|
On the game:
It’s good to walk away with a win to start the regular season. But I don’t think our defensive intensity was as good as it was in Sacramento. And so we’re talking about that so it becomes a habit that we need to play for 40 minutes. And you don’t let down even though we were up 12 or 13. I think our defense was pretty good and took them out of the flow. But it wasn’t as sharp as it was in Sacramento. Late in the game our intensity let down and Anna DeForge got open looks. They got second shots.
On getting a preseason win:
It does feel good. A W in that column is a positive that we preach in that locker room. Sometimes it hard to see that you’re making improvements, so the win helps them more than it does me. We were able to play a lot of players and evaluate so that helped me and I continue to see things that we need to get better at.
On Janell Burse's rebounding:
We’ve talked to Janell Burse about being a rebounder. She played in Sacramento and just had one board. Tonight she came in with seven monster boards. It’s nice to see players make adjustments.
On what the Storm is still working on:
We got to continue to get our chemistry and I think it’s going to be an ongoing process. It may be June before we start to see really solid chemistry. They saw how much better they played tonight in the first half than we did in the second half.
On Lauren Jackson's play:
She’s mighty good, isn’t she? There’s not words. What can you say about someone with that kind of ability that makes it look simple? Double- and triple-teamed, getting hacked, three-point plays, going to the line and knocking them down there. A lot of the game they played smallball, which left a smaller player on Lauren most times, which forced them to bring a second and third player and she was still able to score over that.
|
On her game:
I just wanted to play. It was fun. Defensively we’re getting there and offensively there were glimpses of unbelievable basketball. Some of the best basketball we’ve ever had. It’s great. I’m really excited.
On improving before the start of the regular season:
We’ve got a lot to work on but when it all comes together it’s going to be great. I’ve got a lot to work on myself. I’m going to use this final week to get as fit as I possibly can.
|
On the game:
I did OK. I didn’t turn the ball over. I think our offense has been good and is getting shots, we just haven’t knocked them down. Tonight it was good to that. We could have got up by a lot more. We let them hang around and it didn’t catch up with us tonight, but against another team, another time, it might.
On Jackson's game:
A lot of teams don’t have an answer for her and Phoenix is one of them. Obviously that was the big difference between tonight’s game and the first time we played them. She’s good and she’s picking up right where she left off.
|
On the comparison between the teams' two preseason matchups:
Obviously they were two totally different games. The score (39-point margin) wasn’t indicative of that game. Seattle didn’t have Lauren Jackson or Kamila Vodichkova the first time. Plus, they were 0-2 in the preseason, so they were desperate to get this win. We’d had our two wins so that impacted things a little bit. I think they were hungrier for the win tonight. They didn’t want to go into the regular season without a win and I think that was obvious in the way they played. They talked about stepping up their defense and they did that.
On Jackson's game:
Look at one of the best players in the world (Jackson) - 29 points in 26 minutes and she was 12-of-14 from the line. Lauren doesn’t get much better than that. I don’t think we defended her particularly well, but credit Lauren - that’s a heck of a ballgame.
On the Storm's offense:
They shot the lights out, but I think we allowed them to get some easy baskets. They came out to make sure they got a win tonight and credit to them - they did that.
|
On losing for the first time as a pro:
It's frustrating, but as we just talked about in the locker room, it’s not a bad thing. In an exhibition game, you can learn a lot about different people and they’re still trying to decide who’s on the team. You don’t want to go into the season on too much of a high, so it’s a good thing. Seattle played really well - you can’t take anything away from them.
On Jackson:
She is the real deal. No joke, at all. What people say is true – she’s amazing. She really is.
On her development:
There are a lot of things as a rookie that I still need to learn. In three games you learn a lot and every game I learn something different. I won’t pinpoint one thing; there are a lot of things (to work on going into the season).
On the Mercury's growth as a team:
Whenever you have a young team like we do, there’s still that growing period of where you’ll struggle a little bit. Tonight we struggled a little bit offensively - a lot of people were on different tempos and rhythms. It’s hard to play like that, but that’s why you need games like this.
Notes:
