Fever sets up Game 5 title showdown

And it seems like both quite a while ago and not quite so distant to Indiana point guard Briann January. Then Indiana coach Stephanie White had her team start defending the Lynx full-court.

The Fever fought together shooting 86% from the charity stripe and kept away from careless turnovers, as they travel to Minnesota with five 2012 Championship stars and a handful of remarkable bench teammates. New York called a timeout, their season already over, now just delaying the official end. Game 5 is Wednesday night in Minneapolis, where the Fever won Game 1.

Over the four games, the Fever are 64-for-70 the line.

It’s a perspective that Catchings says she first learned from Dawn Staley, another name that rings out for those who saw her play, and is only faintly familiar to the many who missed her. Staley, like Catchings, helped define an era of women’s basketball that hasn’t yet reached that critical mass, where great performances happen in front of small audiences and are memorialized only in grainy videos, YouTube clips, and stories. “Had we kind of had that sense of urgency and activity early in the game that would have been better for us”. “And this team has really taken on that identity, and this team, every single player on this team has improved dramatically as the season has went on”. Heck, maybe better than we each know our own. “It’s been fun playing this series, it’s been an honor”. It’s been an honor. “Lord willing, I’ll be back and play next year, but if not, this could be the last stand”. “But at the same time, it’s not done”. “That’s what you play for”. “You’ve seen a lot of that in this series”. Why not go to a Game 5? Cynthia Cooper holds the record with four WNBA Finals MVP honors, but a second for Moore would put her in a tie for second with Lisa Leslie and Tina Thompson.

The game, like the series, has been a futile defensive grudge match from the start. Only 15 points total separated the teams in the first three games. Cappie Pondexter, voted the Finals MVP, had 26 points and 10 assists for Phoenix, while Penny Taylor scored 30. Lately, there’s been as much sweeping as a curling championship, with four of the last five Finals being decided in three games.

It could have ended on Sunday, had Maya Moore not saved the Lynx with a game winning three-pointer at the end of Game 3 in Minnesota, but that’s not the hand the Fever were dealt.

“We know each other so well at this point”. The Minnesota Lynx are averaging 75.2 points on 43.9 percent shooting and allowing 71.9 points on 41.7 percent shooting.

The Lynx won their previous two titles on the road in Atlanta in 2011 and 2013.

The Fever lost the first game of their Eastern Conference semifinal against Chicago, then had to win two in a row to take the series. The Lynx must be better if they want to celebrate a title on Wednesday night at Target Center.

“Great opportunity for us and our fans who have been with us all season”, Moore said. “For 35 minutes, they did everything we needed to put ourselves in a position to win”.

But they will be at home, with Whalen coming off a strong game.

As they’ve done all playoffs, the Fever found a way to stave off elimination.

One team will feel badly when it’s all over. And it is that feeling of, ‘I don’t know if I’m going to get back here.

Forward Marissa Coleman scored all 14 of her points in the first 30 minutes when Indiana took advantage of foul trouble to Lynx center Sylvia Fowles. “It’s absolutely been a great series. You can’t deny the great competition on both sides”.