The Shock hammered Connecticut in Detroit, but the Sun didn't seem to mind: Whalen and Douglas both showed up in street clothes, and coach Thibault used the game to test his bench.

The home team had fun: Katie Smith and Deanna Nolan drilled holes through Connecticut's porous backcourt. Detroit's starting guards finished with 18 and 19.

An odd second-quarter Sun lineup, with Taj, Sales and Willingham, turned it on and cut a twenty-point deficit to four. Coach Thibault: "We were shooting to try to play hard, get some different combinations, give Nykesha some minutes, give our young players who have never played in this building some experience... After getting behind early, we got ourselves back in the game."

Detroit's win guaranteed the Shock home advantage against Indiana in their first-round playoff series. With little at stake, coach Winters rested his starters, and Chicago picked up their fifth win. Dupree laid down 24 as the Sky pulled away.

The game might have seen a significant injury anyway: near the end of the first half, Whitmore took a finger in the eye. She did not return to the floor, but the Fever calls her probable for Thursday.