Renee Montgomery is proving she is a quick study as well as an offensive force for the Connecticut Sun.

Montgomery, acquired in the trade which sent Lindsay Whalen to Minnesota and allowed the Sun to take Tina Charles with the top overall pick in April's WNBA draft, was just 9 for 23 from the floor and had 19 points in the first three games of the season.

Thibault decided to bring Montgomery in for a film session to drive home how he thought she should play. Montgomery's career-high 29 points in Friday's 86-77 win over Indiana was the coupe de grace.

"Coach (Mike) Thibault and I had a film session just 1 on 1 and he showed me some things on film I was doing good and bad," said Montgomery, who has averaged 16.6 points in the last five games. "It is nice to see that because now in the game you know what to look for, you know what to fix so it is a daily thing where I am getting more comfortable with everybody on the team."

While the UConn connection on the Sun has been well documented (Montgomery, Charles and Asjha Jones combined for 43 points), there was a touching moment involving former Tennessee teammates Kara Lawson and Tamika Catchings.

Lawson injured her left shoulder, the preliminary diagnosis is a dislocated shoulder,
driving the baseline midway through the second quarter. Lawson clutched her shoulder in pain as she voiced her displeasure to the officials for not calling a foul. Lawson then crumbled to the court in pain. Among the first people to attend to her was her husband, sitting underneath the basket, and Catchings, the perennial All-Star of the rival Indiana Fever.

"They said she tried to call timeout for me," Lawson said of Catchings. "I said I hope she isn't going to get in trouble by her coaches. Catch is one of my great, great friends so I know she was genuinely concerned as I would be if something would happen to her. That was a nice gesture of sportsmanship."

Catchings saw Lawson's shoulder pop out and instinctively went to check on her former teammate.

"I think for me any time anybody goes down, it is definitely one of those things you don't want to see happen," Catchings said. "K-Law and I go way back, she is one of my great friends obviously. Definitely seeing her down 'oh God, what do I do?' I can't do anything. I am not a doctor. I am trying to comfort her and make she was OK.

"I am not worried about it (trying to call the timeout). When you see it like that, it is different. When it is one of your friends and I saw her shoulder out. It was something where I felt like I needed to do something and I tried."

The win combined with Atlanta's loss to New York moved Connecticut into a tie for first place in the East with Atlanta. The Sun (6-2, .750) would actually win the tiebreaker with a better winning percentage than 7-3 Atlanta.