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On the game:
We played a great defensive game both halves. We got carried away offensively and our post players didn’t do a good job of establishing position. They just assumed that the guard to get the ball to them without working hard for position. We talked quite a bit about that at halftime and made the adjustment.
On Lauren Jackson's play:
I don’t know how long, if ever, Lauren has ever been held scoreless for 20 minutes. She came out in the second half surely motivated and playing like the MVP that she is.
On the first half:
Offensively we were horrendous. But defensively we weren’t too bad. We held them to 14 points until the eight-minute mark, which is pretty good against the second-leading scoring team in the league. It was pretty ugly offensively, but I was pleased with our defense. And to be as horrible as we were offensively and have Lauren without a point and three fouls, you’re going good if you’re still in the game.
On Jackson's second half:
She couldn't wait to get out there. Eleven minutes in the first half, held to one FG attempt, three fouls, no buckets. She couldn’t wait for the halftime buzzer to go.
On playing well at home again:
We tend to be more aggressive in KeyArena. But we really wanted to get after them this game. We felt like we didn’t play well defensively against them in Phoenix, and their perimeter players had a field day and we were trying to shut them down. We were aggressive, we were smart defensively and we got after them for 40 minutes.
On Betty Lennox's effort:
She really shut Anna DeForge down defensively. She really wants to get into people and sometimes people get past her that way. She made adjustments and didn’t allow that to happen. She played a smart game.
On going into Sacramento on Saturday:
We need to get to Sacramento and play this defense on the road. I wish we could carry the energy of the crowd with us, because there is nothing like playing here in KeyArena.
On playing a more defensive game:
I don’t care that we lead the league in scoring. Scoring 80 points a game isn’t really who I am. It’s great that we have all these great offensive players but the fact that we’re the worst defensive team in the league that really grates on me. Tonight we took a very powerful offensive team and shut them down. It feels good.
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On the game:
We obviously have a big advantage over them inside. They switch on a lot of screens and we just tried to force it in too much. We had 13 turnovers in the first half so for us to finish with just 18 was the story of the second half. When it was there, we gave it to the post player and when it wasn’t, we kicked it around. Our offense was just much, much better (in the second half) and obviously our defense all game was there. If we didn’t play good defense, we would have been in trouble. If you really want to know the story of two halves, it was Lauren. When she’s aggressive and making those shots, it doesn’t matter who is guarding her. We’re a completely different team when she is like that. That’s the difference. For her to play like that in the second half, if she hadn’t, it would have been a close game for sure.
On Jackson's two halves:
I was excited for her. Not that she was frustrated, but she never got in the flow in the first half. I’m proud of the way she came out in the second half. Phoenix does a really great job every time we play them. They do a really great job of covering their weakness. Not that they have weak post players, we just have an advantage, and they do a really good job of covering that up. We were finally able to figure it out in the second half.
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On the Storm's effort:
They were desperate to win, there’s no question about that. They played with a lot of energy. We struggled offensively the whole game, but in the first half our defense kept us within reach. In the second half, we went away from what was working for us. You have to credit Seattle – they blew us off the floor.
On Jackson stepping it up in the second half:
There were a lot of things that were the difference in the game. Obviously when Lauren doesn’t score, you know she’s going to come out firing. She attacked a lot more, but we didn’t stick with what we did in the first half defensively. We hurt ourselves, but again credit Seattle - they blew us off the floor, but we certainly didn’t help the cause.
On moving forward:
I just quit actually. I’m flying back to Australia on the next flight tomorrow. Dee (Taurasi) is going back to college to get another degree. No, look, this is the WNBA. We fly to Minnesota tomorrow and play them the next day. This game is history. We can’t change it. We can learn from it, move forward and go about trying to beat our next opponent. We’ll take this as a great lesson. We don’t want to be blown out in other people’s gyms. We’ll move forward and get the next one.
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On the Storm's defense:
Yeah, they played well. They played a good game, but for the most part, it was the things we didn’t do. On offense, we didn’t share the ball, there wasn’t movement. People weren’t on the same page mentally tonight. This game is so mental that if not everyone comes in focused and up to it, it’s hard to get things done. I certainly didn’t play well at all so I take the blame for most of it.
On not having her shot:
Yeah, that was pretty much it. It wasn’t falling. I got some good looks, but I wasn’t in the flow of things so that’s just up to me.
On what she does with a game like this:
Personally, I don’t like to forget games like this because it’s part of you. We just need to take a hard look at what we didn’t do well and what we did do well. Like (Coach Graf) said, we play Minnesota on Saturday so we still have work to do and we can’t get too down.
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