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Fever-Sun Preview

Sep 12, 2009 - 8:24 PM By DAN PIERINGER STATS Writer

Indiana (22-11) at Connecticut (15-18), 3:00 p.m. EDT

The Indiana Fever have wrapped up the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs. With postseason position eliminated as a motivator for their regular-season finale, they might use revenge instead.

The Fever look to head into the playoffs on a high note Sunday when they meet the Connecticut Sun at Mohegan Sun Arena, where their franchise-record 11-game winning streak came to an end earlier this season.

Indiana (22-11) is on its way to its fifth straight postseason thanks to a franchise-record win total. Half of its victories so far came during the longest winning streak in team history.

The Fever won 11 in a row before getting held to 28.8 percent shooting in a 67-61 defeat at Connecticut on July 19. It was the league's longest run since the Sun won 12 straight in 2006, a streak ended by the Fever.

Katie Douglas, Indiana's leader with 17.6 points per game, went 5 for 16 from the field. Five-time All-Star forward Tamika Catchings fared even worse, going 2 for 12 and finishing with five points.

Lindsay Whalen led four Connecticut players in double figures with 15 points in that game. Second-year center Sandrine Gruda had 10 points, nine rebounds, four assists and two blocked shots.

The Sun (15-18) will miss the playoffs for the first time in seven seasons since relocating to Connecticut. But they have been tough to beat at Mohegan Sun Arena, going 11-5.

Indiana has the league's best home record at 14-3 but has split its 16 games outside Conseco Fieldhouse.

Connecticut dropped its last game on the road Friday night, shooting 29.6 percent and falling behind 30-16 after one quarter of the 88-64 loss to Atlanta.

"They just played better than us," coach Mike Thibault said.

Indiana is coming off an 86-79 defeat at Chicago on Thursday. Douglas scored 25 and Catchings added 16, but the Fever gave up one of their highest point totals of the season to a Sky team competing for its first playoff berth.

"Teams are fighting for their lives right now and we've seen it in the past few weeks," Douglas said. "Teams are getting desperate and it's difficult playing against those kind of teams. We don't want to panic. We want to stay with our schemes."

Douglas scored 32 in her last game against the Sun, a 94-85 victory that moved the Fever to 2-1 in the season series.

Connecticut forward Asjha Jones has led the team with 14.3 points per game against Indiana, which has allowed a league-low 72.9 a contest.

The Fever will start their best-of-three, first-round series on the road later this week.