come close to playoff contention, there seemed to be questions that need to be answered over how the WNBA can maintain – and boost – fan engagement without the pair. However, these questions were swiftly answered as the WNBA announced that it had set a new attendance record, with 2.5 million fans attending games featuring the 13 teams in action.This included the Golden State Valkyries who, in their inaugural season, sold out all of their home games at the Chase Center, which is also home to the NBA franchise Golden State Warriors, as they made history by becoming the first ever expansion team to clinch a postseason berth, doing so under Coach of the Year Natalie Nakase.Furthermore, ESPN reported that its network experienced the most-watched regular season in WNBA history with their 25 broadcasted games averaging 1.3 million viewers – a six percent increase from last season.But with only four teams remaining to battle it out to become the 2025 WNBA Champions – the Las Vegas Aces, Minnesota Lynx, Phoenix Mercury, and the biggest surprise of all in the Fever – these are the three names who are keeping the WNBA very much alive with the absence – at least on the hardwood – of Caitlin Clark.A’ja Wilson is ‘poetry is motion’There is simply no player in the WNBA who has been as dominant as Wilson has since she entered the league as a rookie out of her home state South Carolina in 2018.Wilson made history on Sunday as the first player in league history to be named the WNBA MVP on four occasions, adding to her co-Defensive Player of the Year award she picked up – the third of her career – following yet another remarkable individual campaign. A’ja Wilson made history by becoming the first WNBA star to win the MVP award four timesGettyThe 29-year-old center led the WNBA in points and blocks per game, while she became the first player to average 20 points and 10 rebounds in multiple seasons, having also done so in 2024. The Aces star finished the 2025 campaign having averaged 23.4 points shooting at a 50.5 percent clip from the field, 10.2 rebounds, 3.1 assists, 1.6 steals and 2.3 blocks. She was simply everywhere on the court, and with her box office performances, she almost single-handedly willed Las Vegas from a 14-14 start to a 30-14 record and to second in the Western Conference standings trailing only Minnesota. “By the time it’s all said and done, she will be the greatest to ever do it,” Aces head coach Becky Hammon told ESPN’s Michael Voepel. “Four [MVPs] already says she is. In a league that has continued to get much better, she keeps getting better.“You’re watching poetry in motion. You’re watching history. And she’s just 29 years old. She could win four more of these by the time she is finished.”There is still an argument to be made that Wilson, a seven-time All-Star, is very much the face of the league despite the WNBA’s surge in popularity since the arrival of Clark in 2024. And, if the Aces are to reach – and perhaps even win – their third WNBA title in four seasons, then Wilson will be pivotal to helping Las Vegas do just that.The ‘unguardable’ Napheesa CollierLynx superstar Collier should perhaps feel slightly aggrieved that Wilson pipped her to the MVP award having been the front runner for much of the 2025 season.However, this season the battle was a much-closer affair to that of Wilson’s unanimous win in 2024. Collier spearheaded the Minnesota Lynx to a WNBA-leading 34-10 recordGettyCollier has finished as MVP runner up to Wilson in the last two seasonsGettyBut the five-time All-Star’s MVP bid perhaps ended when she suffered an ankle sprain against the Aces in early August, which saw her miss seven games in her three-week absence, while Wilson led the Aces to a historic 17-game win streak to end the season.Nonetheless, in 33 regular season games, Collier erupted for 22.9 points, 7.3 rebounds, 3.2 assists, 1.6 steals and 1.5 blocks and joined an elite club after recording a historic 50-40-90 shooting split – a goal Lynx head coach Cheryl Reeve had set for Collier to chase at the start of the 2025 campaign. “It’s only been done once before, and that player was the MVP,” Reeve told ESPN. “Phee deserves that recognition. The numbers don’t lie. … It’s done from start to finish. 50/40/90 is historic. “I don’t know how long it will be before it happens again. Napheesa Collier has been the best player in the WNBA. She deserves MVP…”“She’s already great. Two years in a row, she’s a top player in the league. I think [the 3-point shooting] was a special unlocking to becoming really unguardable…Napheesa Collier is the most unguardable player in the league.”Collier – one of the co-founders of Unrivaled – became only the second player in WNBA history to achieve such a feat, joining Elena Delle Donne. With the Lynx – who faltered in the Commissioner’s Cup Final to the Fever earlier this season – facing the fourth-seed Mercury in the playoff semi-finals, Collier is crucial to their quest for the title, with Minnesota exponentially better when she is on the court, outscoring their opponents by 16.6 points with her on the floor (4.9 points without her).Fever head coach Stephanie WhiteUsually it’s the star players on a winning team that take all the plaudits, but first-year Fever head coach White has lacked stars – and role players for that matter – for almost the entire season.Nonetheless, she was able to guide her team – sans Clark – to defeat the league’s best team to claim their first Commissioner’s Cup in franchise history.White has dealt with a plethora of adversity as Fever coach with a flurry of injuries to her teamGettyWhite (far right) has seen most of her roster become Fever cheerleaders on the sidelinesGettyAlong with the absence of Clark, who played just 13 games for Indiana in 2025, the Fever also had to contend with a myriad of season-ending injuries on their roster, including Sydney Colson, Chloe Bibby, Aari McDonald and Clark’s very own ‘enforcer’ in Sophie Cunningham. With the Fever having to bring in roster reinforcements mid-season, White somehow managed to steer her severely depleted side, along with some help on the sidelines from her star player Clark, to a 24-20 record, which secured them the sixth seed. View Tweet: https://twitter.com/IndianaFever?ref_src=twsrc%5EtfwThis was largely in part to veteran All-Star guard Kelsey Mitchell’s heroics, who deserves an honorable mention, after shouldering the majority of the Fever’s offensive load all season long, posting season averages of 20.2 points – a career-high – and 3.4 assists, shooting 45.6 percent from the field. After trailing 1-0 in their first-round series against the third-seeded Atlanta Dream, the Fever pulled off a stunning comeback in Game’s 2 and 3 to win the series 2-1 and secure their place in the semifinals where their prize is to come up against MVP winner Wilson and the Aces.While Clark won’t be out on the hardwood, she will be an ever-present staple on the Fever sidelines for as long as they remain in the playoffs. Indiana’s ‘elite bench mob‘ are no doubt out to be as ‘rowdy’ as possible to spur on their team, even if their antics in Game 3 against the Dream did see the WNBA superstar receive a $200 fine, something Clark probably feels is entirely worth it. Stay up to date with the latest from the WNBA across all platforms – follow our dedicated talkSPORT USA Facebook page and subscribe to our talkSPORT USA YouTube channel for all the offseason news, interviews and more.