After slowing things down Thursday night with just one game, the league ratchets back up on Friday evening, with four games on the docket, including a crucial matchup between the Seattle Storm and Washington Mystics. Here’s what to watch for:

Seattle Storm at Washington Mystics – 7 PM EST (League Pass)

Playoffs On The Line

With less than two weeks remaining in the regular season, and only one team eliminated from playoff contention, nearly every game will have some manner of importance. Few, though, will be as cruicial as Friday night’s Storm-Mystics affair in Washington D.C.

Heading into the game, the Storm, at 13-17 hold the seventh seed, courtesy of a tiebreaker over the Phoenix Mercury, who sit in eighth. Half a game behind, at 12-17, lies the Mystics.

A win for the Seattle would extend their lead over Washington to one and a half games, which would be a tough deficit to overcome with just four games still to play. Of course, a win for the Mystics would vault them into playoff position.

Plus, the winner of Friday’s game takes the season series, and thus the tiebreaker should the two teams finish tied at the end of the year.

Offenses Firing On All Cylinders

On Wednesday night at Madison Square Garden, the Storm shot 54.8 percent from the field on the way to dropping 102 points on the New York Liberty. That performance looked pedestrian compared to the show going on a couple hundred miles south, however. The same night, the Mystics poured in a franchise-record 118 points, set a WNBA single-game record with 33 assists, and tied a WNBA single-game record with 16 three-pointers.

It’s going to be tough to replicate those kind of performances, but these are two of the top six offenses in the league (Seattle, 4th: 104.5 offensive rating. Washington, 6th: 102.8 offensive rating), so expect plenty of points.

Stewie Season Approaching

The Seattle Storm youngster is marching right along towards the Rookie of the Year Award. She put up 23 points, 9 rebounds, and 3 blocks in the Storm’s win over the Liberty on Wednesday night, and over the team’s last four games, in which they’ve gone 3-1 to jump into playoff position, she’s putting up 19 points on 57 percent shooting, 9.7 rebounds, 3.7 assists, and 2.5 blocks a night.

Oh, and she just turned 22 a few weeks ago.

Chicago Sky at Indiana Fever – 7 PM EST (League Pass)

Fight For Fourth

While the Storm and Mystics are waging a battle for one of the final playoff spots, the Fever and Sky are entrenched in the fight for fourth, and the final bye into the second round.

At 16-14, the Atlanta Dream currently hold the spot, but neither of these two squads are far behind. Chicago  sits in fifth due to the Dream holding the tiebreaker. Indiana sits one game back at 14-15, but that is certainly not an insurmountable deficit to make up over the final five games–especially if they can take Friday’s meeting

This matchup will also settle the tiebreaker between these two, which could be the difference between getting a first round bye, or not, come the end of the season.

Injury Trouble

As if the Sky’s 37-point loss to the Mystics Wednesday night wasn’t bad enough, they also lost Elena Delle Donne, the reigning Eastern Conference Player of the Week, and Tamera Young to injury.

EDD left the game with a thumb injury, while Young was sidelined after hurting her ankle. Both of them are currently listed as day-to-day.

INJURY UPDATE: Young & Delle Donne listed as day to day after injuries endured in last night's game at Washington.

— Chicago Sky (@chicagosky) September 8, 2016

Delle Donne, of course, is the league’s leading scorer, and combined the two average 29.2 points per game, so it would be a big double loss for the Sky if the two are unable to play.

Connecticut Sun at New York Liberty – 7:30 PM EST (League Pass)

Three Seed Clinched

The New York Liberty fell to the Storm their last time out, but still clinched the third seed in the playoffs, meaning they will get a bye into the second round. With Minnesota and Los Angeles already securing the two top seeds, the Liberty are the first team to be locked into their playoff seed.

That’s an important accomplishment for the Liberty, not only because they get the bye, but because they are dealing with a multitude of injuries at the moment. Not having to battle for playoff position over the final days of the season will allow the likes of Tanisha Wright and Kiah Stokes to take their time in returning from injury, while also giving Bill Laimbeer the freedom to lessen the load on Tina Charles, who is averaging 33.6 minutes per game this year.

It doesn’t mean the Liberty will just roll over–if Laimbeer actually does give some players rest–but dealing with Tina Charles for 25 minutes or so instead of 33-34, for example, will be a lot easier for the Sun to handle.

Sun Not Set On Connecticut’s Playoff Hopes Just Yet

The Connecticut Sun’s 8-5 record since the start of July has vaulted them right up into playoff contention. But at the moment they still sit one and a half games behind the Storm and Mercury, who are tied for seventh, and a game behind the Mystics, who are currently in ninth.

It’s a difficult situation, but with five games still remaining on the schedule, Connecticut has a little daylight left. They’ll need a win over New York on Friday though to be sure, which would a first in 2016. The Liberty have taken both meetings between the teams this year, but both have been within single digits.

Points At A Premium

The Liberty gave up 102 points the other day to the Storm, but on the season have been a stout defensive bunch, checking in third in the league with a defensive rating of 99.0. The young Sun are not far behind, their 103.3 rating settling in at fifth.

On top of that, the two teams are near the bottom of the league in offense, with the Liberty (101.3 offensive rating) at ninth in the league, and the Sun (100.3) right below them in 10th.

Don’t expect a triple-digit shootout at MSG on Friday.

Dallas Wings at San Antonio Stars – 8 PM EST (League Pass)

Playing For Next Year

The San Antonio Stars are the only team to be eliminated from postseason contention thus far, and the Dallas Wings are not far behind.

Between Skylar Diggins struggling to come back from her ACL tear, Glory Johnson dealing with a nagging toe injury, then suffering a season ending knee injury a few days ago, and Kayla McBride missing most of the year with a broken foot, both of these teams have been decimated by injuries.

Unfortunately, it has been too much for these young Texas squads to overcome this year, and they’ll likely be heading to the top of the lottery next spring.

Skylar Flying High

Skylar Diggins looked rusty coming back from her ACL tear early in the season, but has been averaging 16.8 points and 3.3 assists in her last six games. She’s coming off a 25-point, 4-assist outing in the Wings’ last game, and the last time the Wings met the Stars, she scored 19 points and dished out 5 assists.

Sheriff Moriah Jefferson

Since the Olympic Break, Moriah Jefferson has been stifling opposing ball-handlers to the tune of 2.5 steals per game. The sharp play on the defensive end has raised her season average to 1.6 steals per game, good enough for fourth in the league, just 0.3 steals per game behind league leader Tamika Catchings.

If Jefferson keeps up her strong defensive work, and can pass Catchings for the league lead in steals per game, she would become the first rookie to lead the league in that category since Alexis Hornbuckle back in 2008.