The Detroit Shock and the Indiana Fever have already clinched the first and second seeds, respectively, in the Eastern Conference playoffs, but they still have something at stake before postseason play begins.
Each team will look to match its best regular season in franchise history when the Shock and the Fever square off at Conseco Fieldhouse on Sunday.
Detroit (24-9) will try again for its 25th win as it looks to snap a season high-tying three-game losing streak. The defending champion Shock went 25-9 in 2003, en route to their first of two WNBA titles.
Twelve teams in the league's 10-year history have won at least 25 games in a season, and seven of them have gone on to win the championship.
Indiana (20-13), meanwhile, is seeking its third consecutive 21-13 finish. However, last year's postseason run ended when Indiana was swept in two games in its first-round matchup with Detroit.
On Sunday, the Fever will again be without forward Tamika Catchings, who has missed the team's last 12 games with a partial tear of the plantar fascia in her left foot. However, Catchings - who was leading the team in points (16.6), rebounds (9.0), assists (4.7) and steals (3.1) at the time of her injury - hopes to be ready for at least part of the postseason.
Indiana has gone 4-8 without the four-time All-Star, but clinched the second seed with a 59-55 win at San Antonio on Friday. Tamika Whitmore scored a team-high 12 points and made two field goals in the final minute to hold off the Silver Stars as the Fever clinched home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs for the second time in three years.
"We have home-court in (the first round of) the playoffs, and that is huge," forward Anna DeForge said. "That was our goal here with these last few games."
Detroit, meanwhile, has suffered three straight losses since it clinched the top seed in the East with a win over Indiana on Saturday. Playing without much of their regular rotation, the Shock matched their largest margin of defeat of the season with an 87-77 defeat at Minnesota on Thursday.
"I just wanted to get through this game with no injuries," said coach Bill Laimbeer, whose team hasn't lost four in a row since June 12-24, 2005.
Swin Cash (back) and Shannon Johnson (knee) were held out for precautionary reasons, while Kara Braxton missed the game because of a league suspension. Braxton will return for this contest.
Detroit has won two of three against Indiana this year, and six of eight meetings in the series - including the postseason - since May 16, 2006.
Indiana opens its first-round playoff series at No. 3 seed Connecticut on Thursday. Detroit will visit either Washington or New York on Friday.
