It's Phoenix: after two games of below-average shooting last week, both Diana and Cappie came through for the home team, and the Merc have more hardware to wave in the air. "I never, never want to give it back," Taurasi said.

It was a great series, with one of the best games ever followed up by a big home win for the underdog Fever and then by a headbutt.

But the last two games seemed to go according to coach Gaines's plan: run the opponents back and forth, wear them down, and use the Merc's combination of fast-break ability and firepower from outside. It took a while: Phoenix led for most of the night, but Indiana pulled even with four to go.

"We played about as well as we could play," coach Dunn concluded, and maybe so: certainly Catch looked terrific, and Sutton-Brown rang up big numbers early on. But other players looked tight: as in past matches, the Fever looked best in the first quarter, the Merc in the fourth.

Catch isn't sure what's next: "I want a family, want kids," she says. (And no, she's not retiring next year: it's about the long term.)

Voepel, who seems to have written three columns at once, also looks at Taurasi's eventful season, and catches up with one of the few Merc players without a ring from'07: mild-mannered K-State alum Nicole Ohlde.