Western Conference (WNBA)
Team City/Area Arena Colors Joined WNBA Head coach
Dallas Wings Arlington , Texas College Park Center Dark blue , lime green , white 1998* Brian Agler
Las Vegas Aces Paradise , Nevada Mandalay Bay Events Center Red , black , gold , silver 1997* Bill Laimbeer
Los Angeles Sparks Los Angeles , California Staples Center Purple , gold , teal 1997 Derek Fisher
Minnesota Lynx Minneapolis , Minnesota Target Center Blue , green , white , silver 1999 Cheryl Reeve
Phoenix Mercury Phoenix , Arizona Talking Stick Resort Arena Purple , yellow , orange , white 1997 Sandy Brondello
Seattle Storm Seattle , Washington Alaska Airlines Arena Green , red , white , gold 2000 Dan Hughes
Teams
The Western Conference of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) is made up of six 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 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.