The President recognized the team’s talented players and noted that this win was the culmination of an impressive season. Well, not themselves. As many noted on Twitter, remember Butler vs. UConn in 2011? Johnson scored the final four points of the burst. Yet, they only trailed by six at halftime thanks to their defense. “That last minute, when we were up 15 or so, I just lost it. Like all of us started smiling”. They finished the game with 21.
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“Those turnovers take the wind out of your sails, especially when they turn those into points”, said Indiana guard Briann January, who had a team-high five turnovers.
The 36-year-old Catchings announced long ago that she only has one more season left in her brilliant career, so that sense of urgency for her has never been greater as the Fever enter the deciding Game 5 of the WNBA Finals against the Minnesota Lynx on Wednesday night.
“I think you start to appreciate it more”, Whalen said. She won out, getting both a title and Finals MVP trophy. After Moore’s buzzer-beating three-pointer to win game three at the death, the Minneapolis native sang her praises on Twitter.
It’s a shame that Game 5 was not even close. “There are a few, not all of them, but overall I don’t feel like the passion is there for the game”.
When a local reporter asked her was she coming back next season, her 10th WNBA campaign, she replied, “Why not?”, appearing puzzled by the question. It was so slow and everybody was trying to move. “We were doing a good job, a decent job in the first half defensively, but second half I just felt like – year, it was just not a good deal”.
She spurred the Fever to that upset of the Lynx in 2012, giving the organization its first championship.
Indiana evened up the series with a win they controlled from the second quarter on.
There were growing pains for this Fever team.
Yet it could be argued that this Fever team, with new players and a new coach, was a year ahead of schedule anyway.
The Indiana team that had been ideal in elimination games this postseason was far from it in this one.
“One thing I told (my teammates) in the huddle, there’s nothing to hang your head about”, Catchings said. White said. “We have 12 players who lay it on the line every single day and that’s what we ask”.
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Fowles had to adjust to just playing basketball upon arriving in Minnesota. This, Fever coach Stephanie White said, is what a championship team is all about. The Fever made all 16 of their free throws in the game. She could be in the mix to join Catchings on the USA Basketball team for the Rio Olympics.
