Shock 59 - 82 Fever
Final
  for this game

Shock-Fever Preview

Aug 14, 2009 - 8:39 PM By SANTOSH VENKATARAMAN STATS Senior Writer

Detroit (9-12) at Indiana (18-5), 7:00 p.m. EDT

The Indiana Fever have an 11-game home winning streak. The closest they came to losing in that span probably came against the Detroit Shock two months ago.

The Fever look to continue the second-longest home streak in franchise history Saturday night when they try to improve to 3-0 against the Shock this year.

Indiana (18-5) is two wins shy of matching its franchise-record 13-game run at Conseco Fieldhouse from July 22, 2002-July 10, 2003. The Fever won the first two meetings with the Shock this year in a three-day span in June.

After posting a 66-54 triumph at Detroit on June 19, Indiana's 82-70 home win two days later wasn't easy. The Fever trailed by 17 in the second half and used 62 percent shooting in the fourth quarter to rally for the victory.

While Indiana is cruising with the top record in the WNBA, it would no doubt like to make it more difficult for Detroit (9-12) to return to the postseason. The Fever have been eliminated in the playoffs each of the last three years by the Shock, falling in three games in the first round last year as Detroit went on to win the title.

Indiana is back home after finishing a 2-1 trip with a big fourth-quarter rally Thursday in a 91-81 win at Minnesota. The Fever used an 18-2 run in the final period to overturn a six-point deficit.

"We took our energy to the next level and increased the tempo, and that was the key," Fever coach Lin Dunn said. "We created a couple steals and turned them into points."

Ebony Hoffman made three 3-pointers and had a season-high 24 points and 10 rebounds against the Lynx. She totaled 15 points and 17 rebounds over her previous three games, making 1 of 7 3-pointers in that span.

"I was getting stale from the 3-point line and needed to get more shots up," Hoffman said.

Katie Douglas scored 18 for Indiana, and is averaging 18.5 points and 6.0 rebounds against the Shock in 2009.

Detroit missed a chance to notch its first three-game winning streak of the year Thursday with an 80-75 loss at Atlanta. The Shock fell to 0-3 against the Dream, and 4-10 against the East.

Deanna Nolan led Detroit with 20 points, but missed 18 of 25 shots. Katie Smith fouled out late with 17 points and Cheryl Ford added 15.






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