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Fever-Sky Preview

Sep 10, 2009 - 12:36 AM By BRETT HUSTON STATS Writer

Indiana (22-10) at Chicago (15-17), 8:00 p.m. EDT

With the top seed in the Eastern Conference locked up, the Indiana Fever can rest somewhat easy heading into their final two regular-season games.

The Chicago Sky, on the other hand, can't afford to lose.

The Fever look to keep their hopes for home-court advantage throughout the WNBA playoffs alive Thursday night in Chicago, where the Sky find themselves in a three-way tie for the East's final playoff spot.

Indiana (22-10) had the conference's No. 1 seed wrapped up by the end of August, but with five losses in six games from Aug. 20-Sept. 4 - including two without leading scorer Katie Douglas - it certainly wasn't playing its best basketball as the postseason drew closer.

The Fever have bounced back with wins in their past two games, however, keeping themselves level with Phoenix for the league's top record and home-court advantage in a potential finals matchup between the two. Douglas and Tamika Catchings led the way with 17 points apiece Tuesday in a 69-63 win in New York.

Indiana is 14-3 at home and 8-7 on the road.

"We play a lot better at home and we've been struggling up-and-down on the road, so for us it would be a huge help to clinch overall (home-court advantage)," said Catchings, who's averaged 20.0 points in her last six games.

While Douglas (17.4 points per game) and Catchings (15.1) are the Fever's top two scorers, they have to be excited about the way Briann January is stepping up. The rookie guard, scoring 7.0 per game, has averaged 13.8 in her past four.

"January does not play like a rookie, she looks like a veteran out there," coach Lin Dunn said. "... In crunch time we want the ball in her hands and we want her taking shots. That takes some of the pressure off Catchings and Douglas."

Chicago (15-17) certainly has a more immediate need for a win Thursday, as it shares identical overall and conference records with Washington and Connecticut.

The Sky had a chance to move into third place Sunday at Detroit, as they led by one heading into the fourth quarter. The Shock, however, rallied to win 84-75 and drop Chicago to a league-worst 4-13 on the road.

"We were fouling and doing stupid things," coach Steven Key said. "We didn't take care of the ball, and you can't beat that team if you don't play better than we did."

The Sky may find their luck better at home, where they're 11-4, but that didn't help them against Indiana on July 10. Chicago was outscored 33-9 in the first quarter and shot 29.5 percent overall in an 83-54 loss.

The Fever also won both meetings at Conseco Fieldhouse by an average of 9.5 points.

The Sky only had Sylvia Fowles available against Indiana once, when she scored 15 and grabbed nine rebounds in a 76-67 loss Aug. 5.

Fowles has averaged 7.5 points in her last two games after missing the previous five with an ankle injury.