Fever can punch ticket to Commissioner’s Cup final by stopping white hot Sun vet

After a big win over the New York Liberty, the Indiana Fever have a chance to make it to the Commissioner’s Cup final. All they have to do is beat the Connecticut Sun and hope for the Atlanta Dream to lose to the New York Liberty. The Fever lost to the Dream in Caitlin Clark’s absence, so they need Atlanta to lose to win the East. Otherwise, the Fever and Dream will have the same record in Commissioner’s Cup play, and the Dream win the tiebreaker. 

Connecticut is not a good team this season, but one veteran could cause the Fever some problems. Marina Mabrey has been on a tear lately, scoring and shooting threes at a high level. The Fever must stop her to get a much-needed victory over the Sun. 

Marina Mabrey is Connecticut’s best scorer

Marina Mabrey averages 17.6 points for the season. If she keeps that kind of scoring up, she will be on track for a career season. She is also, unsurprisingly, the Sun’s leading scorer, closely followed by Tina Charles. 

Mabrey is known as a great offensive talent in the league and once she gets going, especially from three, she is incredibly difficult to stop. She already logged one 34-point performance this season, leading the Sun to a surprise win over the Atlanta Dream. She also scored 26 points when the Sun beat the Fever to secure their first win of the season. 

The Fever desperately want to avoid a repeat of that game. Otherwise, the Commissioner’s Cup final will be out of reach, and the Dream or Liberty will go on to compete for the prize money. 

Indiana has the tools to stop Mabrey

The Fever are a much improved defensive team this season, ranking second in defensive rating behind only the Liberty. That is a massive accomplishment for a team that relied solely on outscoring its opponents just a season ago. 

The Fever also average the lowest opponent 3-point percentage in the WNBA at 27.3 percent. Indiana’s 3-point defense will likely be the key to slowing down Mabrey. While Mabrey can score in many different ways, over half of her field goal attempts come from long-range. If the Fever can limit her attempts or at least ensure that she doesn’t get any easy shots from behind the arc, they should be able to contain Mabrey’s offensive output, and, with it, the Sun’s chances of getting a third victory.