Indiana Fever (9-21) vs New York Liberty (17-12)
Date: Wednesday, August 23, 2017
Time: 7:00 p.m. (EDT)
Site: Bankers Life Fieldhouse
TV: MyINDY-TV 23
Live Stream: WNBA League Pass
Probable Starters
Fever: F- Jazmon Gwathmey, F- Candice Dupree, C- Natalie Achonwa, G- Erica Wheeler, G- Marissa Coleman
Liberty: F- Shavonte Zellous, F- Tina Charles, C- Kia Vaughn, G- Bria Hartley, G- Epiphanny Prince
The Indiana Fever hope to play spoiler in the final two weeks of the regular season, hosting the New York Liberty for the last time on Wednesday. Indiana, which will miss the playoffs for the first time in 13 seasons, battles a Liberty team that is vying for third place in the WNBA standings. They are currently tied for fourth place with Washington, who narrowly defeated Indiana, 87-82, on Sunday.
Indiana takes the floor Wednesday with yet another player absent for the rest of the season, after the team announced that Briann January has been diagnosed with torn meniscus in her right knee. Jennie Simms, a 6-0 rookie guard from Old Dominion – who was a second-round draft pick of the Mystics last April – has joined the Fever roster for the club’s last four games.
Storylines & Promotion
• Indiana dropped an 87-82 heartbreaker on Sunday to the Mystics, clawing back from one deficit of 13 points and then falling just shy of another 7-point comeback in the game’s final minute. Indiana took a brief lead on a Marissa Coleman 3-pointer midway through the fourth quarter, but Washington’s Kristi Toliver answered with a three of her own and the Mystics never trailed again. Jeanette Pohlen-Mavunga hit another Fever 3-pointer and added a pair of free throws in the game’s final minute to pull within 83-82, but free throws kept Indiana at bay as the clock dwindled in the final seconds.
• The Fever got a long-distance shooting jolt from veterans Coleman and Pohlen-Mavunga, who combined for all nine Fever 3-pointers. Coleman made a career-high six 3s on just seven attempts, to record the club’s hottest long-distance shooting of the season. Pohlen-Mavunga was 3-of-5 beyond the arc with each of her 3-pointers coming in the dramatic fourth quarter. She became the ninth player in Fever history to eclipse 100 3-pointers in her career.
• Jazmon Gwathmey has played her way into a solid role in her first season with the Fever, starting the past three games and averaging 8.9 points and 3.2 rebounds over the past 10 games. In that stretch, she also has contributed 15 assists, 11 steals and 10 blocks.
• A six-time All-Star, Candice Dupree has collected double-digit scoring in 25 of her 29 games in a Fever uniform. She currently ranks in the WNBA’s top 25 in scoring, rebounding, field goal percentage, free throw percentage and minutes per game. She has re-defined the word STEADY for the 2017 Fever, averaging 15.0 points per game. She has routinely scored between 14 and 19 points (17 of 29 games), with highs this season of 31, 26 and 23.
• The Liberty already have clinched their third straight playoff berth and now are playing for a first-round bye when playoffs begin in two weeks. Two nights after Minnesota’s record blowout of the Fever, the Liberty tamed the Lynx inside Madison Square Garden, 70-61, behind 19 points and nine rebounds from Eastern Conference Player of the Week Tina Charles.
• The Fever are 0-2 against the Liberty this season and face them for a third time in less than a month.
• Indiana has surrendered at least 80 points in ten consecutive games. The Fever are 9-8 when they score 80 themselves, and winless when they score fewer than 80.
• Indiana will play the rest of the season without three full- or part-time starting guards: Shenise Johnson, Tiffany Mitchell and Briann January. The WNBA has granted Indiana an emergency hardship, allowing the Fever to sign 6-0 guard Jennie Simms to a 7-day contract. Simms was the nation’s second-leading scorer (26.0ppg) while playing at Old Dominion last winter. She was the 18th overall selection in last April’s WNBA Draft, by Washington. She played 10 games with the Mystics before being waived July 27.
• Wednesday marks the 68th meeting between the Fever and Liberty, with Indiana owning a 41-26 mark through the series. The Liberty have swept a pair of games so far this season, and the clubs split four meetings in 2016. The Fever has won six of the past eight encounters at Bankers Life Fieldhouse – and 7 of 9 including a playoff win in 2015.