1. Indiana had one of their shooting-drought nights, and Charlotte took advantage, winning at home behind Tan Smith (16 and 11) and aggressive scoring from Sutton-Brown (18).

The Fever blew a 15-1 opening and lost for the first time with Catchings on the court. "Every single time I touched the ball, there were two or three people right there," she said.

Also in Charlotte, Mazzante tries to pump up her backup role. (Last night: 5 points, 2 blocks-- yes, blocks-- in 14 minutes.)

2. Connecticut just managed to preserve its early lead against the Storm; Douglas and Whalen locked up the win with late free throws.

Whalen (17 points, 9 assists) looked good. Sue Bird looked inexplicably bad: 1-9 shooting, and she fouled out. Yes, Sue Bird fouled out.

Seattle posts Burse and Turner had career nights in Taj's absence, but they weren't the players setting the offense up. (Turner: "We played hard too late.")

The Connecticut crowd welcomed Turner and Bird... until the game began. Bird got it right: "When people make signs against our team because that means the WNBA's doing pretty well. That they're actually Connecticut Sun fans, not necessarily UConn fans who became Connecticut Sun fans. Although it pains me to see, it's also nice."

It was Turner's first time back. "I almost drove back up to school. I still have the keys to my apartment, so I was going to stay in my apartment last night so I could feel comfortable," she said.

3. Glad to be at home, Los Angeles pulled away from the Sky despite a lackluster third quarter. Perkins and Dupree together had over half Chicago's points; Holdsclaw was Holdsclaw again (7-10 shooting, 15 points in 26 minutes).

Coach Bryant says the Sparks are still jelling, and shouldn't worry about their late fade: "We did control them in the first half, but you know they will come back. Ideally, you'd like to win by 40, but this is not Duke against some other team."