The fact Indiana prevailed in the regular-season series 4-1 over New York was not especially meaningful to either side because – as Laimbeer said – of how different the postseason can feel.
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The Liberty scored 24 points off 16 turnovers, while Rodgers and Epiphanny Prince dominated from downtown – each going 4-for-6.
The WNBA playoffs is heading into the conference finals and in the east it will be the New York Liberty against the Indiana Fever, while the west has the Phoenix Mercury taking on the Minnesota Lynx in the west. New York faced a stiff challenge from the Washington Mystics in the first round, dropping Game 1 at home before rallying to win the final two games to advance.
“As long-term fans, this is not okay”, Neena Chaudhry, who has had season tickets to the Mystics games for 15 years, told ThinkProgress.
“I don’t like it, but I understand it”, Liberty coach Bill Laimbeer said about having to play back-to-back. I think it surprised everybody. “But as a player, I feel like she needed someone to believe in her, someone to encourage her and someone to empower her. And we’ve been able to do that”.
But New York wasn’t sluggish at all. Their defensive rating of 94.2 was by far the league’s best.
As good as New York is defensively, they were second-worst in opponent three-point percentage, allowing teams to convert 35 percent of their attempts. “They were very efficient on the offensive end”.
Fever Head Coach Stephanie White explained, “they were the hungrier team, they were the more aggressive team, and they played like a team playing for a Championship”. The Liberty took away shots that were normally there for Indiana, and Indiana failed to match New York’s defensive intensity.
Rookie center Kiah Stokes had perhaps the best game of her young career, scoring 21 points on 9-of-11 shooting.
Charles, who only had five points in the first half, took over in the third quarter, hitting shots from all over the court – including a 3-pointer. The crowd gave a standing ovation as the clock ran out to signal the end of the game.
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Tina Charles had 18 points, nine assists and seven rebounds to lead the New York Liberty to an 84-67 victory over the Indiana Fever on Wednesday night. Although the Liberty have been the top ranked defense in the league, holding opponents to just 71 PPG, the Fever scored more than 80 points in each of their previous matchups this season. It is safe to say that the Fever couldn’t have overcome Elena Delle Donne’s 40-point effort without the transcendent game of Tamika Catchings, of course. “I wasn’t satisfied with my performance in the first half, so I just went out after that and gave it my all”.
