Turnovers too costly for Indiana Fever to overcome

— -- MINNEAPOLIS -- The sound of the celebration on the court at Target Center was reverberating into the cinder block hallways. Music, cheering, trophy ceremonies.

But at the end of the hallway that housed the Indiana Fever locker room, it was quiet.

The Fever were inside, processing a 69-52 loss to the Minnesota Lynx in the deciding game of the WNBA Finals, sifting through an effort that didn't fit with the rest of the nip-and-tuck games that had made this such a compelling series through the first four games.

It wasn't tough to identify the problems. Twenty-one turnovers. A combined 12 points in the second and third quarters. Shooting 35.7 percent for the game and proving unable to put the brakes on a balanced Minnesota offense that got just five points from Maya Moore and yet still won going away.

The Indiana team that had been perfect in elimination games this postseason was far from it in this one.

Fever coach Stephanie White said her team was "outplayed in every single way" by the Lynx.

"That was a team on a mission and they played like it," White said. "I was surprised, but on the other hand, you aren't really shocked [when Minnesota plays well], because they are such a good team."

The turnovers, the thing that the Fever knew coming in they would have to limit on their end of the floor, proved their undoing.

"Those turnovers take the wind out of your sails, especially when they turn those into points," said Indiana guard Briann January, who had a team-high five turnovers. "That put us in a tough situation. That definitely came back to bite us in the butt, and I take a huge responsibility for that. For not getting us in a flow and for my turnovers."

Scoring four points in the third quarter and eight in the third, while consistently giving away possessions, was the turning point.

"We went a long time without scoring," Erlana Larkins said. "Those 21 turnovers, if you cut those in half, you at least give yourself a chance to shoot the ball at the basket. That's what killed us tonight."

The Fever had played the maximum number of games in this postseason, fighting off elimination in five games out of 11. Coaches hate excuses, but even White couldn't deny that perhaps her team had run out of gas.

"Fatigue could have been a factor. Mental, emotional, physical fatigue," White said. "We exerted a lot of emotion. We played every possible game in every series and each one of those has been highly charged emotionally. I remember another game we had where it felt like we had a sugar crash and it felt a little bit like that again today.

"But I don't know how you can get tired in an environment like this. This is what you dream of playing for. But on the other hand, I felt like some of our decision-making showed some fatigue."

Catchings, who finished with 18 points and 11 rebounds, said the game felt "sluggish."

"We were so excited today and everybody was so anxious for the game," Catchings said. "Everything felt so slow ... This is not the way that we wanted it to end. No matter what happened tonight, I was going to be proud of this team."

White seconded that emotion, talking about her pride in a team that was an afterthought in the Eastern Conference in a season dominated individually by Chicago's Elena Delle Donne and by the resurgence of the New York Liberty.

"The growth we've had from the beginning of the year to right now, and the way that we play ..." White said. "We have 12 players who lay it on the line every single day and that's what we ask."

Catchings, who has said she will retire after next summer's WNBA season, is down to one last chance to win one more title, to put herself on a short list with Cynthia Cooper, Lisa Leslie, Diana Taurasi, Sue Bird and Maya Moore as superstar players who were able to win multiple WNBA titles.

But now, she has family in town and wants a chance to rest her tired body and spend some time with them.

On her way back to her own locker room, Catchings stopped by the Lynx locker room, which was in full champagne-popping mayhem, to congratulate her friends.

"That is a class act," Lynx guard Seimone Augustus said. "Tamika Catchings is one of the classiest players that we've ever seen in this league. She's a competitor on the floor, she gives you everything she has and for her to come in here speaks volumes to the type of person she is, on and off the floor."

White is already thinking about Catchings' last season. So is January and Larkins. In fact, each of them got emotional just talking about it.

"Tamika is special," White said, taking a long pause as her voice cracked. "She has accomplished anything and everything you can accomplish in women's basketball and I felt like, this year, was probably, in my opinion, her greatest accomplishment because of the way she got her teammates to elevate their play, the way she made them better. She empowered them, the way she, like a mom would do, pushed them along. ...

"She's a once-in-a-lifetime player for a coach to be able to coach."

Larkins knows how close Indiana came.

"We had a chance. We were here," she said. "There's no telling if we are going to make it next year. That's the part that kind of hurts, too. But Catch is going to give us one last ride. And hopefully we can make her a champion again."