August 22, 2010 - 2:22am
Editor's Note: This is the final installment in a series of reports from Full Court Press Columnist Christopher Thompson as he took a one-month road trip across the United States this summer, stopping to take in games in five WNBA cities. En route, he had the opportunity to observe nine of the league's 12 teams, including nearly all of the playoff contenders. Previous stories have covered his reports on the Tulsa Shock (v. the Los Angeles Sparks), the Washington Mystics (vs. the Atlanta Dream) and the New York Liberty (v. the San Antonio Silver Stars). This final installment covers his stops in Indiana and Minnesota.
After I left New York, it was time to heed the words of Horace Greeley and Go West, young man. And while I can say that when I first did so more than 30 years ago, "young" was an apt description; nowadays, its a bit like calling Sylvia Fowles Shorty.
I drove through the night before stopping in Columbus, Ohio. Touring the Ohio State campus I realized that soon it would be time to see what Jantel Lavender and Samantha Prahalis could do with one more year of experience.
Then it was on to Indianapolis to see the Fever take on the Washington Mystics. I had seen the Mystics the previous week and they played very well against the Dream, but since then they had lost three straight. Meanwhile, Indiana had finally hit its stride and looked poised once again to win the Eastern Conference. (Thanks to late-season pushes by Washington and New York, the Fever are currently in a three-way tie for top honors that won't be decided until the final day of the season.)
At that point in the season, the Fever had won seven of their eight games in July and with a win over the Mystics could separate themselves from the rest of the conference.
