&sq=Envato&lang=en&file=File:Question_book-new.svg){kind=small} | This article relies largely or entirely on a single source. (August 2024) |
| League | WNBA |
|---|---|
| Sport | Basketball |
| First season | 1997 |
| No. of teams | 7 |
| Most recent champion(s) | Seattle Storm (2020) |
| Most titles | Minnesota Lynx (4) |
The Western Conference is one of two conferences that make up the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA), the other being the Eastern Conference. Both conferences currently consist of 6 teams, until 2025, when the Golden State Valkyries will join the Western Conference.[1][2]
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.
Since 2016, the league has abandoned separate conference playoffs in favor of a single league-wide playoff bracket. The top eight teams in the regular season, without regard to conference affiliation, advance to the playoffs, which are seeded based strictly on regular-season record (with tiebreakers as needed). The bottom four playoff teams play single-elimination games (5 vs. 8, 6 vs. 7) in the first round, with the higher seeds (5 and 6) hosting the games. The first-round winners advance to the second round, where they play the 3 and 4 seeds in single-elimination games. The 3 seed hosts the lower seed among the first-round winners, with the 4 seed hosting the other first-round survivor. The winners of these games advance to the WNBA Semifinals, where they face the top two seeds in best-of-five series. In this round, the 1 seed plays the lower seed among the second-round winners, and the 2 seed plays the other second-round winner. Both series are best-of-five and played in a 2–2–1 formet, with the higher seeds (1 and 2) hosting the first two games plus a possible fifth game. The winners of these series advance to the best-of-seven WNBA Finals.