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Sky-Fever Preview

Aug 4, 2009 - 7:04 PM By ALAN FERGUSON STATS Writer

Chicago (10-10) at Indiana (15-4), 7:00 p.m. EDT

Very little has gone wrong for the Eastern Conference-leading Indiana Fever lately.

Having won three games in 12 days against one of their closest pursuers in the Eastern Conference and with their leading scorer playing her best basketball of the season, Indiana looks match the best start in franchise history Wednesday night against the Chicago Sky.

The Fever (15-4) won third straight since the All-Star break Sunday, 87-79 at Washington to move five games ahead of the Mystics and Connecticut in the East. In their third victory over Washington since July 21, they just missed shooting 50 percent for the fourth time this season (49.2) and made 23 of 25 free-throw attempts in their best performance of the year from the line (92.0 percent).

"You never want to peak too early," said All-Star forward Tamika Catchings, who helped Indiana to a 16-4 start in 2007. "Right now, I think we're playing about 20 minutes of really good basketball, so we still have 20 minutes to go. We're halfway through the season, so that's not a bad place to be."

Leading scorer Katie Douglas scored a team-best 24 points Sunday to up her average to 17.5. The veteran guard averaged a WNBA-best 30.0 points in three games to earn Eastern Conference player of the week honors.

The only bad news for Indiana recently came in the form of an injury to starting center Tammy Sutton-Brown, but Jessica Moore has filled in admirably. Sutton-Brown is expected to miss her third straight game Wednesday due to a toe problem.

After being waived by Los Angeles, Moore signed with Indiana on July 11, four days after original starting center Yolanda Griffith suffered a career-ending torn Achilles' tendon. Moore averaged 2.6 points and 14.2 minutes through her first 14 contests, but has scored 11.0 points per game since Sutton-Brown was injured.

She has helped the Fever win 14 of their last 16 and take 11 straight at Conseco Fieldhouse, the second-longest home winning streak in franchise history. The Fever won 13 in a row at home from July 22, 2002-July 10, 2003.

After Wednesday, Indiana plays five of six on the road.

With a conference-worst 2-8 mark away from home, the Sky (10-10) open a season-high stretch of four straight on the road. Chicago is 1-6 all-time at Conseco and has dropped five straight there.

The Sky lost 84-74 in their last game at Indiana on July 15, five days after getting routed 83-54 by the Fever at home. Chicago is 3-10 in the all-time series.

The Sky, though, won their last two games and went on a 26-0 run en route to an 84-72 victory over Connecticut on Saturday night. Candice Dupree had 23 points after scoring two on 1-of-11 shooting in last Wednesday's win over Los Angeles.

"I just think everybody was comfortable and it was about having fun," guard Dominique Canty said. "We were getting a lot of stops and were converting into points."