Tag Archives: Seattle Storm

WNBA Today, 08/24/2013: Eastern playoff picture beginning to clear, while Storm complete Mercury sweep

 

Last night’s WNBA slate featured an upset that really shouldn’t have surprised anyone; another extraordinary gambling cover; a team finally celebrating a playoff berth three days after they actually clinched; and a team everyone wrote off before the season began completing a season sweep over the preseason darlings. Just another night in our favourite little league, ladies and gentlemen.

 

Atlanta Dream 64 @ Washington Mystics 74

  • This is the one we all should’ve seen coming (I was kicking myself all night for missing this one and only going 3-1 with yesterday’s picks as a result). Atlanta came in on a three-game winning streak, including a win over the Mystics, but they did it all at home. They were 11-1 at home and 3-8 on the road before this game, and those three road wins came way back at the start of the season when they were rolling. The lineups were as expected, with Kia Vaughn retaining her starting spot ahead of Michelle Snow after Vaughn’s offensive explosion in their last game after becoming the starter.

 

  • The first half was rather less than gripping. It started off okay, with both teams creating more layups that the opposing defenses could’ve been comfortable with. But both sides shot poorly from outside, and the officials didn’t help with a seemingly endless stream of whistles. When they couldn’t create any momentum, moving Angel McCoughtry’s first half rest to later in the second quarter didn’t work as well for Atlanta as it did in their previous game. Instead of avoiding their offensive lull without her on the floor, it just shifted it a couple of minutes later. Outside of McCoughtry, no one on either side stood out, and the game crawled to a 37-35 halftime scoreline. The highlight was an Ivory Latta crossover dumping Le’coe Willingham on her butt before a layup, and Willingham getting her revenge with a comprehensive block on the next possession.

 

  • The second half wasn’t all that different. Both teams had a little success when they went inside to their centers, with Vaughn and Erika de Souza converting at the rim, but both squads were still firing up a host of bricks. Neither team could gather any momentum and sustain a run.

 

  • The pivotal moments came early in the fourth quarter, and unsurprisingly it was inspired by someone finally making a couple of shots. Atlanta were 0-13 from behind the arc to that point, with Washington 3-8 (those makes were hard to remember), when Ivory Latta nailed a triple with seven minutes left in the game. There’d been nothing between the teams for most of the night, but it was immediately after the 13th long-range miss from the Dream and created a six-point gap that felt huge. When she hit another one a couple of minutes later, pushing the Mystics’ advantage to 10, the game felt finished even with five minutes remaining. There were several offensive rebounds for Washington in that sequence as well, as the Mystics outworked and outshot the Dream. They did a solid job all night keeping Atlanta away from the rim, and it was the old story for the Dream – they couldn’t hit anything from outside to punish the collapsing defense. Atlanta’s own defense was solid enough, but the scoring they’d managed in their recent run of victories just wasn’t there.

 

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WNBA Today, 08/21/2013: Western leaders lose, Eastern leaders win, and Shock fall to Mercury yet again

 

It was a busy Tuesday in the WNBA this week, with four games competing for our attention last night. As always, all of them are covered for you right here. On to the Bullet Point Breakdowns.

 

Minnesota Lynx 75 @ Atlanta Dream 88

  • Having ended their surprising three-game losing skid with a comfortable win over New York on Sunday, the Lynx came in looking to build another winning streak against the team they swept in the 2011 WNBA Finals. In fact, the Dream hadn’t beaten Minnesota since 2010, back before Maya Moore turned pro. However, after two consecutive wins Atlanta looked like they might’ve found some form, ending a horrible streak of eight losses in nine games. Plus, they came in with a 10-1 record at home this season, the best in the WNBA.

 

  • Minnesota had Monica Wright available again after she missed a game due to a bruised quad. Le’coe Willingham continued to deputise for the injured Sancho Lyttle for Atlanta.

 

  • The Dream got off to the much quicker start in this game, and although Minnesota briefly came back into it as the first quarter continued, Atlanta dominated most of the first half. Early on it was Lynx turnovers and Dream offensive boards that were leading to Atlanta’s edge, with Erika de Souza making the most of her size advantage in the paint. As the half progressed, it was the active hands and constant energy of the Dream defense which kept Atlanta on top.

 

  • As always, Angel McCoughtry was a major part of the Dream’s success, but she had help. First from Erika, then from Tiffany Hayes, who continued her impressive recent form. Hayes brings such energy and hustle to the team at both ends of the floor, and even if her shooting can be streaky (and she shoots her threes from somewhere down around her knees) she gives Atlanta another legitimate threat from the perimeter. Fred Williams also seems to have decided – partly because of how good Hayes has been – that the small lineup with McCoughtry sliding to power forward has become his ‘first-change’ option. He’s gone to it in the first quarter of both their last two games and used it for long stretches, with Aneika Henry used purely as Erika’s backup at center. It keeps their energy constantly high, because that small group know they have to work their butts off to move and help each other due to their lack of pure size.

 

  • Williams also smartly switched up his rotation a little in this game. Leading 20-17 at the end of the first quarter but on top, he left McCoughtry in rather than benching her for her typical rest at the start of the second quarter. The Dream have suffered ugly lulls in that period in many recent games, but instead they kept their momentum rolling, built a lead, and McCoughtry still got some rest later in the half anyway. Williams recognised that they couldn’t afford the lull against Minnesota, and navigated around it nicely for once.

 

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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, 08/16/2013: Staggering comeback saves Sky in Seattle

 

Just the one game in the WNBA last night, but it was crazy enough to entertain all on its own. Chicago made their yearly visit to Seattle to face the Storm, but took the floor without rookie phenom Elena Delle Donne. Her mid-foot sprain, suffered in their previous game against Los Angeles, is expected to keep her out for a couple of weeks. The chances of losing their top spot in the East look slim, simply because there aren’t any teams in the chasing pack who look capable of stringing together a run to catch them. But with the Sky’s history, where they’ve consistently found ways to miss the postseason from whatever position they happened to be in, their fans aren’t taking anything for granted. Tamera Young came into the starting lineup again as Delle Donne’s replacement.

 

Seattle continue to sit in fourth place in the West, where they’ve been for quite some time now. Whether a playoff spot and likely first-round exit is actually preferable to owning some ping-pong balls in the lottery remains open to debate, but they continue to fight their way to enough wins to hold that spot. San Antonio and Tulsa aren’t dead yet, but Seattle remain in pole position.

 

With Delle Donne out, the likely focus of Chicago’s offense was obvious. Epiphanny Prince hasn’t been able to hit water from the side of a boat lately, so finding Sylvia Fowles in the paint was always going to be their primary option. However, the one thing Seattle have been good at year after year after year under Brian Agler, is preventing teams from taking layups. They consistently force opponents into taking a smaller proportion of their attempts from inside 5 feet than any other team in the WNBA. With Fowles as the first, second and third option for Chicago, their defensive focus was going to be pretty damn obvious. Everyone sagged into the paint for Seattle, making passing lanes to even get Fowles the ball difficult in the first place. Whenever she did touch the ball inside, defenders swarmed all over her immediately, forcing it back out unless she managed to score within moments of receiving the pass. And in case you haven’t noticed over the years due to Fowles being such an athletic and effective finisher inside – she’s a terrible passer. She has 9 assists this season. All season, in total. That’s not helped by the limited number of players on her team who can shoot, but it tells the story. Force her to pass out, and you’re more likely to create a turnover than give up a bucket.

 

The other problem that Chicago had offensively in the first half was that Epiphanny Prince continued to play like she has for at least a couple of months. She’s been awful. Her jump shot accuracy has disappeared, and she was shooting a miserable 31% in July and August combined coming into this game. This team was meant to become an unguardable 3-headed monster with the addition of Delle Donne, but lately Prince hasn’t been holding up her end.

 

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WNBA Today, 08/13/2013: Five-star day for WNBA

 

Apologies for this piece arriving a day later than usual. Hopefully you won’t all think it’s a dollar short as well (but as it’s free, that would seem difficult). Sunday saw another quintuple-header in the WNBA, and the first meeting this year of the two teams who’ve been atop either conference for the last few weeks. Let’s start the Bullet Point Breakdowns with that headline matchup.

 

Minnesota Lynx 86 @ Chicago Sky 94

  • The Lynx arrived off the back of having a 10-game winning streak broken by Washington on Thursday, and not having lost consecutive games since last year’s Finals they were obviously hoping to bounce back quickly. Janel McCarville was still out due to concussion, and this time Cheryl Reeve went directly to Devereaux Peters as the replacement, rather than messing around with Amber Harris as the starter. The Sky had stuttered a little since the All-Star break, with Elena Delle Donne’s concussion upsetting their rhythm and playing a part in back-to-back losses against Indiana. It’s games against teams like the Lynx where they really needed to step up and prove their credentials as a potential championship contender, after so many years of underperformance.

 

  • As most would’ve expected, Delle Donne was hiding on Peters defensively, with Sylvia Fowles taking Rebekkah Brunson and Swin Cash trying to chase after Maya Moore. The Lynx switched the post pairings at the other end, using Brunson as their first option on Delle Donne, and leaving Peters to do her best against Fowles.

 

  • Chicago got three blocks from Delle Donne and three taken changes from Courtney Vandersloot in the opening period – two players who aren’t exactly known for their defense but who’ve done their bit this season. Vandersloot’s worked hard to get stronger, and her feet appear to have become quicker in the process. Opponents don’t quite seem to quite realise how tall and long Delle Done is. She might not be the greatest individual defender in the world, but she’s very coordinated and size makes up for a lot. She broke Chicago’s rookie-record for blocks in this game – a record previously held by Fowles.

 

  • However, it was Minnesota who built the first leads of any significance, pushing ahead by as many as seven midway through the first quarter, and eight early in the second. Brunson and Seimone Augustus were both knocking down jumpers, while Epiphanny Prince continued her recent run of offensive futility. She’d had a good game against the dismal Sun on Friday, but in general her shot’s been missing in action for well over a month.

 

  • You could see that both head coaches were taking this game very seriously, well aware that it was a real test (and a potential WNBA Finals preview). Pokey Chatman didn’t mess around with Allie Quigley at point guard, using Prince whenever Vandersloot needed a brief rest. Amber Harris got a couple of minutes here and there, because without McCarville someone had to spell the posts, but Harris was pulled quickly when Fowles went right at her (and basically abused her). Neither coach wanted to give anything away cheaply.

 

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WNBA Today, 08/10/2013: Two road blowouts and Mercury win with, uh, defense and rebounding?

 

It wasn’t exactly a banner day of basketball yesterday in the WNBA, as three games resulted in an ugly slugfest and two blowouts. Because ‘poor but close’ is generally more interesting than ‘desperately one-sided’, and the league’s newest head coach was involved in the tight game, we’re breaking away from our usual chronological order for today’s Bullet Point Breakdowns, and starting in Arizona.

 

Tulsa Shock 67 @ Phoenix Mercury 70

  • Russ Pennell’s first game in charge of the Mercury came against Tulsa, the first of three meetings with the Shock in the space of twelve days. If Tulsa could take advantage of Phoenix’s recent issues to win at least two of those, then the lower reaches of the playoff race in the Western Conference might become distinctly more interesting. Pennell had the good fortune to have DeWanna Bonner healthy to play despite the bruised knee she suffered in Corey Gaines’s final game as head coach. Brittney Griner’s sprained ankle, however, kept her out. Krystal Thomas started in her place. Tulsa continued with the same starting lineup they’ve been rolling out in recent games, but were once again without live-wire sixth woman Riquna Williams due to a right ankle problem that’s expected to keep her out another week.

 

  • The most obvious difference under Pennell, right from the start, was the lack of zone defense. The Mercury were so deplorable playing man-to-man under Gaines that they went to a 1-2-2 zone midway through the season for the majority of defensive possessions, and had some success. Pennell has thrown that out, and went man-to-man throughout. They weren’t switching much either, placing individual responsibility on each player to cover their man. It backfired a couple of times early on, as a few Mercury players failed to offer the effort required to play effective man-to-man. Diana Taurasi, in particular, got caught on screens or just watched Angel Goodrich go by her far too frequently.

 

  • Tulsa’s success in recent weeks has come through the post pairing of Liz Cambage and Glory Johnson, and that was inevitably their focus again. They tried to run their offense through Cambage down low, and when she looked to score she was efficient and effective. Phoenix weren’t even double-teaming her that frequently, often leaving Thomas or Lynetta Kizer to do most of the work alone. It would’ve been nice to see Cambage attack even more than she did – at times it was almost as if she was expecting additional defenders and looking to pass before it was necessary. Johnson was quiet, failing to make much impact on the game. It was back to the story from a month or so ago, when the concentration on feeding Cambage led to Johnson barely touching the ball.

 

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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, 08/05/2013: Sparks dominate regressing Mystics; Silver Stars squeak past Shock; Lynx coast home again

 

Sometimes, the WNBA can be pretty predictable. When one team fighting at the top of a conference faces a sub-.500 team heading backwards, there’s a likely result. When the two worst teams in the West face off, it shouldn’t be a surprise that the game ends up scrappy and tight. And when the league’s best team faces a squad that have been fighting for their lives all year, a blowout is on the cards. Let’s take a look at Sunday’s action.

 

Los Angeles Sparks 75 @ Washington Mystics 57

  • The bad news for Los Angeles was that Candace Parker was still out with her right wrist injury, and had in fact left the team to head back to LA for an MRI. She’s listed with a bone bruise and is day-to-day. Mike Thibault made a change to his starting lineup, finally reacting to the fact that his bench was frequently outperforming his starters. Rookie Emma Meesseman came in for Michelle Snow at center, putting her alongside Crystal Langhorne in the post. Interestingly, Thibault was reluctant to use Langhorne and Meesseman together at all at the start of the season – both are primarily power forwards at this level, so it can be an awkward fit. Now he was trying them as his starting frontcourt.

 

  • For the first few minutes, Washington were on top, with everything rimming out for LA while the Mystics made a series of short jumpers. But that balance was very short-lived. The Sparks were getting deep into the Washington defense with Nneka Ogwumike finishing inside, Marissa Coleman came off the bench and started nailing jumpers, while all the Mystics could offer were bricks from the perimeter. LA took control.

 

  • The silver lining in Parker’s injury for LA could be the extra responsibility it places on Ogwumike to step up. While she’s put together solid numbers, she has a tendency to fade into the background in many games while Parker and the perimeter stars dominate the ball. With Parker out she can be more of a focus for the offense, remind everyone – including herself – what she can do, and then hopefully keep that rolling after Parker returns.

 

  • Washington made a bit of a run in the second quarter to get themselves back into the contest, but there were still too many turnovers, too much one-on-one play, and too many jumpers being fired up. The home commentators were happy about how high a percentage of their scoring was coming in the paint – but that was because they weren’t getting to the line and they weren’t making any jump shots. When that happens, virtually all your points have to come in the paint. There’s no other way to score. LA led 33-26 at halftime.

 

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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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