Most basketball shortcomings -- rebounding, turnovers, defense -- can be easily negated. Just stand behind the 3-point line and count swishes.
The Indiana Fever sank 12 from the arc, one off the franchise record, and defeated the Atlanta Dream 92-84 Saturday night in a WNBA opener at Bankers Life Fieldhouse.
"They made so many 3s. They just killed us," Dream forward Angel McCoughtry said.
Eight Fever players sank 3s, setting a WNBA record for the most players on one team making 3s in a game. About a dozen teams have featured 3s by seven players in one game, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.
McCoughtry scored 26 points. That wasn't enough to offset five Fever players scoring in double figures, led by Katie Douglas' 21 points and three 3s.
When the Dream trimmed a 17-point deficit to 62-60 in the third quarter, the Fever responded with a 15-0 run, thanks to . . . you guessed it.
"The spurt of 3s," McCoughtry said.
Briann January hit two. More spectacular was a 30-foot rainbow to end the third quarter by Jessica Davenport, who had previously made one 3 in her six-year WNBA career.
The game was a rematch of last year's best-of-three Eastern Conference finals, won by the Dream 2-1. The Dream were 6-1 against the Fever in 2011, making the opening win especially gratifying.
"At times it was really, really pretty. At times it was really, really ugly," Douglas said. "It's more fun to learn from a win than from a loss."
Tamika Catchings added 16 points and seven rebounds, and Davenport had 12 and 10, respectively. January and Shavonte Zellous scored 11 points each.
January, a point guard returning from a knee injury that sidelined her most of last season, didn't start but played 28 minutes. She scored all 11 points in the second half, finishing with three assists against five turnovers.
"They're quick and athletic, so it really was a test," January said of the Dream. "Not only for our team, but for me. But it felt great to be out there."
The Fever never trailed, began 8-of-12 from the arc and led by 17 points in the second quarter. After recovering from Atlanta's counter-punch in the third, the Fever restored the lead to 17 and held on at the finish.
The Fever committed 16 turnovers, but they also collected 11 steals and forced Atlanta into 19 turnovers.
"I thought our decision-making overall was the weakest part of our game," said Fever coach Lin Dunn, who gave her team a grade of B-minus.
Catchings was similarly strict with her grading scale.
"Looking at where we want to be at in the end," she said, "we've got to close some things up."
Etc.
Announced attendance was 9,403. . . . The Dream were without Izi Castro Marques, who did not re-sign; 6-5 Brazilian C Erika de Souza, who will not join the team until after the Olympic Games, and 6-5 Belarussian C Yelena Leuchanka, sidelined by a concussion. . . . Fever C Tammy Sutton-Brown did not play because of a sprained left ankle. . . . Catchings and McCoughtry are teammates on the U.S. team for the London Olympics. . . . The Fever play eight of their next 12 games on the road, beginning Friday at Chicago.
Call Star reporter David Woods at (317) 444-6195.
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