WNBA Finals Game 5: Tamika Catchings Will Carry the Indiana Fever to Victory

Four WNBA Finals appearances in five years. A veteran core of champions. Five Olympians. The best player in the league. Home-court advantage. A chance to redeem themselves from a disappointing 2012 loss against this very opponent.

The stars seem to align in favor of the Minnesota Lynx winning their third WNBA championship tonight. However, as we have seen in the past, and especially during these playoffs, you can never ever count out the Indiana Fever and their tenacious, veteran leader, Tamika Catchings.

Upon entering her 14th season in the league, Catchings knew her 2016 retirement was drawing near, and she wanted one last crack at a title.

"At the start of this season, the first team meeting," Catchings said via Mechelle Voepel of ESPN, "I let people know, 'I have two years left. What I don't want is for me to do everything. And me to take all the leadership and responsibility on the court, and then I leave and nobody knows what to do."

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Since that meeting, Fever players and staff have hit the ground running. Individually, Catchings has spent the past year preparing for this moment with her shooting coach, Martin Harvey, putting in extra sessions and working on the minor details that are so crucial when chasing a championship. She finished off this season with an average of 13.1 points, 7.1 rebounds and 2.2 assists per game.

As a unit, the Fever locked in the third seed in the East, averaging 77.7 points per game. They have kept the fire burning right into this year’s playoffs, surprising many by eliminating both the No. 2 seed Chicago Sky and the No. 1 seed New York Liberty. In this finals series against Minnesota, they have kept the ball rolling and are breaking records along the way. The Fever now have the second-highest free throw percentage in a WNBA Finals series, shooting 90.1 percent (64-71) so far. Tonight’s game will also mark the 67th playoff game the Fever have played, passing the Los Angeles Sparks (66) for most in league history, according to Wes Kaminski of WNBA.com

Luckily for the Fever, this isn’t the first time they’ve faced elimination. Historically, they do very well in this type of situation. This season, Indiana is now 5-0 in elimination games and 2-0 on the road. They have won nine of their last 11 elimination games dating back to the 2012 playoffs, and the Fever are 11-2 in playoff elimination games at home.

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When asked if tonight’s Game 5 is just another elimination game or if there is another layer to it, Catchings told Hoopfeed, “It adds another layer to it, definitely. Obviously, this game means a little bit more than the other ones. Every other one was just to get to the next round, just to get to another series. Now, at the end of the night, the series is over one way or another. So [we’re] just preparing for that moment.”

Behind every great leader is an even better supporting cast, and Catchings has a group of talent that has stepped up in a major way during its championship quest. Guard Briann January has put on a stellar performance during the postseason, averaging a team high 16 points per game, shooting 95 percent from the free throw line and 24 assists so far in the Finals, tying her for fourth place in finals history.

Guard Shenise Johnson has also stepped up to the plate, shooting 49.5 percent from the field and scoring in double figures in nine-of-10 games this postseason. Forward Marissa Coleman has contributed both offensively, averaging 12.8 points this postseason, and on the defensive end.

What we are witnessing is the product of great veteran leadership. What sets Catchings apart is her contagious competitive spirit, her tenacity, her grit and her never-ending desire to win. As stated by Howard Megdal for Vice Sports, ”Catchings's tenacity inspires and galvanizes her teammates, launching her Indiana Fever past better-known and more heralded teams into the WNBA Finals this season. It's not so much that the Fever play as one as it is that they all play like Catchings: they are infused with the spirit of the moment.”

That moment will tip off tonight at 8pm EST at the Target Center in downtown Minneapolis, and Catchings and the rest of the ladies of the Fever are more than ready to bask in it and walk away the 2015 WNBA Champions.

Laureen Irat is a featured columnist in her first year covering basketball for Bleacher Report. Irat is also the founder and editor of Beyond The W, a news and lifestyle platform dedicated to the WNBA. Follow her on Twitter at @BeyondTheW.