The final play of the first half says it all about the first half of Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Finals.
After the Indiana Fever played hot potato for a while on offense with nobody particularly interested in shooting as time ran out on the second quarter, point guard Briann January threw an errant pass that was intercepted by Sky forward Tamera Young. The turnover turned into a 2-on-1 fast break, which resulted in an easy standing layup for Sky point guard Courtney Vandersloot after a nifty pump fake.
The Chicago Sky overcome 28.6% shooting in the first quarter to take a 15-11 first quarter lead; they managed to overcome the a huge rebounding disadvantage (19-9) in the second quarter to take a 37-29 lead into halftime.
As the halftime score suggests, the Indiana Fever just weren't able to do much better.
2014 WNBA Sixth Woman of the Year Allie Quigley has been the hero for the Sky in the first half, scoring a game-high 13 points on a combination of 3-point, mid-range, and free throw shooting. For the Fever, Shavonte Zellous leads the team with 10 points while Erlana Larkins complemented her with six; unfortunately, aside from those two, the rest of the team is shooting just 5-for-23 from the field with Tamika Catchings going just 1-for-6.
What this game may come down to is pace: during the regular season, the Sky had the league's second fastest pace, according to Basketball-Reference while the Indiana Fever finished with the second lowest pace but an Eastern Conference-high 34.6% 3-point percentage. So far, the problem is not only that Chicago has been able to keep this an uptempo game by pushing the ball when the opportunity presents itself, but also that Indiana can neither seem to hold on to the ball nor hit threes at a normal rate. The Fever have nine turnovers in the first half, which matches their average per game thus far in the playoffs.
Briann January committed four of the #Fever’s nine turnovers - also Catchings only shot 1-of-6 in the half. #WNBAPlayoffs
— Swish Appeal (@SwishAppeal) September 4, 2014
Random bright spot highlight of the half for the Fever though: 5-foot-10 Indiana Fever guard Shavonte Zellous has two blocked shots against 6-foot-6 Chicago Sky center Sylvia Fowles.
For more on this series, check out our Fever vs. Sky storystream.