Fever, Wings seek to rebound from lopsided defeats (May 29, 2017)
Twenty-four and forty-two.
Those were the margins of defeat for the Indiana Fever and Dallas Wings in their last games, respectively, heading into their meeting Tuesday night at College Park Center in Arlington, Texas.
Indiana (2-3) suffered a season-worst 94-70 loss to the Storm in Seattle on Sunday. Tiffany Mitchell scored 13 points to lead the Fever, who were done in by Seattle's red-hot 61.4 percent shooting from the field.
The Fever entered the game averaging the fewest turnovers in the WNBA, but committed 20 against the Storm. Indiana now ranks fourth in the category (13.0 per game).
"We not beating anybody when we give up 94 points," Fever coach Pokey Chatman said. "We have to get some stops and stop trying to be a comeback team."
Indiana has trailed by double figures in all five of its games this season, but has charged back successfully in two of those contests.
Still, the Fever's loss wasn't nearly as bad as the Wings'.
Dallas (2-2) was smoked by the Phoenix Mercury 107-65 on Saturday. The Wings gave up 61 second-half points and did not score more than 19 points in any quarter.
"The ball was not going through the net," Dallas coach Fred Williams said. "Everything (Phoenix) threw up kind of went in for them."
Glory Johnson had a team-high 12 points and Karima Christmas-Kelly finished with 11 points before exiting with a shoulder injury in the fourth quarter. Her status for Tuesday's game is uncertain.
Johnson added four rebounds and heads into the showdown with Indiana eight shy of 1,000 for her career. The Wings were outrebounded 41-34.
After making only 4 of 21 3-pointers on Saturday, the Wings ranked dead last in the WNBA in 3-point shooting percentage (20.6 percent).
On a positive note, the Wings notched a season-high six blocked shots against the Mercury, with Skylar Diggins-Smith stuffing three shots.
The Wings are averaging the fifth-fewest points in the WNBA (78.5 per game). The Fever have not been much better with 77.6 per contest, fourth-worst in the league.
Dallas beat Indiana 90-79 in the 2016 season opener for both teams last May 14. The Fever won the second meeting 92-87 on June 25 and the season series finale 83-60 on Sept. 18.
