WNBA Finals in the context of "WNBA"

The Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) is a women's professional basketball league in the United States. The league comprises 13 teams (scheduled to expand to 15 by 2026 and 18 by 2030). The WNBA is headquartered in Midtown Manhattan.

The WNBA was founded on April 24, 1996, as the women's counterpart to the National Basketball Association (NBA); league play began in 1997. The regular season runs from May to September, with each team playing 44 games. The top eight teams (regardless of conference) qualify for the playoffs, culminating in the WNBA Finals, which is played in October.

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 Conferent consists of 7 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.

The Tulsa Shock were a professional basketball team based in Tulsa, Oklahoma, playing in the Western Conference in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). The team was founded in Detroit, Michigan before the 1998 WNBA season began; the team moved to Tulsa before the 2010 season. The team was owned by Tulsa Pro Hoops LLC, which is led by Bill Cameron and David Box. On July 20, 2015, Cameron announced that the franchise would move to Arlington, Texas for the 2016 WNBA season, rebranding as the Dallas Wings.

The Shock qualified for the WNBA Playoffs in their final year in Tulsa in 2015. The franchise has been home to players such as shooting guard Deanna Nolan, women's professional basketball all-time leading scorer Katie Smith, NBA Hall of Fame forward Karl Malone's daughter Cheryl Ford, and Australian center Liz Cambage. In 2003, 2006, 2007, and 2008 (as Detroit in the Eastern Conference), the Shock went to the WNBA Finals; they won in 2003, 2006 and 2008, beating Los Angeles, Sacramento, and San Antonio, respectively. They lost in 2007 to Phoenix.