When will this "Fever" for a title break?

First appeared on October 8th, 2009
in The Lebanon Reporter

As the final buzzer sounded on Game 4 of the WNBA Finals in Conseco Field House Wednesday, two things were clear. The Fever remain one game away from a championship and women’s basketball is not at all what many think it is. There was a time when women’s basketball was stereotyped as being slow paced, low scoring and about as physical as a game of Scrabble (apologies to those families who have come to blows over someone’s attempted play of the word XU); for those of you who have not watched the WNBA lately however, nothing could be further from the truth.
A running team, the Phoenix Mercury get up and down the floor faster than you can google “symptoms of H1N1” after being sneezed on. A total of 236 points were scored in Game 1 of the Finals and, after receiving an inadvertent Fever elbow Thursday night, Mercury forward Penny Taylor is playing with a tooth wired in place by a Hockey dentist. Slow, low scoring and soft, I think not.
The Fever were able to score a split after games 1 and 2 in Phoenix before bringing the Finals to Conseco where they had only lost 3 times previously. Sunday’s Game 3 saw a WNBA Finals record for attendance set but after failing to close the series out Wednesday night Lady Drama will have to once again saddle up and ride west where the Fever will have last chance at donning the glass slipper (no double meaning intended of course).
Despite being the worst shooting team in the league, the Fever are incredibly balanced. Five players are averaging double figures in the playoffs. With a pair of NCAA titles between them, team leaders Tamika Catchings and Katie Douglas are proven winners. As perimeter players with good length, the two have feasted all season on the match up challenges opponents have scrambled to solve. Together this dynamic duo is ripping opponents up in the postseason with Douglas leading the team in scoring and Catchings doing more than her part by averaging a double double.
The Fever also have excellent complimentary players as well. Tammy Sutton Brown provides dependable inside scoring while Arizona State rookie Briann January has proven a bright future awaits by averaging double figures off the bench in the postseason. However, after suddenly becoming the Fever’s leading scorer during the Finals, Ebony Hoffman has to be the biggest surprise of all.
We should probably mention something about the Mercury to maintain our reputation for unbiased commentary (or on the outside chance there is somebody in Arizona who subscribes to this paper). WNBA Champions in 2007, the Mercury are led by Head Coach Corey Gaines who favors a wide open style inspired by Loyola Marymount’s Paul Westhead. You remember Loyola Marymount? The “hurry up and lay it in so we can inbound the ball, make one pass and drill a three pointer” Loyola Marymount? The same Loyola Marymount that could drop 145 points on you without breaking a sweat?
All kidding aside, Games 3 and 4 saw a real energy in Conseco. An energy the Pacers haven’t seen since Ron-Ron went into the stands for some popcorn in Detroit. While Larry Bird bought 9,000 seats and gave them away during the Fever’s Eastern Conference Finals appearance, there has been no need for such gratuitous charity lately. Consecutive capacity crowds, all of whom paid full price, came, cheered and left with the only fever one welcomes in this topsy turvy- I think a co-worker gave me H1N1- sky is falling world we live in; the fever for a title.