Tag Archives: Indiana Fever

WNBA Today, 08/22/2013: Return of Zellous helps Fever take care of Silver Stars; League acts on Laimbeer

 

One game took center stage on its own last night in the WNBA, and unfortunately it was one of those nights where we probably could’ve used an extra matchup to boost the entertainment. San Antonio have been continuing to battle all season, but they’re in the lower reaches of the Western Conference for a reason. Without Becky Hammon and Sophia Young they’ve put up a fight, but they’re going to need an unlikely-looking push to sneak into the playoff spots before the end of the season. The Silver Stars were visiting Indiana, who needed a result themselves. After an ugly start to the season as they struggled to cope with injuries, they’d stepped it up as the year wore on and some of their walking wounded returned. But they’d lost three in a row on a west coast road trip, all pretty convincingly, and they’ve got four more road games coming right up. They had to win this one to break the run of losses and give themselves something to build off as they left on their travels again.

 

The good news for the Fever was that Shavonte Zellous was back after missing four games due to plantar fasciitis. Indiana had missed her offense while she was out, leaving them lacking in scoring weapons. She slid straight back into the starting lineup in place of Erin Phillips.

 

Both teams made a decent start offensively, getting in behind the respective defenses, but it was Indiana who started to pull away late in the first quarter. Much of their success came via the pick-and-roll, or off-shoots from the effects of pick-and-rolls. It was the kind of attack I was surprised we didn’t see more of from Phoenix when they lost to the Silver Stars on Saturday. Typically, San Antonio hedge so hard on the ballhandler that if she can move the ball on – either to the roller, or to another teammate to make a continuation pass – then the entire Silver Star defense has to rotate. It’s hard to do that fast enough to avoid giving up a wide open look somewhere. You hope you can recover quickly enough to re-set the defense, or maybe only give up an open mid-range shot instead of a layup, but that’s not easy. Indiana found the gaps in San Antonio’s defense and moved into the lead.

 

It got worse for San Antonio as the first half wore on because they weren’t hitting shots. More than anyone in the league, the Silver Stars rely on perimeter shooting to produce their points, and with virtually any team that’s unreliable. It’s just a low-percentage way to score. Early on they found some holes in Indiana’s defense, posted up Danielle Adams a couple of times, or sent Danielle Robinson through the defense on cuts. But they went away from that and just kept firing bricks instead. Their defense also dropped off when Dan Hughes gave some minutes to rookie forward Chelsea Poppens, a recent addition after the franchise parted ways with DeLisha Milton-Jones. Poppens wasn’t in sync with anyone, so the defensive rotations and movement got worse. Indiana led 41-25 at halftime.

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WNBA Today, 08/18/2013: Silver Stars show Mercury still have work to do; Storm battle past tiring Fever

 

Last night saw a double-header of action in the WNBA, featuring three Western teams still hoping to grab the two remaining playoff spots in any doubt in the West, and one Eastern squad continuing to fight for their own postseason berth. We began in San Antonio, where they were taking Breast Cancer Awareness night an extra step or two further. Not just pink uniforms, but a pink court, pink spotlights, pink shoes for head coach Dan Hughes, and pink hair for point guard Danielle Robinson. Apparently it really is true that everything is bigger in Texas.

 

After leaving Phoenix’s previous game with a knee problem, Candace Dupree was fit enough to start, but backup point guard Jasmine James stayed home due to a concussion suffered in that same game. Penny Taylor continues to miss out due to her knee, of course. San Antonio are still without Sophia Young and Becky Hammon, as they have been for all but 12 minutes of the season. Recent signing Chelsea Poppens was a new addition to their options off the bench.

 

The most obviously intriguing aspect of this game was whether Phoenix’s defensive improvements under new head coach Russ Pennell could be sustained. They’d won three in a row since he took over, but this was his first game on the road, and the first against a team that actually likes to shoot from outside and will happily exploit those opportunities repeatedly. There’s a reason that most teams build some kinks into their vanilla man-to-man defense, and it’s because you’ll run into teams like this who’ll break it down without much trouble. In the first half, San Antonio illustrated that Phoenix’s new defensive structure is still very much a work-in-progress. The Mercury are only switching in very obvious situations – deep baseline cuts where opponents cross over, wing handoffs where it’s easy to change assignments – on everything else defenders are generally expected to stick with their man. Except when they don’t, or can’t. Too many Mercury defenders were caught on screens, and left in an opponent’s wake while she was wide open for a jump shot. Or there was confusion when one Mercury player left her assignment and expected a teammate to swing over and cover, but the teammate didn’t get the memo. Against some teams, Pennell may have to switch a little more, or at least hedge a little more with his bigs on screens. Or it’s just a matter of building chemistry so the Phoenix players know how to react and recover defensively. They haven’t been doing this for very long.

 

Arguably more concerning than the defense, was how stilted Phoenix’s offense looked at times in this game. San Antonio are well coached and well drilled, but ultimately they’ve been a pretty bad defensive team this season. They leave holes you can exploit. It seemed obvious that Phoenix should’ve been pick-and-rolling them to death all night long. On a couple of early Mercury possessions, we saw the same problems for San Antonio defending that basic play that they had against Liz Cambage and Tulsa. If you put Jayne Appel (or even Danielle Adams) in the pick-and-roll, then most of the time San Antonio will hedge hard against the ballhandler with both defenders. If the ballhandler can make the pass to the rolling post – something Diana Taurasi, for example, is incredibly good at – it’s likely to result in a very good look. Dupree got a wide open jumper and an easy layup (although she blew the latter) on early possessions, and Brittney Griner was left open from two feet (although she contrived to miss as well). It was baffling that Phoenix didn’t just run simple pick-and-rolls all night long. For whatever reason, they went away from it.

 

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WNBA Today, 08/17/2013: Western summit continues to tighten; Eastern picture remains muddied

 

Four games last night in the WNBA. We had a couple of upsets – one minor, one huge. And a couple of home wins – one comfortable, one blowout. Let’s go to the Bullet Point Breakdowns to take a look.

 

Washington Mystics 66 @ New York Liberty 57

  • New York came into this one just half-a-game behind the Mystics for the final playoff spot in the East. Having beaten Washington twice in recent weeks, a win for the Liberty also would’ve sealed the season-series tiebreaker should these teams end up level at the end of the season. The Mystics came in having beaten the best and the worst the WNBA has to offer in their last two games, Minnesota and Connecticut. Now they had to take on an opponent from somewhere in the middle.

 

  • The lineups were the same as usual for these teams, although New York had veteran forward DeLisha Milton-Jones in uniform for the first time after claiming her off waivers from San Antonio.

 

  • The first half was ultimately very even. Washington built a small lead early with their starters, thanks to the fact that they have more players who can shoot than New York. Cappie Pondexter was utterly invisible in the first quarter. As has been something of a theme lately, the Mystics lost their way a little when their bench players came in, and New York slid back into it largely due to Washington’s offensive futility. Then the rest of the half played out with Pondexter actually making a couple of shots, while Plenette Pierson and Crystal Langhorne entertainingly went to war down low.

 

  • The third quarter was even more forgettable than the first half. Desperately scrappy basketball, too many turnovers, defense dominating and not a lot of points being scored. A 34-33 New York lead at halftime became a 45-44 Washington lead after three periods.

 

  • It didn’t take long in the fourth quarter for the victor to become clear. Matee Ajavon, Kia Vaughn and Tierra Ruffin-Pratt all nailed jumpers in the opening moments, turning a one-point lead into an eight-point gap. In a game where points had been at a premium all night, that felt like a chasm. Defensive decisions and defense in general had become rather too easy for the Mystics. Pondexter couldn’t hit a shot to save her life in the second half, and New York don’t have many other players who can shoot (especially considering Bill Laimbeer’s continuing reluctance to play Leilani Mitchell). So the defense increasingly collapsed into the paint, and made it harder and harder for New York to force the ball inside. So they spent the fourth quarter either being swamped in the paint when they continued to try to get there, or watching Pondexter brick jumpers.

 

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WNBA Today, 08/15/2013: Lineup choices doom Dream in Connecticut; Mercury continue to rise under Pennell

 

Two games last night in the WNBA, and they were intriguing in a lot of ways. Two Eastern Conference teams desperate for a win ran into each other, and spent most of the night seemingly trying to find ways to avoid winning. Then a cross-conference matchup saw a team famed for its defense face one historically known for its offense – and the all-attack squad came out on top in a low-scoring, defense-first game. Sometimes everything works out backwards.

 

The opening game was in Connecticut, where the Sun hosted the Atlanta Dream. The visitors arrived still sitting in second place in the East, but that’s down to their 10-1 start to the season. Since then they’ve gone 1-7, free-falling down towards the chasing pack. Connecticut should’ve been the perfect venue to turn around that slide. The Sun were 6-15 coming in, deservedly rock bottom of the East, and two miserable losses against Chicago and Washington over the weekend had maintained their run of misery.

 

The Sun were also shorthanded once again, with Allison Hightower out along with Kara Lawson’s long-term absence. Lawson continues to be missing with what’s listed as ‘family issues’ in the box scores, Hightower was out with either a strained knee (according to the box) or a back problem (according to the commentator). The confusion over Hightower’s injury led to a conspiracy theory or two considering it was the day before the trade deadline, but nothing happened today to substantiate any of that guesswork. Tan White replaced Hightower in the starting lineup, and Anne Donovan also made an unforced change (finally), by replacing Kalana Greene with rookie Kelly Faris on the wing. Atlanta have Tiffany Hayes back from injury now, but Sancho Lyttle continues to miss games due to her broken foot. After surviving so well without Lyttle when she was with Spain for EuroBasket Women earlier in the season, Atlanta have really missed her since she got hurt.

 

It’s that power forward spot that ought to be filled by Lyttle that’s going to dominate much of this discussion of last night’s game, but some other stuff happened first. For one thing, Connecticut had probably their most successful first quarter of the entire season – and they did it essentially without Tina Charles (or despite her, if you want to be a little mean). Charles played the opening 5:28 of the game, and left with her team trailing 16-13. She’d contributed one hook shot and a few free throws, along with some pretty lazy help defense, and being outworked by Erika de Souza in transition. The Sun were most effective offensively when she wasn’t even involved, with Kelsey Griffin, Renee Montgomery and Tan White making plays. When Charles sat down that developed even further, and the Sun took off. With Montgomery hitting threes and White scoring in a variety of ways, plus Mistie Bass doing her job as Charles’s fill-in, Connecticut led 28-24 at the end of the first quarter. 28 points in an entire half has been more typical for the Sun lately.

 

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WNBA Today, 08/11/2013: Sparks and Fever continue to improve, Liberty and Dream continue to struggle

 

Two WNBA games on Saturday, one early and one late. Each was between a team who’ve been moving forwards and winning games lately, and a team who’ve been struggling. So the results shouldn’t have come as a big surprise.

 

The opener was in New York (well, New Jersey – back to New York next year), where the Los Angeles Sparks were the visitors. The Liberty have been frustratingly up and down lately, which is at least better than the consistent turnover-riddled losses that were a repetitive story earlier in the season. The Sparks have been strong, picking up their game even before Candace Parker returned from her wrist injury. This was the fifth and final game of a road trip for LA, and they’d swept the previous three against Eastern teams after a disappointing start in Tulsa. They were looking to finish strong in New York before heading home.

 

The lineups were the same as in recent games for these teams. New York started out okay, sliding Plenette Pierson inside for a pretty basket off the pick-and-roll on their opening possession and playing some solid interior defense. They even forced Nneka Ogwumike to the bench quickly after she picked up two fouls inside the first four minutes of the game. But the Sparks began to pull away thanks to significantly better perimeter shooting. Both teams were neutralising each other in the post. The size and athleticism of Ogwumike, Parker and Jantel Lavender was enough to body up on New York’s posts and make them miss inside. Everything was rimming out. At the other end it was mostly a similar story, with the Liberty strong enough in the paint to keep LA out. Parker even helped them out by consistently bricking shots from about 19 feet. But Kristi Toliver was hitting jumpers, and the likes of Lindsey Harding, Alana Beard and Marissa Coleman joined in as the first half wore on. That made the big difference on the scoreboard.

 

Cappie Pondexter was doing what she could to carry the Liberty offense, and it was nice to see her both drive for layups or fouls, and nail a three in the kind of situation where she’s been firing 19ft twos most of the season. But that wasn’t really enough. When the Liberty have been successful lately, it’s been through Pierson, Kara Braxton and Kelsey Bone providing consistent scoring inside. They couldn’t do that, so New York struggled to score.

 

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WNBA Today, 08/09/2013: Sparks punish Fever inside, while Mystics pull off big upset in Minnesota

 

While the big news around the WNBA yesterday may have been the departure of Phoenix Mercury head coach Corey Gaines (read in depth coverage of that HERE), there were also two intriguing cross-conference basketball games to take in. Having gone the right way in both of them in my picks against the spread, forgive me if there’s a mildly smug hint to the coverage below. The predictions have been going surprisingly well since the All-Star break – for once, I’d actually be making money if I followed my own gambling advice.

 

The opener was in Indiana, where the Los Angeles Sparks made their yearly visit. After missing the first three games of LA’s post-All-Star road trip due to a right wrist injury, Candace Parker was back with the team and back in the lineup. There was some strapping around the wrist, and she grabbed it once or twice during the game, but obviously she and the medical staff felt she was ready to return. The Fever are as healthy as they look likely to get for a while. Center Jessica Davenport is done for the season after surgery on her tibia, and Katie Douglas’s back problem continues to leave her sidelined. But with the injuries they’ve battled all year, Indiana will settle for having 10 of their 12 first-choice options available to play.

 

The opening couple of minutes seemingly went perfectly for the Fever. LA looked unprepared for the energy and activity of Indiana’s defense, and repeatedly turned the ball over on passes into traffic or poke-aways by Fever defenders. Briann January even hit a layup, which has been about as common this season as seeing a pig drift by your window. But Indiana didn’t create any separation during that sequence because they couldn’t hit anything from the perimeter, and when they avoided turning the ball over LA weren’t missing. It didn’t help when January picked up her second early foul on a soft call while trying to play tight to Lindsey Harding on defense, sending her to the bench.

 

Once the Sparks started taking better care of the ball, they began to dominate. They were getting out in transition when they could, but even in halfcourt sets they were finding their bigs deep in the paint and converting at the rim. Without steals to run off, Indiana were taking a lot of jumpers, virtually none of which went in, merely helping LA push back the other way from the long rebounds. The officials also started calling almost everything, which hurt Indiana far more than LA. Suddenly those reach-ins or poke-away plays from Fever defenders were drawing whistles, sending LA to the line repeatedly, rather than resulting in turnovers. By the end of the first quarter LA already had 16 points in the paint, 9 more at the free throw line, and led 27-13.

 

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WNBA Today, 08/07/2013: Quintuple Tuesday in the WNBA

 

Yesterday was the first five-game day of the 2013 WNBA season, as the schedulers did their level best to make my life as difficult as possible. But they won’t break me. Not only did I come within inches of going 5-0 with my picks against the spread (got the right winner in all of them, but one failed to cover), all five are examined in the usual detail below. On to the Bullet Point Breakdowns.

 

Washington Mystics 88 @ New York Liberty 93

  • This was one of three remaining meetings between these teams, after New York won their first matchup last week with a dominant post performance. The starting lineups were the same as in that previous meeting, with Washington’s Mike Thibault promoting Michelle Snow back into the starting lineup for Emma Meesseman, after trying something different against LA on Sunday.

 

  • New York were the slightly more successful team in the early going thanks to their interior attack, with Cappie Pondexter drawing extra defenders to create good looks for her teammates inside. She still takes too many of those 19ft pullup jumpers – frustrating because they’d be barely any more difficult from two feet further back, and a low-percentage three-pointer is a much more worthwhile shot than a low-percentage two. But she does at least seem to be handling the ‘lead guard’ position better. There’s been more poise, fewer turnovers, and better patience to her game recently – even if her jump shot still isn’t dropping all that often.

 

  • It was New York’s general inability to hit a shot that helped ease Washington back into the game, although the Mystics were taking plenty themselves. Even with all those perimeter shots, Washington drew plenty of whistles, which also helped them take the lead at the free throw line.

 

  • As the half progressed, the Liberty found some shooting from an unusual source. Wing Alex Montgomery has gradually earned increasing minutes this season, but it’s been due to her defense and hustle more than her points production. Her jumper was falling in this game, giving the posts someone to kick out to and Pondexter a sidekick on the perimeter. That left us with a surprisingly high-scoring first half, which finished with Washington up 46-45.

 

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WNBA Today, 08/04/2013: Sun, Fever and Mercury prevail as WNBA standings continue to tighten up

 

Another triple-header in the WNBA last night, and the team with the weaker existing record won all three of them. Everyone’s back underway now after the All-Star break, and so far there’s been something of a concertina effect tightening up the standings. Off to the Bullet Point Breakdowns to examine last night’s action.

 

Connecticut Sun 88 @ New York Liberty 66

  • The teams were unchanged for this matchup from their previous games, both in the players available and their starting lineups (although Kara Lawson was listed as ‘Not with Team – Family Issue’ rather than out due to her bruised knee, for what that’s worth). Both were trying to build from wins, after New York produced another dominant post display to beat Washington, and Connecticut scraped together a fourth quarter comeback to beat an understrength Indiana.

 

  • The opening stages were exactly what most probably would’ve expected. The Liberty pounded the ball inside, and ended up with a series of layups and post finishes for Plenette Pierson and Kara Braxton. The Sun help defense was slow to arrive (if it arrived at all), leaving far too much room for bigs on the pick-and-roll. At the other end of the floor, Tina Charles was already drifting further and further away from the rim to fire jump shots, and no one else was hitting anything, just as has been the case all year for Connecticut. It was a familiar story.

 

  • Then a funny thing happened. Renee Montgomery and Allison Hightower made consecutive threes out of a timeout midway through the first quarter, and that opened the floodgates. For the rest of the first half, Connecticut were suddenly making shots they’d been missing all season. The return to fitness of Montgomery and Tan White have given them more options, but even the likes of Kelly Faris and Kelsey Griffin were drilling perimeter jump shots. It gave Connecticut a foothold in the game that they’ve rarely had this year, because of the constant steam of bricks they’ve been firing up.

 

  • New York were still the more efficient team offensively for most of the first half. Cappie Pondexter continued to shoot horrendously, as she has done for the vast majority of the season, but when she stuck to creating for teammates and dropping off passes it led to good looks. There’s been a little bit more patience to the Liberty passing in recent games, making the pass when the opportunity actually presents itself rather than when they feel they’re supposed to pass. By halftime the Sun shooting had kept them right in the game, and the Liberty led just 34-33, but New York were up 26-8 in points in the paint. Typically, that suggests the team relying on outside shooting will cool off and the team scoring inside will pull away in the second half.

 

  • But of course, it doesn’t always work out that way. When you start making a few shots, everything can begin to look better. The sun shines brighter, the birds sing sweeter, you put some effort in on defense – the list goes on. After already beginning to fade in the second quarter, New York’s post attack continued to tail off in the third, as they failed to find the same space that had been on offer at the start of the game. The parade of jumpers continued to drop for the Sun now their confidence was up, leading to some drives for higher-percentage looks as well. Connecticut’s lead continued to stretch out throughout the third quarter, and New York didn’t have an answer. They were being comprehensively out-shot by the Sun.

 

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WNBA Today, 08/02/2013: Sun comeback papers over cracks in Connecticut, while Storm make Mercury melt

 

Last night saw four more WNBA teams resume action after the All-Star break, although the shine was taken off the opening game before it began. Indiana travelled to Connecticut without star forward Tamika Catchings due to personal reasons – she’s fine, and expected to play in their next game, but “family cicumstances prohibited travel for this game”, whatever that means. Guard Erin Phillips also stayed home due to continuing issues with the knee that was operated on in the preseason. Wing Jeanette Pohlen is reportedly nearing a return, but she and Katie Douglas are still out for now as well, so the Fever were back down to eight bodies. With Kara Lawson still out for the Sun due to her bruised knee, Connecticut weren’t at full strength either.

 

This was an awful, ugly game for most of the evening. If the WNBA had a D-League, this is what it might look like (and a few of these players might be there sooner rather than later as well). The positive in the early minutes for Connecticut was that Tina Charles was inside, getting putbacks and finish attempts near the rim. That’s where you want to see her, not firing endless fadeaway jumpers. But the rest of the Sun still couldn’t make a shot to save their lives, which inevitably leads to Charles forcing up more and more difficult shots as games wear on. She’s trying to carry the team, and taking some bad shots in an effort to score before double and triple-teams force her to move the ball. She’s not playing well – 40% from the field for a center, along with minimal trips to the free throw line, is horrible – but it’s a difficult situation for anybody.

 

Elsewhere in the frontcourt, Jessica Breland and Kelsey Griffin were making each other look good. Griffin’s a hustle backup pushed into a starting role that she isn’t good enough for, but she’ll at least grab a rebound or two and offer some energy. Breland isn’t remotely close to Catchings as a defender – an unfair comparison for anyone, but Breland in particular loses concentration or gets exposed on the defensive end too frequently. However, on the offensive end, Breland was perfectly capable of feasting on the weak collection of power forwards Connecticut have to offer this season.

 

Neither team led by more than five points in the first half until the final couple of minutes, when a Shavonte Zellous pullup jumper was followed by Karima Christmas driving right past a statuesque Renee Montgomery for a layup (Charles was weak and late on the help defense as well). Then Briann January hit a three, and Zellous pulled up to hit a triple of her own just before the halftime buzzer. From nowhere, the understrength Fever had pushed out to a 34-25 lead at the break.

 

Most of the third quarter was just as bad for Connecticut. Frankly, if you can’t beat a Fever team without Catchings, Douglas, Phillips and others, it might be time to consider a new profession. But Indiana extended their lead to 16 late in the third quarter on consecutive breakaway layups from Christmas and Zellous – both in situations where the Fever players simply seemed to put more effort in to get to the ball first and push it to the other end. It looked like the game was going to tail off into another embarrassing loss for the Sun in a season full of them.

 

However, Sun coach Anne Donovan finally ran into a lineup that clicked. Starters Charles and Allison Hightower were joined on the floor by Tan White, Kelly Faris (who didn’t play a single second during the opening 28 minutes of the game) and Mistie Bass. They closed out the third quarter with Bass running the floor hard for a transition layup, and White nailing a three from the corner. Then opened the fourth with Bass dropping in a short hook, Hightower driving past January for a layup, White hitting a pullup, Faris driving past Breland with ease for her own layup, and Charles closing off Breland for an easy finish inside. That drew the second Fever timeout in quick succession, as a 15-0 Connecticut run had pulled them within a point.

 

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WNBA Today, 07/26/2013: Storm and Fever head into break with important road wins; listless Liberty back to losing

 

Yes, this article is going up rather late. Especially considering all three WNBA matchups yesterday were day games. For that I apologise. The problem was that I skipped the New York-San Antonio game yesterday in favour of watching Indiana-Tulsa, which left me catching up with the Liberty and Silver Stars today via archive. And I kept having to pause the game to find more interesting things to do, so that my will to live didn’t slip entirely away. Thank goodness there were two rather more interesting games yesterday to take us into the All-Star break.

 

Indiana Fever 71 @ Tulsa Shock 60

  • Tulsa’s three-game winning streak and the recent performances of their Glory Johnson/Liz Cambage frontcourt had hopes rising for the Shock heading into this one. Indiana had a disappointing home loss to New York on Tuesday night, but have been steadily improving since their painful, injury-riddled start to the season. Both teams continued with the same starting lineups they’d been using in recent games (so Skylar Diggins continued to come off the bench behind Angel Goodrich at the point for Tulsa).

 

  • The Fever struggled on Tuesday night against Plenette Pierson and New York’s post attack, which led to obvious concerns about how they’d handle Johnson and Cambage. Indiana are undersized inside with Tamika Catchings and Erlana Larkins as their posts, but they usually make up with it through energy, effort and teamwork. It was always more likely that Tuesday would be an aberration rather than the beginning of a trend. They did fine against Tulsa’s young bigs. The expected double-teams dropped down on Cambage whenever she touched the ball inside, forcing the ball back out or leading to tips and strips when she tried to make moves through multiple defenders. The Shock had some early success cutting into the paint from the weak side when Indiana tried to double-team, leading to layups rather than perimeter shots, but it didn’t last long. The effectiveness of Indiana’s defense doesn’t just come from closing in on opponents with traps and double-teams – it’s how quick they are to rotate and recover if the ball makes it out. The opportunities dried up for Tulsa.

 

  • At the other end of the floor, Indiana were missing too many layups, which is nothing new. These are the two worst-shooting teams from inside 5-feet in the entire WNBA, and the Fever are the only team in the league below 50% from that range (Tulsa are just barely above 50%). But Catchings and Karima Christmas made a few jumpers, Shavonte Zellous got into the paint and consistently looked to score over the smaller defenders who were trying to guard her, and the Fever were consistently aggressive in transition off turnovers. It felt like they should’ve been up by more than 38-34 at halftime.

 

  • After a poor first half, Nicole Powell was replaced by Roneeka Hodges to start the third quarter. Powell never took the floor in the second half, so there may have been an injury of some kind affecting her.

 

  • Indiana held a narrow lead throughout the third quarter. It never hit double-digits, but it was also rarely below six or seven points. The Fever were being troubled by Cambage’s size inside, and having to find ways to navigate around her, but they were making every hustle play and winning every 50/50 battle. Tiffany Jackson-Jones and Diggins made a couple of plays in the period, including a halfcourt three at the buzzer from Diggins, but the Shock as a whole were scrabbling to stay in the game.

 

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