The Indiana Fever came to Toronto and stayed ahead, winning 101-95 on Tuesday night in a WNBA clash that told you plenty about both sides of the table. Toronto sat sixth with eleven wins and twenty-nine defeats, while Indiana sat second with twenty-six victories. The visitors held their nerve when it mattered, closing out a game they controlled for most of it.
Indiana built a seventeen-point lead at one stage, the biggest of the evening, and Toronto never quite found the thread to claw back. The hosts shot better from distance, making twelve three-pointers from thirty-seven attempts, but Indiana's twenty-five from twenty-five was not the real story. What mattered was the paint. The Fever scored fifty points inside compared to Toronto's thirty-two, and that difference showed up on the scoreboard.
By then the Fever had taken control, and Toronto's energy went into the glass. They pulled down forty-one rebounds to Indiana's thirty-two, with eighteen on the offensive end. That gave them twenty-two second-chance points, more than double Indiana's nine. They also scored twenty-one points off turnovers, but the Fever had seventeen of their own from twelve Toronto turnovers.
The statistics tell you about effort as much as outcome. Indiana had twenty assists to Toronto's nineteen, and twenty-two personal fouls against twenty. Both sides committed one technical foul each, and neither side saw a flagrant incident. The Fever's steals total of seven edged Toronto's six, while Toronto's six blocks were double Indiana's three.
Toronto's recent form had not been kind. They had lost five straight before this one, including defeats to Dallas, Atlanta, Portland and Golden State. Indiana, meanwhile, had won four of their last five, beating Atlanta, Dallas and New York before falling to Las Vegas. This result moved them further clear at second place, while Toronto's position at sixth remained where it was.