Harvey opening statement: Well, we've had some great battles this year. All of our games have been close, very evenly matched teams as far as our starting five and our depth positions. Great post players, good perimeter players. You look across the board at the five players that we start and they are as good and as exciting matchups as there could be in the league.

Q: What is the team's attitude heading into its first playoff series?
Harvey: I think they are very excited but I think they are also extremely focused. We almost had a playoff-type game, well, we did have a playoff-type game and a playoff-type atmosphere in here the other night against L.A. I thought they handled that situation with a lot of poise in a must-win situation for us. Really, every game that we've had over the last 19 games have been must-win situations. But we've stayed with our routine and just taken one game at a time and not letting ourselves get too far ahead of ourselves, and we're just going to keep doing that because it worked pretty well for us.

Q: You are 12-3 since your last loss to Sacramento. What significance did that game have?
Harvey: Our game at Sacramento, which we lost, we played them in a back-to-back situation. I told our team after that that regardless of what our record was, which wasn't very good at that time, we had played that day like a playoff team. We had come up short, had a shot at the buzzer to win it that didn't fall. But we left that game, even though it was a loss, with a lot of confidence that we had stood our ground in one of the toughest arenas and had put ourselves in a position to win. Then came back home and did get a win against them. So, from that point on it really built our confidence.

Q: What is rookie Marie Ferdinand's attitude?

Ferdinand

Harvey: She is like any other rookie. She is going to make mistakes, but just as soon as she makes mistakes, she has the ability to turn around and have three great possessions for you and make more good things happen than she makes bad. She is still learning. With our depth and with Korie Hlede we have an opportunity to sit her down and teach her. But as the game goes along and as she gains more confidence she just has continued to make big plays for us.

Q: How big will Adrienne Goodson be against the Monarchs?

Goodson

Harvey: Adrienne will be very important. She's just a triple-threat-type player. She can hurt with a post-up, she's a slasher. What we really challenged Adrienne to do a better job of was getting on the boards, especially offensively. I don't have all the stats in front of me but I think she has had two or three back-to-back double-doubles and when she goes to the boards like that and uses her athleticism and her quickness, that's just another dimension to our team that we didn't have earlier in the season.

Q: What did the recent win against L.A. do for your confidence?
Harvey: L.A. is the best team in our league. There is no doubt about it. We played a good game, we didn't play a perfect game. There certainly are some areas where we could do better and we will work to do that against Sacramento, but anytime you beat a team that has had an 18-game win streak and has had the kind of success that L.A. has had this year, it can't do anything but help your confidence.

Q: How important is it to get that first win?
Harvey: Obviously, it's huge. The format that we are in puts the pressure on you to win that first home game and then take your changes that maybe you can go win one of two on the road. We have been a good road team. We are 10-6 on the road this year, so we do play with a lot of confidence when we are outside the Delta Center. But also our crowds increase dramatically here. The Delta Center -- when you've got 11,000 to 15,000 people in here -- is a pretty difficult place to play. Our fans have done a pretty good job of supporting us, especially the last two to three weeks.

Q: Is it an advantage hosting that first game?
Harvey: How could it not be an advantage to play a home game? That's always an advantage. Just do your best to take care of your home court. We have had some pretty good success on the road and hopefully that will continue in the postseason.

Q: What has been the difference since you stepped in?
Harvey: The first thing that I wanted them to do, which they have done, is play hard all the time, especially on the defensive end. I thought we were much too offensive-oriented and we weren't creating enough offense off of our defense and there just wasn't any fire or passion on the defensive end of the floor. You can't win in this league without defending. Houston proved that. L.A. has proved that. Cleveland, look at what they have done defensively. It's just always what I believed in. They bought into that and it, also on the other end, took some pressure off of our halfcourt offense.

Q: It seems that your transition offense has improved?

Azzi

Harvey: You couldn't talk about a more important factor as we get ready to play Sacramento. They are such a great transition team. A lot of that happens on the offensive end. You don't want to be impatient offensively, which I also think we've done a better job of executing better, and our shot selection is improving, which leads to being able to get teams on the other end leveled off. But you have a point guard like Jennifer Azzi, who is so smart and so savvy, she leads things in our transition defense. And she, more than anybody, has done a tremendous job in that area.

Q: Do you feel as though this team is battle-tested?
Harvey: Anytime you put yourself behind the eight ball like we did in June and have to claw your way into the playoffs like this team did, we are battle-tested. Nothing has come easy for us. This is fun. We've never been here before. This is new territory. We are not going to put a lot of pressure on us. We are just going to go out and try and keep doing what we've been doing and hopefully put us in position to win games at the end.