Connecticut's Charles loses triple double upon review

Second-year center Tina Charles of Connecticut is probably the leading candidate to be named the league's MVP this season. She is having a great season statistically, but she no longer has a triple double on her resume.

The WNBA reviews all games for statistical accuracy and it found not one, not two but three errors in the Sun's 83-55 thrashing of Indiana at the Mohegan Sun Arena last Friday. Three assists credited to Charles in the second quarter were taken away. Two of the assists were given to teammate Renee Montgomery, a guard, another Sun basket was scored without an assist.

So instead of a triple double, the line for Charles in the boxscore now reads 10 points, 16 rebounds and seven assists.

The story with the boxscore on wnba.com still reads as if Charles got the fifth triple double in WNBA history, but officially it really didn't happen.

INDIANA WINS EAST

For the second time in three years, the Indiana Fever are the Eastern Conference regular-season champions. The Fever (21-11) beat last-place Washington 87-69. The Mystics (6-27) actually were competitive much of the game.

Washington was within 69-65 in the fourth quarter when the Fever pulled away. Guard Katie Douglas led Indiana with 21 points.

The Fever said she will not play at New York on Friday, and is questionable for Atlanta on Sunday.

MVP TALK

The play-by-play broadcaster for NBA-TV on the Indiana vs. Washington game called Tamika Catchings of Indiana one of the front-runners for the MVP Award. Seventeen national media members and 24 regional ones vote on that award. Their votes are due by Monday.

Didn't catch the broadcaster's name because I turned the game on late, but he said other front-runners were Lindsay Whalen of the Lynx and Sylve Fowles of Chicago -- their teams meet on Thursday at the Target Center -- Charles, Diana Taurasi of Phoenix and Sue Bird of Seattle.

That's a pretty good list. The only other player I might add is Angel McCoughtry of Atlanta.

There are only four days left in the regular season, but Phoenix, which still has three games left, could still be either the second, third or fourth seed in the Western Conference semifinals.

The Mercury play Tulsa at home on Thursday, play at Seattle Friday and then play the Lynx at home on Sunday.

Here are the scenarios:

* The Mercury finishes second if it wins its last three games or, if it goes 2-1 and Seattle loses its last two games.

* The Mercury finishes third if it ties with Seattle ... that would happen is Phoenix goes 2-1 and Seattle goes 1-1, or if Phoenix goes 1-2 and Seattle goes 0-2.

* The Mercury finishes fourth if it goes 0-3 and the Silver Stars go 2-0. ... If that scenario happens -- and that's a longshot -- the Western Conference semifinal pairings would be: Phoenix vs. Lynx and San Antonio vs. Seattle.

(Seattle and San Antonio both hold the tiebreaker over Phoenix if the Mercury ties either one.)

Much of this confusion would be cleared up if Phoenix beats Tulsa on Thursday night. If that happened the San Antonio vs. Lynx series would be set. The best-of-three series would start at Target Center either Thursday or Friday of next week.