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Fever-Monarchs Preview

Aug 19, 2009 - 5:09 PM By MIKE LIPKA STATS Writer

Indiana (19-5) at Sacramento (7-18), 10:00 p.m. EDT

The Indiana Fever have steamrolled their own conference this season, but their performance hasn't been quite as good against Western Conference opponents.

They'll try to change that during a five-game stretch versus the West that starts Thursday night against the host Sacramento Monarchs, as the WNBA's best and worst teams meet for the first time this year.

Indiana (19-5) has all but secured the top spot in the East thanks to a 15-2 record in conference play. The Fever, though, are 4-3 versus the West and 2-2 on the road.

That mark seems likely to improve Thursday given the way the Fever are playing. They have won seven of eight overall and pounded Detroit 82-59 on Saturday.

Indiana trailed by 14 in the second quarter but outscored the Shock 69-32 to close the game, holding Detroit to 21 second-half points.

"There's definitely an amount of confidence - not arrogance, but confidence - about this group," guard Katie Douglas said. "We're going to play hard for one another, we're going to play selfless for one another. No matter how a team is playing, we're going to continue to battle."

Douglas scored 19 points, but perhaps the most important contribution came from Briann January. The rookie guard had a career-high 17 points off the bench.

"We have so many people who can fill up the hoop," January said. "If we play solid defense and we're finding the person who's hot that night - because there's going to be one of us out of this 11, I guarantee it - we'll be fine."

Sacramento (7-18) can hardly say the same, although the Monarchs have played better of late. Four of their wins have come in the last eight games, although they dropped their last three home contests, the most recent a 78-61 loss to Los Angeles on Saturday.

Trying for their third straight victory, the Monarchs allowed the Sparks to shoot 56.6 percent from the field. Sacramento opponents are shooting 45.0 percent for the season, second-highest in the league.

"I was proud of my team because we never quit, we played to the end and we were trying to get better," coach John Whisenant said. "We still have nine games left. Six of them are at home. For our fans we need to turn things around here and win."

The Monarchs, though, are 3-8 at home, easily the worst such record in the WNBA. That should give Indiana a good chance to end a five-game skid at Arco Arena, where the Fever have not won since June 14, 2003.