6:00 p.m., Bankers Life Fieldhouse
Where to Watch: NBA TV
Where to Listen: 106.1 BOB FM
Minnesota will play their final road game of the season on Friday night when they take on the Indiana Fever in a rematch of the 2015 WNBA Finals.
The Lynx are in an interesting spot where they have already clinched the #1 overall seed in the playoffs and have secured home court advantage throughout post-season play. Indiana on the other hand still have something to play for.
The 16-16 Fever are battling for a better playoff seed with the 17-16 Atlanta Dream, whom the Lynx play at home on Saturday evening. Trying to move up to the 5th seed, look for Indiana to come out with a ferocious pace against the defending league Champions.
Before preparing your TV-dinner, be sure to consider these interesting facts about Friday night’s matchup:
– Indiana is 0-2 against the Lynx this season with both losses coming on the road. A main reason one could argue as to why the Fever struggled in the first two matchups is due to Minnesota’s dominant presence in the paint. Veteran forward and leading scorer for the Fever, Tamika Catchings, has seemed a bit flustered going against Minnesota’s bigs Sylvia Fowles and Rebekkah Brunson, which has seemed to throw the whole offense off of their rhythm.
– Minnesota will look to take advantage of their size in the paint against the Fever as Indiana ranks dead last in the league in rebounds per game. The Lynx rank third in said category and as of late, Fowles, Brunson and Maya Moore have been animals on the boards.
– The Fever only have one player who averages double-digit points per game (Catchings) while all four Olympians for the Lynx (Moore, Fowles, Seimone Augustus and Lindsay Whalen) put up at least 10 points per game.
– Indiana has two games, both home games, left in the regular season which means that Catchings has two regular season games left in her career. Seeing as the Fever take on the Dallas Wings in the final contest of the season, who are mathematically eliminated from the playoffs, Indiana will no doubt be giving it their all, and then some, on Friday night.