 | Mercury Head Coach Corey Gaines
"In overtime, our pace usually wears people down because we practice that all the time. We keep it going fast. I told them, “Hey, it’s no problem. This is our style of game. At this pace right here, we should win it.”
(On Penny Taylor’s effort)
"That’s normal Penny, but she just didn’t have any time and the doctor said I couldn’t play her, but I kind of didn’t listen. He said only three minutes at a time, but we just threw that out the window. She said she was fine.”
(On their long road trip)
"It was a tough road trip. It was long. Starting off, we didn’t get to New York until 3 in the morning, game next day at 4 and they fought through that one. Next was Connecticut and they were kind of pumped for that one. Then we go to Atlanta – it happens. We just didn’t have it. Nobody was on. And we gutted through this one. Seattle is a great team, great defense and they slowed us down. The pace wasn’t as fast as we wanted, but I told them to be persistent.”
(On defending Lauren Jackson in the first half)
"We just wanted to keep a body on her.”
(On Seattle coming back)
"They’re a good team. I didn’t think they’d give up. He’s a great coach. He changed his scheme, I changed my scheme, it was just like a chess match. I respect him as a coach."
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 | Mercury guard Diana Taurasi
"It has been a long trip. Cappie (Pondexter) and I have been on the road now for a good two weeks and the rest of the team for 11 or 12 days. You know, when Sue (Bird) hit that three, it can completely take all of the wind out of you and knock you out, and they’re not easy to beat at home, especially in overtime. They’ve had a couple already this year so they feel good going into overtime, but we just stuck together and made some plays, got some stops and the game kind of went our way.”
(On Penny Taylor in overtime)
"That’s Penny. I want to act shocked or surprised, but that’s Penny. When she gets going, she’s tough to stop. Her and Tan (Smith) work that side of the court pretty well. She still has some time to get her timing and strength back, but games like this can only help. This gives her confidence knowing that with a little more work, she’ll be right where she needs to be for us.
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 | Mercury forward Penny Taylor
On when she had surgery)
"Almost exactly 12 weeks ago. It was my right ankle and they did reconstruction.”
(On playing for a longer stretch)
"I didn’t mind at all. That’s more a doctor’s rule than mine. I didn’t really keep an eye on the clock, but it’s feeling good. If I have a problem obviously I’ll let him (coach) know, but in the game it was feeling good. I guess they’re concerned about me getting fatigued and having problems with it my first couple of games back.”
(On finding energy in overtime)
"This team just has so much fight. There’s never a lack in energy, fight, and they’re such talented players -- girls that just want to win. I was so proud of everyone just diving on the floor, really hungry for the ball and being really aggressive to get it. That’s the type of people you love playing with."
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 | Storm Head Coach Brian Agler
"We had great effort. I can’t fault our effort. We made some mistakes defensively, we missed some shots, but our effort was there. We can sit here and say (our starters) played big minutes, which they did, but if we win the game everybody is happy. But we lose it and second guess everything. We’re going to have to get more out of our 6, 7, 8, 9 people."
(On deep bench for Phoenix)
"I’d say Penny (Taylor) made a difference."
(On roller coaster loss making it tougher)
"Yes. We worked hard to give ourselves this opportunity and Sue (Bird) made a great shot. We had others make big plays offensively and defensively. We’re sort of used to this. Our last eight or nine games have been like this. I’m sure we’re going to have many more.”
(On Tanisha Wright and Camille Little)
"Great effort. Tanisha had a huge first half and Camille played well. She hit a big three. We were down three late and she hit one.”
"Numbers of people made huge plays. We had other people step up. We just need to keep with the plan and keep working. Our goal is to try to make the playoffs. And then get home court advantage. We’re in second place right now so we have to keep working. Maybe we’ll catch a break here or there."
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 | Storm guard Sue Bird
"In overtime we had no defense. They just have a lot of good, creative offensive players. And when they’re rolling you take away one thing and they pass to the next person who is more than capable of making a play or hitting a shot. They just couldn’t miss. I think we could’ve have made it harder for them, but they are just very good offensively. That’s what they hang their hat on.”
"She did great tonight. I know she’s coming back from a tough surgery. Tonight she seemed to look like her old self. She’s an extremely hard player to guard one on one. The only thing we could have done is try to double her to get the ball out of her hands, but like I said earlier they just have too many capable people on the floor that can do that. I think we did an okay job in the second half, that’s why we were able to come back and then they just took over."
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 | Storm center Lauren Jackson
"We really didn’t come out firing. They pretty much got on top of us early in the overtime and we couldn’t get back.
"The key against them is stopping everybody else (besides Diana Taurasi and Cappie Pondexter). I’m sure when we play them next time it will be a different outcome. I think that Penny really hurt us."
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