October 2, 2009 - 9:42am
Tamika Catchings blamed herself for letting her team down in Game One of the WNBA Finals in which the Indiana Fever suffered a 116-120 loss to the Phoenix Mercury in overtime Tuesday. Catchings, an All Star, posted just eight points in that game before fouling out.
After delivering a near triple double with 19 points, 11 assists and nine rebounds, she should sleep better after Thursday night's Game Two!
Post-game, Catchings told reporters that the difference between the two games was her "focus on being more aggressive and staying out of foul trouble." Unlike Game One where she fouled out in overtime after having to spend precious game minutes on the bench as her fouls mounted, Catchings was blown for just three personals in Game Two, despite her relentless defense on the Mercury's (and the league's) leading scorer, Diana Taurasi.
There were those who expected a letdown on the part of the Fever after outplaying the Mercury for a good portion of a close and exhausting Game One and still suffering an emotionally draining loss. But all year long, Indiana has shown itself to be a resilient group. Thursday night was no different.
From start to finish the Fever were more selective in pushing the ball while, for the most part, denying Phoenix the fast-break opportunities on which its offense thrives. For the game, the Mercury won the battle of fast break points (in the second half) but by only 16 to the Fever's 13 and, in general, the pace of the game was more moderate than the shoot-a-thon that was Game One.
No home team has won the first two games of the Final Series since the WNBA Finals went to a best-of-five format in 2005, and Catchings called the win on the road, "Huge. Huge for us!"
Fever Coach Lin Dunn agreed. "[I]t makes us even. So now we're back to even, and we go back to our arena. I'm confident it will be sold out. There will be amazing, wonderful, crazy, Hoosier, Indiana Fever fans to welcome us back and having the opportunity to go home and play even is much better for us than, say, if we were 0-2. We thought we could steal the first game, but we just didn't defend well enough and our players were not discouraged, they were not down, they were very optimistic about, 'Okay, Coach keeps talking about if we defend better we'll win, and it's true.'"
The Fever is a better team than their individual parts would indicate. With their defensive mindset and, for the most part, consistent execution in Game Two, they showed they should not be taken lightly.