Five things we learned from Fever’s season-ending loss
By CHRIS GOFF
ISL Assistant Editor
INDIANAPOLIS – The Indiana Fever piled one missed shot on top of another Sunday, until every clank, rim-out, brick and offline heave eventually added up to the end of their season.
It was one loss that no coach or player seemed particularly upset over.
The Fever opened their title defense with a 1-7 start, something from which only two teams in WNBA history had recovered to make the playoffs.
Indiana went 15-11 over its final 26 games to reach the postseason and promptly swept top-seeded Chicago in the first round, leading many to believe the fourth-seeded Fever had suddenly rechanneled the magic of 2012.
Not so. A franchise known for consistent, hard-nosed defense fell flat offensively and was swept by No. 2 seed Atlanta. Tamika Catchings scored 24 points in the final game, a 67-53 defeat, with no teammate contributing more than seven. But afterward, Catchings found perspective.
“I am not really disappointed,” she said. “Proud of my team. We overcame a lot to be here. Nobody thought we would make the playoffs. We gave it everything we had.”
Here are five takeaways from the Fever’s finale:
1. Katie Douglas is missed. She made only a brief cameo in last year’s WNBA Finals, which didn’t stop the Fever from winning their first trophy. But this season proved how much Indiana needs Douglas. She is ninth on the WNBA’s all-time scoring list. With Douglas sidelined by a bulging disk in her lower back, the Fever suffered a rare losing season and then bowed out of the playoffs with a franchise playoff-worst 53 points at home. Coach Lin Dunn said back injuries are tricky and expressed fear that Douglas might not ever recover. “We hope that she can,” Dunn said. “We just don’t know.”
2. Tamika Catchings still has it. Indiana’s superstar tried to throw the team on her back, scoring 24 points and securing six rebounds. She is five rebounds from tying Lisa Leslie’s playoff career record of 471. Catchings, a 34-year-old graduate of Tennessee, still competes like a player in her prime. She was Rookie of the Year in 2002 and the No. 3 pick in the 2001 draft. In 2013, she is an all-world defender who battles in the paint as an undersized power forward and terrifies the other team with her spinning assaults on the basket. “It felt like we were the underdog trying to dig our way up,” Catchings said of the Fever’s unusual season. “Next year the team will be different. You kind of live in the moment. We had a great year. Any time you’re going for back to back (championships) people are gunning for you.”
3. Shavonte Zellous is not quite there yet. Zellous, a fifth-year guard, averaged 14.7 points this year and was named the league’s most improved player. Yet in the biggest game of the season, with Indiana fighting to stay alive, Zellous was taken out of the game. Her six rebounds were helpful, but scoring just six points on 2-of-10 shooting made Catchings a solo act on the offensive end. In fairness to Zellous, she did score 15 points in Game 1 of the series, but this rough performance shows she still has a ways to go to become the player she wants to be.
4. Rebounding mattered. Dunn felt rebounding would be a huge key in the series. Indiana was beaten 43-33 on the boards Sunday. Having 6-foot-1 Erlana Larkins go against Atlanta’s 6-5 Erika de Souza did not end well, as de Souza scored 12 points – several created directly or indirectly from her four offensive rebounds – to support the brilliance of Angel McCoughtry (27 points).
5. Indiana will be back. The Fever have an ingrained culture of winning. That was evident when not even eight different starting lineups and missed time by each of the top seven scorers could prevent them from reaching the Eastern Conference finals for the sixth time in nine seasons. “We looked mentally and physically tired,” Dunn said after it was over. “Tremendous amount of character this team showed through adversity. You either get up and fight or lie down and quit. I’m impressed with how far we got with this group. I’ll always remember that.” This was Indiana’s 10th playoff appearance dating to the franchise’s inception in 2000. As long as Catchings and Dunn are around, this team will have a chance every September and October.
