The Tulsa Shock struggled during the absences of their top two scorers, but they're hoping for better days with one of those players now back on the court.
Odyssey Sims will try to lead the Shock to a third consecutive victory in her second game back from injury and help deny the Indiana Fever their longest win streak in three seasons Wednesday night.
Tulsa (10-4) lost its first three games after Skylar Diggins suffered a season-ending torn ACL and didn't have Sims available because of a knee injury. The Shock managed to snap their skid without them by beating Atlanta 85-75 on July 7, then Sims ended her 10-game absence in an 82-67 victory against Los Angeles on Saturday.
She had 14 points, six assists and five rebounds while playing 24 minutes. Coach Fred Williams expected her to stay on the court for 12 to 15 minutes.
"It feels great. I'm just happy to be playing again," said Sims, averaging 16.7 points in 38 career games. "I played as much as I could and did what I could to help my team."
Karima Christmas had a career-best 24 points and is averaging 18.7 in her last three games, 11.2 more than in the first 11.
In her first matchup with her former team, Christmas will try to keep Indiana from earning five consecutive wins for the first time since Aug. 23-Sept. 1, 2012. The Fever (7-6) won their third in a row at home Friday by topping San Antonio 83-76 as Marissa Coleman had a career-best 25 points, including 10 during a key run in the third quarter.
"The ultimate goal is to win games and win a championship. Whatever I can do to get us to that point, I'm going to try to do," Coleman said.
Indiana will look to complete a perfect four-game homestand with its ninth win in 10 matchups against Tulsa. The Shock snapped a string of seven consecutive defeats in the series with a 107-102 overtime victory in their most recent visit to Bankers Life Fieldhouse on June 25, 2014. Diggins scored 32 and Sims contributed 20.
Tamika Catchings' 23 points and basket with 5.2 seconds remaining kept the Shock from sweeping last year's series in a 78-76 victory July 8.
Catchings is averaging 23.5 points on 57.9 percent shooting in her last four games against Tulsa, but the Fever might not have their leading scorer from last season's series. Shavonte Zellous, who averaged 25.5 points and scored a career-high 33 in the overtime loss, is dealing with an ailing back.
Diggins averaged 27.5 points in the two games.
Catchings needs three rebounds to surpass Taj McWilliams-Franklin for third on the all-time list.
