From Full Court: WNBA West: A Long and Winding Road to Finals

In a year that boasts greater parity within the WNBA's Western Conference, holding serve by winning at home is critical. Still, road road victories are particularly precious, and thus far have spelled the difference between who's on top of the Conference and who's not.

Indeed, the necessity of notching up those "W"s in alien arenas has proved so crucial to success in the West that the team the majority of WNBA GMs predicted pre-season would take the title currently finds itself in the conference's basement. The talent-loaded Los Angeles Sparks chalked up an impressive win over last year's league champs, the Detroit Shock, in LA's home opener -- their only home game to date. They then preceded to drop all four of their away games to find themselves the goat of the conference.