The Western Conference is one of two conferences that make up the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA), the other being the Eastern Conference. The Western Conference consists of 9 teams and the Eastern Conference consists of 6 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 Dallas Wings Arlington, Texas College Park Center Dark blue, lime green, white1998* Jose Fernandez Golden State Valkyries San Francisco, California Chase Center Black, purple2025 Natalie Nakase Houston Comets Houston, Texas Toyota Center TBA1997 Rachid Meziane Las Vegas Aces Paradise, Nevada Michelob Ultra Arena Red, black, gold, silver1997* Becky Hammon Los Angeles Sparks Los Angeles, California Crypto.com Arena Purple, gold, teal1997 TBA Minnesota Lynx Minneapolis, Minnesota Target Center Blue, green, white, silver1999 Cheryl Reeve Portland Fire Portland, Oregon Moda Center Red, brown, blue, pink2026 Alex Sarama Phoenix Mercury Phoenix, Arizona Mortgage Matchup Center Purple, yellow, orange, white1997 Nate Tibbetts Seattle Storm Seattle, Washington Climate Pledge Arena Green, red, white, gold2000 Sonia Raman
Former teams Defunct Portland Fire (2000–2002) Sacramento Monarchs (1997–2009) Relocated Utah Starzz to San Antonio Silver Stars (2003) Detroit Shock (East) to Tulsa Shock (2010) Tulsa Shock to Dallas Wings (2016) San Antonio Stars to Las Vegas Aces (2017)
Western 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: Houston Comets 1999: Houston Comets (2) 2000: Houston Comets (3) 2001: Los Angeles Sparks 2002: Los Angeles Sparks (2) 2003: Los Angeles Sparks (3) 2004: Seattle Storm 2005: Sacramento Monarchs 2006: Sacramento Monarchs (2) 2007: Phoenix Mercury 2008: San Antonio Silver Stars 2009: Phoenix Mercury (2) 2010: Seattle Storm (2) 2011: Minnesota Lynx 2012: Minnesota Lynx (2) 2013: Minnesota Lynx (3) 2014: Phoenix Mercury (3) 2015: Minnesota Lynx (4)
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