Natalie Williams said her son, Turasi, has an excellent left-handed layup.

	Tamika Catchings has followed her rookie-of-the-year season with another outstanding performance.

"We've got to work on his right,'' she laughed, and considering he's not quite 3 years old, there would appear to be time. He's on the indoor little-folks hoop now, but, Williams adds, "I'm telling you, some college coaches might want to sign him already.''

Turasi and his twin sister, Sydney, go see their mom play for the Indiana Fever at home games and listen to the radio or watch on TV when the team's on the road. They have a good idea what's going on. More so, perhaps, than your average almost-3-year-olds.

"And, you know, I adopted them, but they have that same drive as me,'' Williams said.

What she's finding out is that the apple might not fall far away even when it's not from the tree. As many adopted kids will tell you, an everyday example can be as powerful a force in shaping someone as genetics can. Maybe even more so.

Yet genetics is not to be ignored when it comes to the Fever, considering starting posts Williams and Tamika Catchings both are daughters of former NBA players.

"I think having their fathers as pro athletes definitely impacted Natalie and Catch,'' Fever coach Nell Fortner said. "It was a motivating factor for them as far as being professionals.''

What Fortner would really love to have now is the daughter of some great rebounding guard. The Fever, entering the stretch run of the WNBA season, has one issue that's bugging Fortner more than anything else. The team is near last in the league in rebounding, largely because it doesn't have a consistent rebounder from the perimeter to complement Catchings (7.9 per game) and Williams (7.0) inside.

In an important game at Eastern Conference-leading Detroit on Saturday night, that could be a big factor. Especially since the Shock lead the WNBA in rebounding. (Perhaps, not coincidentally, because there's another "NBA daughter'' crashing the boards for Detroit in Cheryl Ford at 10.9 per game.)

But rebounding won't just be an issue against Detroit. It's going to matter for the remainder of August, as the Fever attempt to break free of the Eastern Conference logjam behind the Shock.

"It's the one thing that's really hurt us,'' Fortner said. "It's even more important because we're at that stage where every game counts.

"And that's the tough thing about this league. You can get on a good roll quickly, but you can also get on a bad roll quickly.''

Listen to Fortner and Williams, and you can tell both think the Fever can finish strongly and get something done in the playoffs. Yet by the same token, they're just as equally aware of how fast it can slip away. There's not much margin for error because parity is the hallmark of the league this year.

Coming into the weekend, there were five teams with 13 victories, two others with 14. The compacted schedule has a minus and a plus: It's often hard to build momentum, but there's also not much time to wallow in your failures.

There's especially no time for that if Fortner is your coach. Williams played for Fortner on the 2000 Olympic team, but admits she had to readjust to her when she came to the Fever via a trade from the relocated San Antonio Stars before the season began.

"I didn't play on a team that worked hard for 40 minutes last year,'' Williams said of the former Utah Starzz. "You can't take a break mentally or physically when you play for Nell Fortner. You go all-out all the time. Because if you don't play that way for her, you don't play.

"You can make mistakes on her team, she understands that. But if it's because you're not hustling, you're in trouble.''

You really don't imagine the likes of Williams getting into trouble. She's a 32-year-old veteran, a mom, a businesswoman, a former two-sport star at UCLA, an ACL survivor (another thing she has in common with Catchings; both did it their senior year of college).

The trade to Indiana was very good thing for Williams and the Fever, who also got rookie guard Coretta Brown in the deal. Williams is averaging 13 points to go along with her 7.0 boards, and more than that, she's a good reservoir of wisdom for her teammates.

"Absolutely, that's been a huge extra benefit with the Natalie Williams trade -- she's so mature, a real professional,'' Fortner said. "She knows how to take care of herself, how to act in the locker room. So much of what she brings to us is off the floor, as much as on.''

One thing Williams can't do, though, is play point guard. And that's been the Fever's other problem. Coquese Washington, who came to Indiana last summer in a trade with Houston, was a solidifying force as the Fever made the playoffs. Indiana was 8-3 in the games she played last season, and Fortner was looking forward to having Washington all the way in 2003.

But knee surgery forced her to miss 12 games, and she wasn't activated until the end of June. In July, Washington played her way back into shape. And it's lucky for Indiana that she has been able to do that, because guard Niele Ivey broke the middle finger of her shooting hand on July 16. She'll probably be out another week.

Brown has seen time at point, too, but that's not the best spot for the very promising rookie. She's more a shooting guard, although any experience she gets this year will be good.

Fortner is crossing her fingers and envisioning a completely healthy guard corps for the last two weeks of the regular season. That includes G/F Stephanie White, who missed all of last year but has come back with renewed enthusiasm and is averaging almost seven points per game.

And Catchings (19.6 points per game) has followed her rookie-of-the-year season with another outstanding performance this year. Fortner knew Catchings would be one of the league's stars, she just wasn't sure it would happen quite so fast.

So the Fever sit on the brink, really. In some ways, it's similar to last year. In other ways, it isn't -- because this is a more talented team, more sure of itself.

"Whatever happens, I love this team,'' Fortner said. "They all work hard, they don't complain, their chemistry is very good. I think you probably don't have that everywhere in this league.''

Williams attests to that: "The last few seasons, I wasn't playing with players who always wanted to play together. It's frustrating when those things happen. This year, I'm just having a great time, and as a team we get along and work together so well.

"I know a lot of things have to happen right, it's a tough road. But we truly believe we can win this thing.''

Mechelle Voepel of the Kansas City Star is a regular contributor to ESPN.com. She can be reached at mvoepel@kcstar.com.