Dream-Fever Preview

By KATE HEDLIN
Posted Sep 26 2011 1:56PM

Days after being named the WNBA's most valuable player, the Indiana Fever's Tamika Catchings had to be carried off the court after suffering a foot injury.

The Fever may be without their star player when they host the Atlanta Dream on Tuesday night with a spot in the finals on the line.

Atlanta forced a decisive Game 3 in the Eastern Conference finals with a 94-77 home win Sunday after Indiana recorded an 82-74 victory in Game 1 on Thursday.

As the Fever try to bounce back, they are uncertain whether Catchings will be available. She left Sunday's game with 4:54 remaining after landing on Alison Bales' foot while attempting to defend Bales' shot.

While coach Lin Dunn wasn't certain if Catchings will play Tuesday, she said the good news was that the injury wasn't to Catchings' Achilles' tendon. Catchings tore her right Achilles' in the 2007 playoffs and missed part of the next season.

The seven-time All-Star averaged 15.5 points, 7.1 rebounds and 3.5 assists this season. She helped Indiana secure home-court advantage in the first two rounds of the playoffs with the best record in the East.

While Catchings' absence would mean greater pressure on Katie Douglas, who is averaging 20.4 points, 4.2 rebounds and 3.2 assists in the playoffs, Douglas refused to think about how her role could change.

"I know Catch," Douglas said. "I know if she has to crawl, she will crawl for this team. I don't want to speculate on how we are going to play without her until we know for sure."

For a lesson in overcoming the loss of a key player, the Fever only have to look to their current opponent. Atlanta's victory Sunday came after starting center Erika de Souza left the team to play for Brazil in an Olympic qualifying tournament in Colombia.

Fellow Brazilian Iziane Castro Marques replaced her in the starting lineup and scored a season-high 30 points while Angel McCoughtry added 27.

With de Souza out, the Dream used a smaller, faster lineup to great success. They shot 54.9 percent and forced 19 turnovers.

After Indiana cut a double-digit deficit to two points in the third quarter, Castro Marques scored 11 points during a 16-6 run to push the lead back to 73-61.

"I couldn't ask for anyone to step in and play any better than what Izi did today," coach Marynell Meadors said. "She was the X factor for us that kept us going. She hit tough shots."

Atlanta is looking to get back to the WNBA finals after being swept in three games by Seattle last year. Indiana reached the finals in 2009, losing in five to Phoenix.

The winner advances to face Minnesota, which eliminated Phoenix on Sunday.

The Fever said even if Catchings is unavailable, they hope to use the home-court advantage they earned during the regular season. Indiana is 3-0 in the playoffs on its own court.

"That's why we won the Eastern Conference, so we'd have home court," Dunn said. "We knew it wouldn't be easy (in Atlanta). So we'll regroup, get ready, and we'll be ready on Tuesday night."

Dream beat Fever 83-67, advance to finals

By CLIFF BRUNT
Posted Sep 28 2011 12:03AM

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) Angel McCoughtry embraced her role as villain, constantly taunting Indiana's fans while carrying her team to the WNBA finals.

The forward scored 26 points, and the Atlanta Dream defeated the Fever 83-67 on Tuesday night to win the Eastern Conference finals series 2-1 and advance to the championship round for the second straight year.

Atlanta will play at Minnesota on Sunday in the opener of the best-of-five series.

McCoughtry was vocal and demonstrative in Game 1 of this series, earning her status as public enemy No. 1 at Conseco Fieldhouse. She was booed loudly during pregame introductions before Game 3 at a venue where WNBA fans rarely respond to anyone that way.

At one point, the animated McCoughtry threw a towel toward the crowd after coach Marynell Meadors took her out of the game.

The drama was just fuel for the superstar who finished second in league scoring during the regular season.

``You get used to it, but you have to use it to motivate you,'' she said. ``It's do or die. What else can you do? You just use it as motivation and pump your team up.''

Iziane Castro Marques scored 23 points, Lindsey Harding scored 16 points and Sancho Lyttle added 10 points, 11 rebounds and five steals for the Dream.

Indiana fought valiantly, but couldn't win with a hobbled Tamika Catchings. The league's MVP was limited to 24 minutes because of plantar fasciitis in her right foot.

``We went out there and played hard,'' Catchings said. ``We didn't play as smart as we normally have. We had way too many turnovers and gave up way too many offensive rebounds.''

McCoughtry shot 19 free throws - eight more than Indiana's entire team. Fever coach Lin Dunn didn't care for the way the game was called.

``I'm sure I'm going to be fined by the league, but I thought the officiating was horrendous,'' she said. ``If they're going to have 33 free throws, they can have them, but at least give us more than 11. It was a physical game. It was a knock down, drag out game, and for whatever reason it seemed like the officials were all from Atlanta.''

Dunn thought the only foul the officials didn't call against Indiana was the one she wanted.

``I don't know why I didn't get a technical, I sure tried,'' she said.

Indiana enjoyed a similar advantage in free-throw shooting in Game 1, something Dunn thinks the officials noticed.

``I'm sure that after Game 1 with all of the complaining that the coaches from Atlanta did and all of the players whining and everything, maybe it got to the officials, I don't know,'' she said. ``I certainly didn't think that it was fair.''

Atlanta won without starting center Erika de Souza, who left to play for Brazil in an Olympics qualifying tournament in Colombia.

Castro Marques, the Brazilian guard who took de Souza's place in the lineup, made 5 of 7 3-pointers on Tuesday. She scored a season-high 30 points when the Dream beat the Fever 94-77 in Game 2 on Sunday to even the series.

Indiana's inability to contain Marques in the final two games was key.

``She's been huge the last two to three weeks,'' Meadors said. ``When Erika went with the Brazilian team, she (Castro Marques) moved into the starting lineup and she never looked back. She played really, really well for us.''

Katie Douglas had 16 points and nine rebounds and Tammy Sutton-Brown added 11 points and nine rebounds for top-seeded Indiana.

Catchings had six points, five rebounds and four fouls as a reserve. She said the injury didn't affect her much.

``I think once the adrenaline got going, I was just kind of like, out there going,'' she said.

Indiana entered the series known for its defense, but Atlanta took control of the game by shutting Indiana down. The Fever shot 10 for 20 from the field in the first quarter, then 11 for 36 in the middle two periods.

``I think we just used our speed and our quickness,'' Meadors said. ``We didn't do a lot of things different. We switched a lot, we trapped a lot. We just mixed it up.''

Atlanta led 39-35 at halftime and could have led by more. The Dream made just 7 of 14 free throws in the first half and nearly squandered a nine-point lead in the second quarter.

The Dream started the second half on a 7-0 run that forced two Fever timeouts. Indiana got off few quality shots in that stretch, failing to score for the first 3:54 of the third quarter.

Atlanta continued to roll. Castro Marques hit back-to-back 3-pointers to put the Dream up 57-39 with 3:11 left in the third quarter. Atlanta led 61-47 at the end of the period.

Atlanta opened the fourth quarter on a 7-2 run to extend its lead to 68-49, and the rout was on.

``I'm not going to take anything away from Atlanta and what they did,'' Catchings said. ``I thought they had a good game plan. They all bought into it and they did what they needed to do for this game.''

-----

Follow Cliff Brunt on Twitter: www.twitter.com/cliffbruntap

• Dream: --
• Fever: --

• Dream: --
• Fever: --

• Lead Changes: 7
• Times Tied: 1

• Arena: Conseco Fieldhouse, Indianapolis, IN
• Officials: #4 Sue Blauch, #18 Kurt Walker, #38 Lamont Simpson
• Attendance: 9036
• Duration: 2:06