Monarchs center Yolanda Griffith, to the Saramento Bee, after Sacramento punched its ticket to the Finals:

Sun forward Nykesha Sales, to the Hartford Courant, after beating the Fever to head to the Finals:
"We were a lot more excited last year. We're excited but we realize that it defeats the purpose if we go to the championship again and lose. I think you'll see a wild side if we win the championship."

Monarchs coach John Whisenant:
"We're tickled to death to win this game. We beat a first-class team. Van's a great guy, great coach. His team has good players. We were able to beat them, which makes it that much sweeter."

DeMya Walker returned to action in the Conference Finals. Terrence Vacarro/NBAE/Getty Images

Sun coach Mike Thibault, on the overtime clincher in Game Two:
"The hardest thing sometimes is when you're in a situation like that and you don't win in regulation, the tendency is to come out unhappy or flat to start the overtime. Instead we kind of cranked it up to start the overtime."

Monarchs forward DeMya Walker, to the Sacramento Bee:
"My moves are all natural, but coach has been drilling into my head ever since he took the job that I needed to develop my inside game. He told me I was a great athlete, that I could be a great player if I adopted that (post) move. And I just really believed it. The thing about it is, though, I never really know if I'm going to go left, if I'm going right."

Comets coach Van Chancellor, after Game Two:
"I don't mean this bad, and I love Penicheiro. But we might have been better off if she had played a little bit today. I say that kind of lightheartedly, OK? Lawson just lit us up, played extremely well and did a great job."

Fever center Natalie Williams, prior to her final game, to the Indianapolis Star:
"You're almost like one of the heavyweights walking into the arena getting ready for the big fight. That's what it feels like."

Lindsay Whalen, after Game One, to the Hartford Courant:
"You earn victories like this just by sticking with it and digging down."

Comets coach Van Chancellor, after a Conference Finals Game One loss to Sacramento:
"Give Nicole Powell credit for making a great shot; give Coach Whisenant a lot of credit for bringing his team in here without (Ticha) Penicheiro and beating us at home. They deserved it...they played great. I thought when we went up 3 points, we'd have a shot at them. One thing is, late in the game I just could not get the play I wanted to run and that hurt us some. They did a good job of taking us out of the offense...they made the shot and I had 4 seconds to go...I should have never called the play that we take it to the basket and try to draw the foul."

Sun guard Katie Douglas, after her Game One three-pointer helped Connecticut win Game One, to the Hartford Courant:
"It's just one of those things. I just realized the shot clock was going down. I actually, honestly, 100 percent intended to bank it. If you shoot it straight on from that far out, you're not going to get a good bounce. I just wanted to get it off the backboard."

Monarchs coach John Whisenant after winning Game One on the road:
"Without Ticha (Penicheiro) we are not as capable of being a racehorse team and we're just going to have to play on their game. We're just going to have to get into a slugfest and get out and play them in half-court basketball. I felt like Van (Chancellor) tried to take advantage of us not having Ticha (Penicheiro) and would press as often as he could to try and see if our less experienced point guard and guards would make turnovers and I was very proud of the way we were able to handle that."

Fever coach John Whisenant, after dropping the Eastern Conference Finals Game One to the Sun:
"We were right where we wanted to be," he said. "We positioned ourselves to have a chance to win. "That's all you can ask for in a playoff game."

Monarchs guard Nicole Powell, who hit a big three-pointer to give the Monarchs the win in Game One:
"After that shot, we knew we had to get ready for another 5 minutes of basketball. We weren't really concerned with what they were doing in the overtime, we just had to play our game. That was most definitely the biggest shot for me as a professional basketball player. To come down here and win, it was such a big game...everyone played well tonight, everybody contributed when it really counted."

Comets center Michelle Snow, after Game One in Houston:
"Overall I feel like we kept the game close...we had it won in regulation. Bottom line -- we had the game won, but we did not win. That is the problem we need to fix. We can go back and look at the situation of the last play in regulation. Maybe if we fouled before the ball goes in, maybe she only gets 2 free throws. And when we get the ball back, there is no chance (of them tying or winning)...we're up 3 points. I think we need to play situational basketball. We played hard, but we did not play smart when it came to situations. She (Nicole Powell) did hit a heck of a shot. It was a very tough shot...I'm not going to knock that, but we shouldn't have put her in that position to be able to make that shot. That was very frustrating, but other than that, we played hard, we out-rebounded them, but we had too many turnovers. Even with the 20 turnovers, we were right there for the entire game so we have a lot of things to capitalize upon and I think if we make better decisions down the stretch, we will win."

Monarchs center Yolanda Griffith:
"The only pressure that is put upon us is if we have a bad game and try to press the issue to come back even stronger. We've been the underdog this whole season even know we're number one in the West. We believe in each other, trust in each other, and are just playing for ourselves right now. I think that if we just stay relaxed like we've been the entire season, no matter good or bad, we'll be OK. This is just an example of how this team is. We are together. It doesn't matter who scores on this team as long as we win and that's what's been helping us all season."

Comets forward Sheryl Swoopes, after Game One in Houston:
"It's definitely not something that we wanted to do. Sacramento (Monarchs) is a very good team, and we knew we had to come in here and play, regardless of whether Ticha (Penicheiro) played or not we based our practices on her playing. We dug ourselves in a hold and we were able to get out of it. We could never really get in any kind of flow. In the timeout, we were playing like we had another game on Saturday instead of playing like we didn't have another game on Saturday. We know it's not going to be easy, but at the same time we know everybody is confident in us to know that if we go down there Saturday and not have 20 turnovers like we did tonight, we have a pretty good shot of winning."

Monarchs guard Kara Lawson, to ESPN.com:
"I became interested in women's basketball because of Dawn Staley. I was in third, fourth, fifth grade, and that was when Virginia was going to three Final Fours in a row. Those were the basketball camps I went to. I was enamored with Dawn and the things she could do with the ball."

Sun guard Katie Douglas, prior to the start of the Eastern Conference Finals:
"Every time we play them, we play crazy. We play real chaotic. They just work you into chaos. And that's why they're winning games."

Monarchs coach John Whisenant, before Game One against the Comets, about guard Ticha Penicheiro:
"Right now, she can't put her foot down," Monarchs coach John Whisenant said.

Fever forward Tamika Catchings, to the Indianapolis star:
"This is the growing stage. We need to remember, we're still the pioneers."

Sun forward Nykesha Sales, to the Hartford Courant, prior to Game One with the Fever:
"We just know that if we play our A game, we can win it. So the pressure lies on us going out and playing well, not hoping someone else doesn't play their best game. Because I think their best game to our best game, we're going to win."

Comets forward Sheryl Swoopes, to USA Today, prior to Game One with the Monarchs:
"Right now we're playing very good basketball," said Swoopes, who owns four WNBA title rings, three Olympic gold medals and two league MVP awards. "I think we're playing good individually, and as a team we're playing some incredible basketball."

Sun guard Lindsay Whalen, to the Hartford Courant, prior to the Eastern Conference Finals:
"I got in better shape the first year in college [at Minnesota] and I was getting up there a little bit. I tried to touch the rim and, you know, I'm thinking I'm going to dislocate something. I landed kind of funny. I was like, `This isn't worth it. I'm never going to dunk. I'm never going to finger-roll and touch the rim.' I haven't tried since."

Sparks guard Nikki Teasley, to the Sacramento Bee, after being eliminated by the Monarchs in the first round:
"I can say for the WNBA - and the NBA, too - Sacramento has the most intense fans I have ever heard. And their team feeds off that energy."

Comets coach Van Chanceller after knocking out the Storm in Seattle last weekend, to the Houston Chronicle:
"I ain't planning on sleeping a lick tonight. I'm going to call my four grand boys to meet me at the airport, and I'm going to celebrate this game for 24 hours. I ain't going to think about Sacramento."

Shock guard Deanna Nolan, after the Shock were eliminated from the playoffs by the Fever, to the Detroit News:
"It is disappointing and frustrating. With the talented players we have, we're bigger, stronger and faster than anybody in this league. Some games, we just couldn't put it together. I don't know why."

Storm guard Sue Bird, after the Storm were eliminated from the playoffs, to the Seattle Times:
"It’s definitely a surreal feeling. There are a lot of teams in the WNBA that just said, ‘Whew, Seattle lost!’ – I can tell you that much. That’s what makes this hurt – we had an opportunity to do some great things and defend our title but we didn’t.”