The Indiana Fever lost twice to the Detroit Shock in the first two weeks of the WNBA season as Detroit got off to the league's fastest start. With the Shock stumbling to the finish line, the Fever now have their eye on catching them in the Eastern Conference playoff race.

To do that, they'll need a victory in the teams' final meeting of the regular season at The Palace on Friday, when Indiana looks to win its third straight and climb within two games of the Shock with five to play.

Detroit (17-12) won seven of its first eight games, including a pair of victories over Indiana (14-15) in May. That extended its win streak over the Fever to four games dating to the East finals, a series the Shock rallied to win 2-1.

The Fever, though, are playing better as the teams enter the season's home stretch.

Detroit holds the conference's second-best record, three games ahead of Indiana, which is also 2 1/2 games behind third-place New York. The Fever, however, have won three of four, and with one game left against the Shock and Liberty in the final 10 days of the regular season, could move up from the East's last playoff spot and possibly secure home-court advantage.

"We're not only battling for fourth place, we're also battling to move up to third or second,'' Indiana coach Lin Dunn said before his team's latest game.

The Fever didn't play like a team looking to improving its seeding during an ugly first half in Washington on Tuesday. They trailed the struggling Mystics by eight at halftime, but a 25-10 run in the third lifted Indiana to a 79-68 win.

Five-time All-Star Tamika Catchings led the way with a season-high 26 points and nine rebounds, the third time in four games she's scored at least 23 points.

Catchings hasn't faced Detroit yet this season, as she missed the first month recovering from a torn right Achilles' tendon. She's continued to battle injuries since returning, but still played in the Beijing Olympics and helped lead the U.S. team to the gold medal.

On Friday, she'll run into Olympic teammate Katie Smith, who recently reached another milestone in her illustrious career. Smith became the third WNBA player to reach 5,000 points Sunday, scoring a team-high 23 as Detroit fell 82-81 in overtime at Chicago.

"It's a testament to just being consistent and being able to go longevity-wise and taking care of business every night,'' Smith said.

Another big game from Smith, though, wasn't enough to prevent the Shock from losing for the fifth time in six games.

Smith averaged just 12.0 points on 30.8 percent shooting in Detroit's two early wins over Indiana.