Fever, Mercury are WNBA playoffs favorites

ASSOCIATED PRESS

The Indiana Fever got off to a dominant start and were all but assured of getting in the playoffs long ago.

After stumbling down the stretch, the Eastern Conference champions know they need to regain their intensity when they open the postseason against fourth-place Washington on Thursday night.

“It is quite difficult when you know you are in and you can relax a little bit,” veteran guard Tully Bevilaqua said. “Now that we are coming into the playoffs, it is going to be a totally different mentality. ... We know that if we don’t bring our ’A’ game, then we might be exiting early and that is certainly not on the plan.”

Despite losing seven of their last 10 games, the Fever (22-12) still set a franchise record for victories with All-Stars Katie Douglas and Tamika Catchings leading the way. Indiana also got strong contributions from rookie Briann January and veterans Tammy Sutton-Brown and Ebony Hoffman.

Catchings, who had 99 steals to finish one short of the WNBA record, isn’t concerned by the team’s finish.

“It is a change of mentality,” she said, “but I think the last 10 games we really tried to focus into changing into a playoff mentality and even though we have not won all of them, I think going in we are going to have to use the positive things that came out of it. Our bench played more minutes and getting them accustomed to playing, hopefully they will be ready for us.”

The Phoenix Mercury (23-11) won the West with the league’s best record and open as the conference favorite to reach the WNBA finals as they seek their second title in three years. However, don’t count out Lisa Leslie and the surging Los Angeles Sparks.

For the second straight year, Los Angeles opened the season as the overwhelming favorites to win the championship, especially after bolstering the backcourt and adding veteran forward Tina Thompson.

The Sparks (18-16) struggled in the early going while playing without Candace Parker, who missed the first nine games after giving birth to her daughter, and Leslie for 10 games due to an injury. But since Leslie returned on Aug. 4, the Sparks have looked like the championship contenders.