The Eastern Conference is one of two conferences that make up the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA), the other being the Western Conference. The Eastern Conference consists of 7 teams, whereas with the addition of Portland Fire and Toronto Tempo in the 2026 season, the Western Conference consists of 8 teams.
From the league's second season in 1998 through 2015, the WNBA operated separate playoff brackets for its Eastern and Western Conferences. Each conference's playoff was divided into two playoff rounds, the Conference Semi-Finals and the Conference Finals, with the Conference Finals winners receiving Conference Championships and advancing to the WNBA Finals to determine the WNBA champion. In the final years of this playoff scheme, all in-conference playoff series were best-of-three.
In the current system, the eight best teams by the regular-season record, without regard to conference alignment, qualify for the playoffs. Since 2022, the playoffs have been held in a standard knockout format, with the first round consisting of best-of-three series and the semifinals and finals being best-of-five. The higher seed will generally face a weaker team, and will have home-court advantage in each round. In 2024, all quarterfinal series used a 2–1 home-court pattern, which allowed the higher seed the opportunity to win the series without having to visit the lower seed. This in turn meant that a lower seed that won one of the first two games would host the series decider. However, the quarterfinals will return to a 1–1–1 pattern in 2025, with the higher seed hosting the first game and a potential third game.
The quarterfinals are bracketed in the normal manner for an 8-team tournament, with 1 vs. 8 and 4 vs. 5 on one side of the bracket and 2 vs. 7 and 3 vs. 6 on the other. The winners of each quarterfinal series advance to the semifinals, with the bracket not being reseeded. The semifinals use a 2–2–1 home-court pattern, meaning that the higher-seeded team will have home court in games 1, 2, and 5 while the other team plays at home in game 3 and 4. Through 2024, the finals were also played in a 2–2–1 home-court pattern. Starting in 2025, the finals will use the same 2–2–1–1–1 pattern currently used by the NBA.
Teams Team City/Area Arena Colors Joined WNBA Head coach Atlanta Dream College Park, Georgia Gateway Center Arena Sky blue, red, white2008 Karl Smesko Chicago Sky Chicago, Illinois Wintrust Arena Sky blue, yellow, white2006 Tyler Marsh Indiana Fever Indianapolis, Indiana Gainbridge Fieldhouse Navy blue, gold, red, white2000 Stephanie White New York Liberty Brooklyn, New York Barclays Center Black, green, orange, white1997 Chris DeMarco Toronto Tempo Toronto, Ontario Coca-Cola Coliseum Borealis blue and tempo bordeaux2026 Sandy Brondello Washington Mystics Washington, D.C. CareFirst Arena Navy, gray, white, red1998 Sydney Johnson
Former teams Defunct Charlotte Sting (1997–2006) Cleveland Rockers (1997–2003) Miami Sol (2000–2002) Changed to Western Conference Houston Comets Relocated Orlando Miracle to Connecticut Sun (2003) Detroit Shock to Tulsa Shock (West) (2009); team now plays in the West as the Dallas Wings (2016) Connecticut Sun to Houston Comets (2026); now plays in the West
Eastern Conference champions The WNBA awarded conference championships between 1998 and 2015 to the winners of the Conference Finals in the playoffs. Conference championships were not awarded in the 1997 inaugural season, and they were again discontinued since the WNBA adopted its current single-table playoff format in 2016.
WNBA champions in bold
1998: Cleveland Rockers 1999: New York Liberty 2000: New York Liberty (2) 2001: Charlotte Sting 2002: New York Liberty (3) 2003: Detroit Shock 2004: Connecticut Sun 2005: Connecticut Sun (2) 2006: Detroit Shock (2) 2007: Detroit Shock (3) 2008: Detroit Shock (4) 2009: Indiana Fever 2010: Atlanta Dream 2011: Atlanta Dream (2) 2012: Indiana Fever (2) 2013: Atlanta Dream (3) 2014: Chicago Sky 2015: Indiana Fever (3)
All-time regular-season conference standings 2026 season
2025 season
2024 season
2023 season
2022 season
2021 season
2020 season
2019 season
2018 season
2017 season
2016 season
2015 season
2014 season
2013 season
2012 season
2011 season
2010 season
2009 season
2008 season
2007 season
2006 season
2005 season
2004 season
2003 season
2002 season
2001 season
2000 season
1999 season
1998 season
1997 season
References