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WNBA Finals: Phoenix Finds Its Shot, Fever Lose Theirs, as Mercury Take Game 4, 90-77, to Tie Series
By Bob Corwin
Correspondent
& Lee Michaelson
Publisher
Photo Caption: What Do You Expect Me to Do With This?” The expression on the face of Indiana’s Katie Douglas seems to say it all when a teammate passed her the ball in the middle of the fourth quarter of the Fever’s Game Four loss to the Phoenix Mercury Wednesday. Douglas had an uncharacteristically bleak shooting night, going two-for-14 from the field and one-of-seven from beyond the arc, as the Mercury poured in the threes, leaving Douglas hesitant to shoot by the game’s final minutes. The series now moves back to Phoenix for a winner-take-all fifth game on Friday.
Photo Credit: Full Court/Lee Michaelson
There is an old jazz standard dating back to 1917 called “Back Home Again in Indiana” that’s been covered by artists from Louis Armstrong and Neil Diamond to Jerry Garcia and the Purdue marching band. “I long for my Indiana home,” the lyrics conclude, and the Indiana Fever may very well be longing for exactly that come Friday night when they take the floor for the deciding game of the WNBA Finals at the U.S. Airways Center in Phoenix, Arizona, far from the two sellout crowds that cheered their lungs out for the home team here in Indianapolis this week.
But it will be the Phoenix Mercury who now get to go home again, and play for the WNBA Championship on their home court, tying this series at two games apiece and forcing a fifth and final game, as they cruised to a 90-77 game here in Indianapolis Wednesday night in the most lopsided contest of this WNBA Finals series.
The Fever broke new ground just by making it to the WNBA Finals, and most considered them the underdogs in this series by a fair margin—until the series tipped off, that is, and Indiana showed just what a contender it was. Hopes flew high here in the Hoosier capitol, as the Fever took one from the Mercury on the road, then returned “Back Home Again in Indiana,” to eke out a one-point victory in Game Three and take the lead in the series, two games to one.
One of those convinced the home team would close things out Wednesday was Bill York, a long-time member of the media relations staff for the Indiana Pacers (they named the press room after him), who now runs the statistics operations not only for the Pacers and the Fever, but for the Indianapolis Colts and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway as well. A consummate gentleman, York identified himself only by name, and not by position, as he pulled out a chair and invited me to join his table in the media dining room and then handed me the two championship rings he was wearing in honor of the occasion—one for the Colts and one, with three diamond chips in it, marking the three national championship titles owned by the Pacers.
“We need another one for the ladies,” said York. He was thoroughly convinced they would earn it Wednesday night.
It would mean quite a lot, not only to York, but to the city, indeed, the entire state, had the Fever pulled it off. The Pacers ring with its three diamond chips that York was wearing is a approaching antique status, dating back almost 40 years to the days of the ABA when the Pacers won national championships in 1970, 1972 and 1973. It’s been a long, dry spell since then. Though the Pacers pulled off several division titles in the Reggie Miller era, they own exactly the same number of NBA conference titles as the Fever now do—one. An NBA or a WNBA championship has eluded both teams.
Needless to say, York, and nearly 20,000 other Indiana fans in the building, would be sorely disappointed, as the Fever stumbled badly in their effort to close out this championship series at home. They may yet be able to grab another win in Phoenix, but as head coach Lin Dunn conceded, they’ve set up a situation where they’re going to have to do it the hard way.
For a team somewhat ignored by this “basketball state,” one whose owners threatened at the beginning of this season to shutter the franchise next year if the team couldn’t double attendance and sponsorships, the Fever and its players were suddenly the darlings of the town. Fever banners are up all over the downtown area. The team is getting local television coverage other franchises would drool over in their march to a possible championship. Locals, men and women alike, from all walks of life are suddenly talking about them. Peyton Manning, who has been known to attend big Lady Vol games (as he graduated from Tennessee), and other Indianapolis Colts players were in the house, and the Pacers, who are in China for games in Taiwan and Beijing, arranged an overseas viewing party for the team.
Perhaps despite all their coach’s talk about treating this as “just one more game,” the anticipation couldn’t help but spill over to the players. Ebony Hoffman enthused about the turnout:
“[The fans] have come out to support us these last two games, and they’ve shown and rallied behind us to a point where—we couldn’t imagine seeing 18,000 fans at Conseco Fieldhouse! You know, especially at a women’s basketball, WNBA game! There has been so much talk about us that we’ve got people coming and showing their support and buying tickets—those weren’t free tickets. Those were bought tickets!”
Tamika Catchings was so excited about the prospect of bringing home a championship Wednesday that it disrupted her pre-game routine. “I mean, it’s an awesome feeling to think about winning a championship and it’s kinda like, I don’t want to get too excited because I want to make sure it happens first. That’s how I was today, because getting ready for the game, I couldn’t take a nap, because I was so excited about the game.”
But it seemed that perhaps the Indiana psyche was so concerned about not disappointing its newfound fans, they veered from the disciplined play that got them to this point. From the start, it appeared the Fever lacked “the edge,” as they seemed to just stand around around on their first couple of defensive possessions.
In contrast, the Mercury was loose and stroking freely for most of the night. Diana Taurasi implied that they had received a wake-up call from the Fever and were ready to answer.
When all was said and done, the story of the first quarter set the tone for the night. The Fever appeared to be under the illusion that if Cappie Pondexter was stopped, everything else would take care of itself. Too many Mercury players were left open on the perimeter, particularly Tangela Smith who finished four-of-six from deep. Mercury Coach Corey Gaines has been saying that his team had been getting good looks, just not making them. Tonight, they found their shot. Five Mercury players, led once again by Pondexter, finished in double figures, as Phoenix shot 47.8 percent (32/67) from the field and 41.7 percent (10/24) from beyond the arc.
Conversely, with the exception of Hoffman and Catchings, the Fever lost theirs. Neither Katie Douglas (2/14 from the field and 1/7 from long) nor Briann January (1/9 from the field and 0/4 from three-point range) seemed to be able to hit the broad side of an Indiana barn. Though, thanks to the efforts of Catchings and Hoffman, and to a lesser degree, Tammy Sutton-Brown, the Fever managed a respectable, though less than “hot,” 40.8 percent (29/71) from the field, their perimeter shooting was simply dreadful—they managed to sink just 11.1 percent, or two, of their 18 long-distance attempts.
Things looked more optimistic in the early going. Initially, the Indiana sagging man defense, which appeared more like a limp zone, worked, as Phoenix’s Temeka Johnson missed an open three. Meanwhile, the Fever was able to get drivers into the paint and score against the man defense with which the Mercury opened the game. Catchings, who had struggled mightily with her shot, led the way for the Fever with six early points, and the Indiana bench seemed absolutely giddy.
 | Photo Caption: Brian January and Shay Murphy celebrate an Indiana run with the Fever bench in the early minutes of Game Four, but there was little to cheer about as the night wore on. |
| Photo Credit: Full Court Press/Lee Michaelson |
But the Mercury continued to get quality perimeter looks, and as Phoenix Coach Corey Gaines had promised, the Mercury began knocking them down, as Johnson and Tangela Smith hit three-balls in the first three minutes to keep the two teams within a few points of each other. A Pondexter drive tied the score at 12 apiece at the 6:26 mark. Over the next two-and-a-half minutes the Mercury launched an 11-0 run, capped by a Pondexter pull-up jumper, as Phoenix continued to pour it on, attacking the basket and shooting over their opponents.
| Photo Caption: The Fever did their best to stop the Mercury’s Cappie Pondexter, but at times it seemed like nothing short of a full-on tackle would work. “We had to come out and play Mercury basketball, which I think we did for 40 minutes,” said Pondexter in explaining her team’s Game Four turnaround. “We wanted to come out very positive with a lot of energy on both ends of the floor and attack. ... I think we were aggressive from the start. ... We kinda put them on their heels, so when they tried to come out for a run, we had the momentum.” |  |
| Photo Credit: Full Court Press/Lee Michaelson |
Though, on the whole, both teams did a good job of keeping a handle on the basketball (finishing with 11 turnovers apiece), three turnovers during this interval, two by Indiana’s Tammy Sutton-Brown and one by Ebony Hoffman (plus a Hoffman offensive foul), helped fuel the run by the visitors.
Catchings broke the drought for Indiana with a driving lay-up, and a block and stepped up rebounding by Catchings, plus steals by Catchings and Hoffman, helped ignite the home team, who took off on an 8-0 run of their own, closing to 20-23 (in the Mercury’s favor) at the 2:36 mark as Hoffman converted one of a pair of free throws. But the Fever would not score again for the remainder of the period, notching only two more points on a pair of Douglas free throws, while Smith knocked down another triple off a Taylor feed and Taylor herself tallied the Mercury’s last seven points of the opening period, penetrating into the lane either to score or get to the foul line or both. The Fever “help defense” too often seemed a step slow, and the Mercury led by 11 at the first-quarter break, 33-22.
Catchings led all scorers with 10 points in the opening stanza, but the Mercury had much better balance. For the quarter, the Mercury was 13/18 (72.2 percent) from the field to the Fever’s 9/19 (47.4 percent). Even more significantly, the visitors were four-of-six from deep in the period compared to zero-of-four for the home team, as Douglas and January showed the first signs that something was amiss in what would become a very long evening for both of them.
 | Photo Caption: Tamika Catchings had her best game of this Finals series, with a game-high 24 points on 11-of-17 field-goal shooting, but she could have gotten “by with a little help from [her] friends.” |
| Photo Credit: Full Court Press/Lee Michaelson |
In the second quarter, the Mercury reverted primarily to their “rover”/zone defense that has been troubling the Fever throughout this series. Both sides scored early, essentially trading shots, as the Mercury extended their lead by just one point , to 40-28 (on a Pondexter jumper), in the first three minutes of the period. From there, Indiana on a 19-9 run over the balance of the quarter, closing to within one point on a Hoffman fast-break jumper by the 3:22 mark and finishing the quarter down by just two, 47-49, as they stiffened their defense on one end and began to disrupt the Phoenix rover with screen actions on the other. The screens were effective in allowing the Fever to get their players open in the paint, and things once again seemed more hopeful for the Fever fans, but this would prove to be the only quarter of the game in which Indiana would get balanced scoring and play offense as a team.
For the half, Phoenix still shot 54.5 percent from the field (18/33) in spite of a cool second quarter (5/15), while the home team shot a bit better from the field than in the first quarter, now at 48.7 percent (19/39), but continued their drought from long-range (1/6 in the second period, to finish the half at 1/10 from beyond the arc). But the Mercury sharpshooters had also cooled off a bit, netting just one more trey in the second period to put them at 5/11 (45.5 percent) from long-range for the half, and the Fever got themselves more shots (39 attempts to the Mercury’s 33 in the opening half) to help counter the wide Phoenix three-point advantage.
Through the first half, the Fever also successfully managed to execute their game plan, which called for them to box out and limit the Mercury’s second-chance points. Over the first two quarter, the Fever controlled the offensive glass (7-2), and maintained parity on the defensive boards, to an 18-13 rebounding advantage. Despite their slight deficit on the scoreboard, they also outperformed the Mercury at their own game, leading the battle of points in the paint (32-20), second-chance points (9-4) and fast-break points (9-2).
For both teams, the stars were shining as Catchings finished the half with 16 points, while Pondexter had 12 and Taurasi, 11.
Both teams came out of the locker room with renewed focus. For about the first three minutes of the stanza, the Mercury played straight man and the Fever was able to get the ball into the paint. Phoenix used the three-ball, with bombs by Johnson and Taurasi, to maintain their narrow lead for more than half the period, until a driving finger roll by Catchings tied the score at 59 each at the 4:33 mark of the quarter.
But soon thereafter, the wheels seemed to come off the bus for Indiana. The Fever began to struggle to get good looks against the rover, while the Mercury was able to drive the ball to the rim repeatedly on a 10-2 scoring run, as first Willingham, then Taurasi, then Taylor, then Pondexter drove the lane to lay them in, and the Mercury were up by eight, 69-61, with just under two minutes left in the quarter. A critical moment occurred early in the run with the Mercury up 63-59. Katie Douglas made a lazy pass from the wing. Penny Taylor stepped into the passing lane and took it the length of the court to put the Mercury back up by six. The Fever also began to struggle with foul trouble, as Hoffman picked up her fourth 30 seconds after sinking the Fever’s only shot of this interval, and headed to the bench, replaced by Jessica Moore, who had just two points in nearly nine-and-a-half minutes of intermittent play off the bench.
 |  |
| Photo Caption: (Left) Despite her unusual defensive technique, the Fever’s Tamecka Dixon is unable to stop the Mercury’s Penny Taylor (13), as (right) Taylor takes it to the hole, finishing strong. | |
| Photo Credit: Full Court Press/Lee Michaelson | |
Fellow reserve Jessica Davenport had modestly better results on the whole, but it was she who put the only spark in the Fever’s game in this interval, swatting down two blocks and interrupting the Mercury run by finishing a lay-up despite a Taylor foul and knocking down a free-throw to convert the three-point play. But Pondexter responded with a three-ball to finish out the quarter, with her team up by seven, 72-65.
The key stat of the quarter continued to be three-point shooting by the Mercury, who were now eight-for-19 from long, and the lack of same by the Fever, who were one-for-13. The Mercury were also starting to find their groove, taking back command of the backboards (9-7) for the period, and notching six second-chance points in the quarter to just three for the Fever.
Despite these setbacks, the Fever had not yet thrown in the towel. A Catchings basket cut the Mercury lead to just four, 72-68, with 8:17 left in the game. But now it was Catchings in trouble, turning it over on a bad pass picked off by Pondexter, then picking up her fourth personal seconds later. Fever Coach Lin Dunn made judgment call, while understandable, may have proved fatal to her team’s cause, sending Catchings to the bench and Tamecka Dixon in to sub for her. The question is: With the game, and perhaps the title, on the line and just seven-and-a-half minutes left to play, what, exactly, was Dunn saving Catchings for? She was nearly the only Indiana player doing much of anything at this point, and Dixon, who was scoreless for the game, was neither the defender that Catchings is nor as an effective distributor of the ball.
With Catchings on the bench, Phoenix launched a 5-0 mini-run that continued even after her return. Though Catchings was off the floor for less than two minutes, without their scoring and spiritual leader, the Fever looked totally lost on offense, as all of the Fever players remaining on the floor seemed hesitant to shoot the basketball. They passed the ball around like a hot potato, resulting in a Douglas turnover, and still wound up with poor looks. By the time Catchings returned at the 5:52, the damage was irreparable. Now up by 11, Phoenix was in flowing rhythm, scoring at will and keeping the crowd out of the game. Penny Taylor widened the lead to 84-70 at the 2:36 mark and it was now obvious the series would be heading back to Phoenix.
For the fourth quarter, the Fever were just 2/15 from the field (13.3 percent) and finished the game 2/18 from behind the arc. The Mercury were a modest 6/14 (42.9 percent) in the final stanza, but knocked down two more three-balls to finish the game a solid 10/24 (41.7 percent) from deep. For the contest, the Mercury put five players in double figures led by Pondexter’s 22 points (on 7/15 from the field). Taylor reemerged from her Game Three slump as a deadly offensive threat, putting up 17 points on six-of-12 field-goal shooting; Tangela Smith once again found her stroke, finishing with 16 points on 6/10 from the field and contributing four of the Mercury’s long-balls; while Taurasi didn’t match any career-highs, notching just 16 points for the evening, she, too, was shooting more efficiently with 7/16 from the field (including two triples); and Temeka Johnson got into the act with 10 points on three-of-six from the field and two-of-three from long range.
| Photo Caption: The Mercury’s Tangela Smith, who struggled in Game Three, rediscovered her stroke in Game Four, finishing with 16 points on six-of-10 from the field, including four (out of six) from long range. Her strong night from beyond the arc helped to open up the floor for her Mercury teammates. |  |
| Photo Credit: Full Court Press/Lee Michaelson |
Meanwhile, the Fever had only three players in double figures led by Catchings with a game-high 24 points (11/17 from the field), trailed by Hoffman, who despite her injured shoulder was good for 17 points on seven-of-10 from the field (but just one-of-two from long), and Tammy Sutton-Brown with 12 on five-of-10 shooting.
By game’s end, the Fever held just a 36-32 advantage on the glass, but did succeed in limiting the Mercury’s offensive boards, winning that battle 10-26 and thereby maintaining a 14-10 edge in second-chance points. The Fever also controlled the paint, 48-36, but unfortunately on this night, were trading twos for threes.
Looking at our keys show little for the home side to cheer about:
Center: Tammy Sutton-Brown scored 12 points but had only three rebounds, missing more easy shots (as in prior contests) and mishandling the ball several times. But the Mercury’s Tangela Smith was a star, hitting four key threes, to finish with 16 points and five boards.
Advantage: Edge to the Mercury tonight!
Power Forward: Despite her injury Indiana’s Ebony Hoffman continued to play well with 17 points and eight boards. Hoffman insisted that, come Finals time, nothing as minor as a dislocated shoulder was going to slow her down:
“I’m fine, it’s the Finals,” she stated. “I feel like I’m a newborn baby. I just came out of the womb. I’m okay. I can play right now.”
The Fever held Phoenix’s Le’coe Willingham to just eight points, but she also pulled down eight boards.
Advantage: Edge to the Fever.
Small Forward: Diana Taurasi set the tone with a solid 16 points and five boards, but Catchings did even more with 24 points, 12 rebounds, four assists and three steals. Explaining her turnaround, Catchings said, “What was working? Attacking the basket, getting closer to the basket. I think overall just my teammates, everybody was moving around early on. But for me, I think just about being aggressive, trying to get to the basket, trying to create for my teammates open opportunities, and just hope that everybody knocks down their shots. We had a bad shooting night tonight, but I don’t expect a bad shooting night on Friday.”
It’s something of a shame that Catchings’s best performance of the series thus far, came on a night when her surrounding cast was so far off the mark. Catchings did what she could but didn’t get enough help.
Advantage: Edge to the Fever in one of their only bright spots of the night.
| Photo Caption: Diana Taurasi overcame her recent Finals shooting slump; though she had just 16 points, she shot the ball reasonably well, going seven-of-16 from the field and two-of-eight from long range; she also had five boards, a block and a steal, though she coughed the ball up three times. Here, Taurasi gets a lot of attention from the Fever defense on the perimeter, and kicks the ball out to Le’coe Willingham. |  |
| Photo Credit: Full Court Press/Lee Michaelson |
Shooting Guard: Katie Douglas played like she had the weight of the entire crowd on her shoulders, but the home town girl just could not deliver, shooting an abysmal two-for-14 on this night and delivering just one bucket (in seven attempts) from long when her team needed so much more.
Cappie Pondexter not only scored well (22 points) but also played more under control than she had in the last two games, taking much better shots. She had a starring night with seven assists and five boards to go with her 22 big ones.
Advantage: Give the Mercury a huge edge here.
Point Guard: The Indiana point guards (starting and reserve) were essentially A.W.O.L., particularly for much of the fourth quarter when the team seemed rudderless. Not to mention being outscored by the efficient play of Temeka Johnson (10 points on 3/6 from the field plus five assists).
Advantage: Edge to the Mercury!
Bench: Penny Taylor looked like the star she was in 2007 as she put 17 points on the board on efficient shooting. She also doled out three assists and snagged a steal. DeWanna Bonner continued to be a non-factor for Phoenix as in Game Three (although she was reported to be ill during that contest).
The entire Fever bench posted only 13 points with Briann January having a dismal 1/9 night from the field, posting just eight points mostly from the foul line. Unlike Game Three when even the non-scorers off the bench provided a needed burst of energy, in this game, the Fever reserves added little but fouls, turnovers, and chaos.
Advantage: Big edge to the Mercury, thanks to their Aussie.
Offense:The Mercury seem to have sussed out the Indiana defense, which focuses on keeping the ball on one side of the floor. Phoenix overcame that by reversing the ball smartly much of the night, giving themselves open looks for threes. They also made better use of the middle of the court avoiding Fever traps, and drove the ball effectively, getting themselves to the line 19 times in Game Four (to just 12 the previous game).
The Fever stopped screening for much of the fourth quarter as their flow was tentative and disjointed. As Dunn explained it, “It’s going to be hard for us to win when Katie Douglas is two-for-14, Briann [January] is one-for-nine. I thought thee were times there where we missed shots that we needed to hit, to keep up with the offensive firepower that Phoenix has. You know, if you can keep them around 90, between 85 and 90, that’s what we’ve been doing to kinda beat them. So I was disappointed that we didn’t knock down some of our open shots. The layups around the basket, the oustide shots—we were two-for-18 from the three, and at the end of the day, we didn’t score enough points.”
The poor shooting had an exponentially negative effect on the Fever as several of the players became hesitant to put one up as the game wore on. “I think when Katie and Bri missed as much as they missed,” Dunn continued, “they got gun-shy. But, of course, we wanted them to keep shooting. We wanted Tammy to keep shooting inside. But some players tend to say, maybe I’ll make an extra pass since I missed four or five in a row. I thought Katie got some great looks, looks that she has been knocking down from the three-point to the rim. So maybe there toward the end, she passed up some shots, because she had missed ‘em, but we got to keep shooting, take the open shot.”
It is hard to argue with 32/64 (47.8%) from the field for Phoenix to 29/71 (40.8%) for Indiana, very close to how they normally shot this year. The Fever got buried by threes—10/24 by Phoenix to their own 2/18.
Advantage: Slam dunk for the Mercury!
Defense: Yes, the Mercury played some in the “rover.” Their man defense was weak at the start of each half, but they had the good sense to return to the “rover” for most of the night.
The Fever was slow to get to the Mercury’s open shooters, and rotated too slowly against penetration. Catchings was solid on defense, but others on her team failed to step up at this end, either. Overall rebounding may have favored the Fever, but the Mercury got critical ones when the game was on the line.
Advantage: Edge to the Mercury!
Coaching: Give Phoenix’s Corey Gaines credit for bringing his team out loose, but focused, for this contest despite the pressure of having their championship hopes on the line.
Did Lin Dunn really think she could afford even two minutes with Catchings out in the fourth quarter and her team already in a hole? Dunn has been there before; in fact, she’s been in big games quite a lot, but the weight of this occasion may have weighed on Dunn as well as on her team.
Advantage: Edge to the Mercury tonight.
Intangibles: Everything was in place for a Game Four “Conseco Celebration,” but the Indiana Fever did not play with enough energy on this night and the Phoenix Mercury was on top of its game. The massive home crowd could not get into the game, as timely Phoenix three-balls often cooled their passion.
Advantage: Edge to the Mercury.
Looking Ahead: Now the pressure goes back on the Mercury to win the WNBA championship in front of its home fans.
Indiana is trying to keep the loss in perspective. As Dunn pointed out, “I think what I have to stress to the team is we have to do it the hard way. [Phoenix] had to do it the hard way, tonight they had to win, and now we’ve got to go out there and do it the hard way. Everybody needs to understand the only situation we’ve got here is, we’re tied. We’ve got to go out there, knock down a few more shots, get a couple more defensive stops, and let’s see what happens.”
And this time it’s Dunn who has picked up Gaines’s refrain of the last two games—the only thing her team needs to do differently, she says, is knock down their shots. “I’ll have to look at the tape, but I know there were wide-open shots we missed, and I know Tammy [Sutton-Brown] missed some wide-open layups. Katie missed some layups in there. I don’t think she got fouled, she’s just got to finish those shots. I give them credit, they played hard, but I thought we missed some open shots. Katie Douglas, you’ve seen her shoot, she doesn’t usually shoot two-for-14. I thought Tamika Catchings was scoring well, she was aggressive. But they had five people in double figures; we had three. There is the difference in the ballgame.”
As far as what her team needs to do differently to pull out a win in Phoenix, Dunn had little to offer other than that her team needs to knock down their open looks. “They scored 90 points, I think we had some intentional fouls down there, so between 85 and 90 points, that’s ideal for us to keep [Phoenix] there. That’s under what they average. But at the end of the day, what we need to do is score 93, while they score 90. Seventy-seven points against them is not going to do it. Now like [Coach Gaines] says, I don’t think there is anything we need to do. We just need to hit the layups and the threes. Instead of being two-for-18, we need to be six-for-18. There’s four more threes. There’s 12 or 13 more points.”
But Indiana must do a better job in the paint and others must give Catchings more help at both ends for the Fever to win the next one. Look for the last contest to go down to the wire. Expect the Fever to re-group and play better, but we will hold to our original prediction of Phoenix in five.
Updated with additional game photos and quotes.
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