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Originally Published: September 26, 2009

Fever finally reach first WNBA Finals

With assist from Larry Bird, Fever hit 17 of 19 fourth-quarter free throws to seal win

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By Mechelle Voepel
Special to ESPN.com
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Fever Break Shock, Reach First Finals

Tammy Sutton-Brown paced Indiana with 17 points in 72-67 victory Tags: WNBA, Indiana Fever, Detroit Shock, Tamika Catchings, Ebony Hoffman

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Fever Break Shock, Reach First Finals

The Indiana Fever have played under a shadow the players seemed to have ignored pretty well all season. Will the franchise continue beyond 2009? Especially after the recent death of co-owner Mel Simon, are the Fever going to stay put?

The players have successfully kept it out of their minds, focusing instead on just competing the best they could. That included an 11-game winning streak, capturing the regular-season Eastern Conference title and making it to the East finals. But …

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Ron Hoskins/NBAE/Getty ImagesAfter winning an NCAA title and an Olympic gold medal, Tamika Catchings has her sights set on a WNBA championship.

The Fever were going against the problem they haven't been able to solve, the team that had ended their season three years in a row. And when Indiana looked kind of hangdog at times in the series opener at Detroit, falling behind 1-0 in the series after a 72-56 loss, it appeared that once again the Shock would be a wall the Fever simply couldn't scale.

So there, in the final minutes Saturday against Detroit, you can imagine what was going through Tamika Catchings' mind.

We can't let this happen again. We can't, we can't, we can't.

Well, they didn't. Thanks to inspired defensive play, making fourth-quarter free throws, and a key baseline jump shot by Ebony Hoffman late in the game, the Fever are headed to the franchise's first WNBA Finals.

Indiana beat Detroit 72-67 in Game 3 Saturday, before a crowd of more than 18,000 at Conseco Fieldhouse. NBA legend Larry Bird, making a gesture WNBA fans won't forget, bought 9,000 seats and donated them to whomever wanted to come watch.

In Game 2, the Fever had drawn 9,210 -- which, especially in today's economy, is not a bad crowd. But Bird's generosity and show of support for the WNBA helped double the crowd Saturday.

And certainly among those who took the offer of free tickets were fans who'd never seen a WNBA game before. Now they have a chance to come back to see the Fever in the finals.

Catchings was the franchise's top draft pick in 2001, taken third overall behind Lauren Jackson and Kelly Miller. But Catchings couldn't play that year because she had suffered a torn ACL during her senior season at Tennessee. The next season, though, she would immediately become one of the league's top players.

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AP Photo/Tom StrattmanIndiana native Katie Douglas, in her second season with the Fever, made two WNBA Finals appearances with the Sun.

Meanwhile, Deanna Nolan was taken at No. 6 that year by Detroit, and Katie Douglas was picked at No. 10. Douglas was selected by Orlando, which later relocated to Connecticut. She went to the WNBA Finals twice with the Sun, but she always hoped to come back and play in her home state.

Douglas was traded to Indy in 2008. So there they were -- three top-10 picks from the talented Class of 2001 -- on the floor Saturday all vying for the same thing.

Nolan already has three titles with the Shock, and this season, injury-ravaged Detroit has relied on her more than ever.

On Saturday, she had a team-high 16 points, but wasn't able to hit the "big shot" in the final minutes. Indiana used its posts on defense to help make things harder for Nolan.

Still, just getting as far as they did was a triumph for the Shock after everything they dealt with this season. For Indiana, falling short of the finals once again would have been devastating. And you could feel that pressure in the final quarter. It could have been overwhelming for the Fever, but this was a gut-check the team most definitely passed.

In the fourth quarter, Indy made 17 of 19 free throws. Hoffman's jumper with 2:54 left gave the Fever a four-point lead, which gave Indy just a bit of breathing room and was the last shot the winners made from the field.

Catchings struggled offensively, finishing with 10 points -- eight of them coming from the foul line. She was just 1-of-6 from the field. But coach Lin Dunn stressed all along that this year's Fever team really was more than Catchings, which has not always been the case in the past.

Tammy Sutton-Brown led the Fever with 17 points, Douglas had 14 and Hoffman 10. And Indiana held Shock rookie guard Shavonte Zellous -- who had 42 points combined in the first two games of the series -- to three points on 1-of-7 shooting.

There are still questions about Indiana's future, of course. But at least now the Fever have gotten past the Detroit hurdle and likely made some new fans in the process.

Mechelle Voepel, a regular contributor to ESPN.com, can be reached at mvoepel123@yahoo.com. Read her blog at http://voepel.wordpress.com.