Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve said the fourth quarter on Sunday started badly and got worse.
"We came out and turned the ball over the first two possessions," Reeve said. "The very first possession, I'll own it as a coach when you try to run some things we're not used to running. We had put a new play in and were trying to run that a couple times and we were trying to run that play at that point. It got us in trouble, we didn't handle it very well and turned it over."
Point guard Lindsay Whalen lost the ball out of bounds on the first turnover. Reserve guard Candice Wiggins made a bad pass for the second turnover.
"We were a little out of character. Indiana is a big reason for the way that we played. We counted; of the first five possessions [in the fourth quarter], we scored one time – Whalen got a layup," Reeve said. "Other than that, and even with that, we were down three with five or six minutes to go and they made plays.
"They made the tough, dirty, hard plays. We got in the lane and they blocked our shot. They competed, they contested every shot. That led to a couple easy run outs for them and as soon as they got that separation it was basically over."
Erlana Larkins' rebound basket with 3:19 left gave Indiana a 72-62 lead -- that's separation -- and led to Reeve calling a timeout.
Larkins was not on a WNBA roster in 2010 and 2011, but she has emerged as one of the Fever's top players in the playoffs. She had 16 points and 15 rebounds.
"Sometimes players think that they're really good," Reeve said, "and they've been good for so long and they're really good in college and all of a sudden they get cut and they don't know what to do.