Liberty 76 - 81 Fever
Final
  for this game

Liberty-Fever Preview

Sep 12, 2015 - 7:17 PM The New York Liberty and Indiana Fever will face one another in Sunday's regular-season finale. Whether the teams meet again a few days later is yet to be determined.

New York (23-10), the Eastern Conference's top seed for the playoffs, will host either the Fever or Washington in Friday's Game 1 of the conference semifinals. Indiana (19-14) will avoid a rematch with a win or a Mystics' loss to Atlanta on Sunday, and that would leave the Fever as the No. 3 seed with a first-round series against Chicago.

Avoiding the No. 4 seed may not be to the Fever's advantage, though. Indiana has won three of four season meetings with the Liberty, including both at Bankers Life Fieldhouse, but is 0-4 against the Sky.

Building momentum is likely the more important goal for both teams, and Indiana got a good start with Friday's 75-67 victory at Atlanta. The Fever had lost two straight and five of six following a six-game winning streak which was capped by an 80-79 victory over the Liberty on Aug. 23.

Indiana used a balanced offense to prevail Friday despite holding out top scorer and rebounder Tamika Catchings. Shavonte Zellous led five Fever players in double figures with 14 points and Shenise Johnson added 13 with eight rebounds.

"Tonight was a good first step," Stephanie White told the team's official website after becoming the fifth rookie coach in WNBA history with at least 19 wins. "We got better defensively and a whole lot of people produced. Shenise played well and Zellous gave us a big game."

Already having clinched home-court advantage throughout the playoffs, the Liberty used most of their key players sparingly in Friday's 82-55 loss to Washington at Madison Square Garden. No New York starter played over 17 minutes in the team's first home game on Sept. 11 since the 2001 terror attacks.

"It's something special to be playing on this day for New York," said center and Queens native Tina Charles. "I just wish we could have put on a better show."

New York leads the WNBA in scoring defense (70.8 ppg) and field-goal percentage defense (39.3) but has struggled to stop Indiana this season. The Fever have averaged 80.8 points and shot 44.9 percent from 3-point range in the four meetings.

Reserve guard Maggie Lucas is 9 for 17 on 3s in the series while Johnson, fifth in the league in 3-point percentage (41.9), is 6 for 12.






Related News