It’s probably fair to say that the Indiana Fever have answered the critics who claimed they were offensively inept and incapable of keeping up with the Phoenix Mercury in the WNBA Finals.
With their 93-84 victory in Game 2 last night, the Fever demonstrated that such one-dimensional analyses fail to explain why they have taken ownership of home court advantage in the WNBA Finals – it’s their attention to multiple facets of the game that makes this team successful, as succinctly summarized by ESPN’s Mechelle Voepel.
"[Pat] Summitt would have given a thumbs-up to how Indiana played Thursday: with tougher defense, better rebounding, good ball movement and complete team participation," wrote ESPN’s Mechelle Voepel.
They didn’t beat the Mercury by merely outrunning them or locking them down defensively. It was a little bit of everything from just about everyone, with forward Tamika Catchings – who was a rebound away from the WNBA’s second-ever post-season triple double -- as the individual embodiment of their well-rounded attack.
While Catchings and guard Katie Douglas certainly led the way for the Fever, they also got
significant contributions from their bench, which was responsible for 34.7% of their production (in comparison, the Mercury’s bench was responsible for 21.8% of their production).
(Individual player contribution stats here)However, there is one particular statistic that just jumps out about this series so far – second-chance points: in Game 1, the Mercury outscored
the Fever 24-9 in second-chance points whereas in Game 2, the two teams were
even at 9-9.
That’s a 15-point difference. In a series that figures to be played fairly tightly, that’s huge.
This is certainly not to say that second-chance points will determine the winner of this series, but it does say a lot about how the Fever adjusted in Game 2 – a renewed dedication to rebounding and making sure that they limited costly mistakes.
In addition to improved rebounding, while there wasn’t a major difference in turnover percentage for either team between games 1 and 2, the Mercury also scored 10 less points off turnovers while the Fever held steady at 17.
In a sense, it was exactly what coach Lin Dunn and the Fever players said prior to Game 2 – they didn’t lose Game 1 because they were unable to keep up with the Mercury’s pace but because they made uncharacteristic mistakes.
As much as the Fever’s Game 2 victory was about demonstrating beyond the shadow of a doubt that they can both run with the Mercury and win, it was as much about which of these two talented teams was able to take care of the little things. For last night, it was clearly the Fever…and it’s becoming clearer that while the team has certainly assumed a defensive identity this season, they are a far more well-rounded basketball team than that.
Beating the Fever in a 5 game series is not a matter of taking away one player because someone else will step up, whether it be Hoffman (Game 1) or January (and Davenport, Game 2). They are finding ways to adjust to their opposition and manufacture wins with a balance of offense and defense and a more versatile roster than they're given credit for.
The new question as the series shifts to Indiana is which of these talented teams can take care of the little of things within the natural flow of the game.
Discipline
I’ve seen this for years w/ the Suns and if I were more prone to panic I might be concerned about it from the Mercury as well. Playoff games (and certainly Finals games) come down to doing the little things right. Each and every time.
That is a function of discipline and while the Mercury are a lot of things their system and culture is about the carrot and not the stick.
I remember talking to Cappie after a loss about half way through the season. The team had played poorly and she talked about the team needed to step up and play harder. I asked her if it was her role as a leader on the team to get on her teammates about that and she said, “no”. That each player know what they were supposed to do.
The culture of the Fever as described by Katie D and as you can clearly observe is to hold each other accountable. They get on one another and the coach will get into someone’s face and yet they do it in a constructive way. They don’t seem to get defensive (no pun intended) when they get after each other b/c it is what they do.
Now, I still think the Merc will win this series. I think they are the more talented team and I don’t think Cappie and Dee will shoot 30% again. The Fever can talk about their defensive schemes all they want, but Taurasi missed a lot of open looks that she normally makes and that isn’t likely to continue.
The Mercury also proved that for stretches anyway they can flat out stop the Fever’s offense and hold them scoreless for extended periods of time.
But I do think one of the things that separates these teams is their cultures and Indiana was able to show the advantage of theirs in Game 2
Seth Pollack - October 2, 2009
That's a very nice observation...
…and now you have me wondering how the players would respond to the idea that the Fever are the more disciplined team…? Or how they might rephrase…
Nate Parham - October 2, 2009
teams and players.....and fans
always focus on themselves so they wouldn’t care. The Mercury firmly believe that if they play hard for 40 minutes they can’t be beat. All teams have to think this way, right?
With the Mercury they have plenty of evidence to back it up as well.
As great as the Fever played, they can’t honestly say they beat the Mercury at their best. That almost happened in Gm 1 but in Gm 2 the Merc were very flat for extended periods of the game and actually in Game 1 they had some lame stretches as well in the 1st and 3rd qtrs.
So far this playoffs on game 3 of the Merc SA series did I see both teams play their best. Perhaps gm 3 or Fever vs Det but I didn’t get to see all of that game
Seth Pollack - October 2, 2009
You are crushing my ideal blogger world in which I can get my ideal quotes ;)
But the idea of a “culture war” with discipline on one side of the equation still strikes me as interesting…
Scary that I’m sounding like Pat Buchannan though…
Nate Parham - October 2, 2009
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