The Indiana Fever have played their best against the top teams in the WNBA this season and they'll have another such challenge on Tuesday when they host the league-leading Seattle Storm, at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.
The Fever (3-22) have only three wins in 2018, but they've come against teams currently ranked No. 2 (Atlanta), No. 5 (Minnesota) and, most recently, No. 3 (Los Angeles on Friday) in the WNBA standings.
The latter two wins came on the road, but Indiana has not been able to turn the success into a winning streak.
To wit is the Fever's 88-74 loss at Las Vegas on Sunday that came less than 48 hours after Ia victory over Los Angeles. Natalie Achonwa finished with 21 points and seven rebounds, but it was not enough as the Aces broke open a close game in the third quarter and used a 47-29 rebounding edge to control tempo and cruise to the win.
Indiana suffered its 22nd defeat in 25 games. Tuesday's game continues a stretch of seven games in 14 days for the Fever before the WNBA All-Star break,
"We have to be more stingy on the defensive end," Indiana coach Pokey Chatman said, referring to the Las Vegas' 88 points, six more than its season average. "We have to take things away from people. You get punished when you don't."
Achonwa was 10 of 13 from the floor to lead Indiana, eclipsing 20 points for the third time this season and moving into ninth place in Fever history with 440 career rebounds. Candice Dupree also had seven rebounds and added 13 points to reach double-figure scoring for the fourth straight game.
Victoria Vivians was 3 of 4 from 3-point range to contribute nine points, all in the first half, for the Fever. Fellow rookie Kelsey Mitchell got all of her nine points in the second half. The Mitchell-Vivians duo combined on four 3-pointers to become the second rookie tandem in league history, and the first since 1999, to amass more than 100 3-point field goals made.
Meanwhile, Seattle dropped its first road game in nearly a month, falling 87-74 at surging Atlanta on Sunday afternoon.
Storm veteran point guard Sue Bird played in her 500th career game, breaking DeLisha Milton-Jones' WNBA record (499).
Breanna Stewart scored 31 points for Seattle, marking her third 30-plus point game in the last four games.
Seattle coach Dan Hughes said afterward that the team's inability to finish and get to the foul line was a defining factor in the loss to Atlanta.
"We didn't finish some plays, and we didn't get ourselves in situations where we got to the foul line," Hughes said. "A lot of the good shots we got inside we just didn't finish, and you've got to give Atlanta credit."
Despite Sunday's loss, Seattle (18-7) is in the driver's seat for a bye into the WNBA playoff semifinals. The Storm face a tough challenge, having six of their remaining nine regular-season games on the road.
The home team won all three meetings between these teams in 2017. Tuesday's matchup is the second of three games between the Fever and Storm this season, with Seattle returning to Bankers Life Fieldhouse again Aug. 7. The Storm beat the Fever 72-63 earlier this season at KeyArena.
