Tossed jacket fires up Lynx to 83-71 win over Fever, tie WNBA Finals

MINNEAPOLIS - Minnesota Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve's jacket never had a chance Wednesday night at Target Center.

Turns out neither did the Indiana Fever after Reeve flung her jacket down the sidelines in a third-quarter rage that fueled the Lynx to an 83-71 Game 2 victory, sending the WNBA Finals back to Indianapolis tied at a game apiece.

That jacket never got wrapped around Reeve's shoulders again, not once the Lynx turned their outrage into a lead that grew to as much as 15 points in the fourth quarter.

The Lynx trailed by as many as 12 points in the second quarter, but chipped the deficit to two points by halftime and tied the game late in the third quarter before Lindsay Whalen had the ball ripped away from her on a dribble drive with no foul whistled.

Whalen gestured emotionally for the call and Reeve soon followed, ripping off her jacket and flinging it before she was done protesting before a home crowd announced at a sellout of 13,478.

She also tried to rip off the battery pack from being miked for the game's ESPN broadcast - an intention that caused fans in the front row to duck - but never untangled it enough to toss it.

"She always sets the tone," Whalen said of her coach. "So intense, you can't just help be passionate about it. We want to fight so hard for each other and for her. She definitely fires you up and gets you going because you know she's into it."

Both Whalen and Reeve were called for technical fouls - Reeve's assistant coaches blocked her path to the officials and shielded their view, perhaps preventing an ejection from the game - and Tamika Catchings made both free throws to give the Fever a 50-48 lead with three minutes left in the third quarter.

But from there, the Lynx went on an 23-7 run that ended the third quarter, began the fourth and provided a 66-57 lead with 7:21 left from which the Fever never recovered.

"Clearly, I wasn't happy in that moment," said Reeve, who chose her words carefully because of all the WNBA officials who attend the Finals. "I wasn't happy about the way the game was officiated, period. But that's all I'm going to say."

Maya Moore punctuated that run with a driving layup and three-point play that gave the Lynx the lead for good, at 57-55 late in the third quarter.

Seimone Augustus followed later with an important three-point shot and then Whalen provided consecutive baskets on a night when Indiana once again played without injured star forward Katie Douglas.

Augustus scored 23 of her 27 points - including all three three-pointers - in the second half and Moore added 23.

"More than anything, Seimone Augustus went against us," Catching said when asked if a sellout crowd fired up by Reeve's jacket toss went against the Fever. "That's what happened."

Catchings scored 27 for Indiana, which won Game 1 of this best-of-five series 76-70 on Sunday.

"As a team, we didn't step up to the plate when we needed to, when we should have rallied and came closer to together," Catchings said. "It's like we came apart a little bit, and we can't afford to do that, not with the defending champ."

NOTES - Indiana reserve guard Jeanette Pohlen injured her left knee after playing fewer than two minutes in the first half and did not return to the game... Douglas remained in Indianapolis on Wednesday, still hobbled by a sprained ankle in an Eastern Conference title-clinching victory over Connecticut that also kept her out of Game 1 of the WNBA Finals Sunday. Shavonte Zellous again started in her place...Augustus says she's focused on leading her team to its second consecutive WNBA title, but she also has come out strong publicly in her opposition to a Minnesota constitutional ballot amendment in November's election that would define marriage as between a man and a woman. Augustus is gay and plans to marry her fiancée in May. "I would hope so, this is a serious issue," she said when asked if her support of gay marriage will change some voters' minds. "It's time for people to be a little more open-minded about equal rights as far as marriage goes."... Augustus was named WNBA Finals MVP last season for averaging nearly 25 points a game in a sweep of Atlanta. She entered Game 2 Wednesday averaging a team-high 20 points in the playoffs. Reeve said Augustus doesn't need to win the award again for her team to repeat, but she does need to play like one. "If Seimone is not even in the (MVP) discussion, we've got a big problem."