Though they've been struggling recently on the road, the Detroit Shock still are perfect at home this season.
The Eastern Conference-leading Shock look to stay undefeated at The Palace of Auburn Hills when they face the Chicago Sky on Wednesday night.
At 9-0, Detroit (14-7) is the only WNBA team with a perfect home record. The Shock have already broken their franchise record of six straight home wins to start a season, and their nine-game run is just four shy of tying the team record set July 20, 2005-June 25, 2006.
Detroit is no doubt looking forward to coming back home after losing 74-64 in New York on Saturday for its fourth straight road defeat. Plenette Pierson and Katie Smith, who leads the team with 16.2 points per game, each scored 13, but Detroit blew an 18-point, third-quarter lead.
Coach Bill Laimbeer thought the referees "allowed it to get out of hand.''
"We lost our composure a little bit," said Laimbeer, who later spoke in a hallway with WNBA president Donna Orender. "The refereeing frustrated ... us. We're just getting tired of the double standard that we have, and it wore us down tonight. Every day we play through it. We're not good enough to play through it some nights, tonight was an example. We're tired of it and we're going to address it with the league.
"We had the game under control and it turned. The momentum changed and was fueled by a situation where two of the referees got caught up in the emotion of the situation and allowed it to get out of hand."
The Shock lost their first meeting of the season with the Sky (6-13), falling 76-59 on June 28 in an effort that Laimbeer termed "obnoxious" and "embarrassing." Reserve Shay Murphy led Detroit with 13 points, while Candice Dupree had a team-high 18 for Chicago.
The Sky snapped a four-game losing streak on Sunday, beating expansion Atlanta 79-66. Dupree and Jia Perkins each scored 18 points for Chicago, which had dropped nine of 12.
"It's been a long time since I've been able to smile," Sky coach Steven Key said.
Dupree leads the Sky with 17.1 points per game and has averaged 19.2 in six games since the win over Detroit.
"We came out with a lot of energy tonight," Perkins said. "We made a run at the beginning and then just took it on from there. We were pretty excited about that and our defense was key for that run."
Chicago has dropped three in a row on the road, where it owns a 2-7 record.
