Postgame Quotes - Storm 67, Houston 63
July 24, 2004
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On Lauren Jackson's performance:
I think she’s proving to everyone, including me, that her defense is as good as her offense. When they went with their big lineup we struggled, because that’s just a tough guard for Sheri (Sam) on (Tina) Thompson, and obviously Betty (Lennox) is outsized with (Sheryl) Swoopes. When they went to their big lineup and LJ was forced to guard a post player, we lost some of our momentum. But that other lineup worked well when LJ can guard Tina and Sheri can guard Swoopes - incredible defense by LJ down the stretch.
On Jackson blocking five shots:
They were so big they should go and double them.
On Swoopes:
When she gets hot, like everybody in this league when they get hot, you can’t guard her one-on-one, you have to come up with another matchup. We sent Sue (Bird) off of (Sheila) Lambert and it seemed to stop her and change their flow a little bit.
On the last play:
I don’t think Swoopes was expecting Lauren to guard her. Tina was open on the reverse side. But with Lauren on Swoopes, that is a tough pass to make.
On the last timeout:
We just seemed to spend way too much time scrambling on offense. We were becoming a team that was just looking at Lauren, making one pass, look at Lauren. Just standing around and not getting into our offense. We just reminded everybody that they have to step up. Sue didn’t shoot the ball well all game long, but she stepped up when they had to. It was just a matter of reminding them that we have other options and we’re not going to live and die with Lauren. We have more weapons than just LJ.
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On her back pain:
It would have to be pretty bloody severe to get me out of a game these days.
On whether she ever doubted the Storm would win:
I have to say no, but we were down by five with two minutes to go. I guess you have to attribute it to the crowd. When you hear them roaring, it is unbelievable. Nothing like it in the league.
On whether it was frustrating for the Comets to respond to each Storm run:
Well, that’s the game for you. It must have been frustrating for them too, because every run they made we came back as well. Sheryl is a top-quality player and so is Tina, so you have to expect them to make big plays. Ultimately we pulled it out in the end. Sue hit a big shot and Kamila made those free throws.
On Simone Edwards' effort off the bench:
Simone had an unbelievable game. I’ve played with that girl for four years and I’ve never seen her play like that. She had so much energy, she was hitting shots. She was doing things that Simone does in practice every single day. I was just so happy that she played that well.
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On Jackson's late block:
Obviously she had three big blocks, but that last one was insane. I don’t know who made the pass, but whoever it was hit Michelle Snow and we had to help because she was wide open under the basket. Lauren came out of nowhere. And Michelle Snow is 6-5 and she is up at the rim. This is a girl who dunks often. For Lauren to just come out of nowhere … and she almost hit the ball against the backboard. No foul, all ball. And not only that, it was when she did it. What were we, up one? That layup puts them up one. It was just huge. It doesn’t get any bigger than that block.
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On the game:
This is just about as disheartening right now as it’s ever been for me in coaching. We lose last night at the end of the game and come back in here and put ourselves in position to win at the end. Give Seattle credit - they made a lot of great plays and did a great job. Anne Donovan did a wonderful job making it happen.
On Jackson:
Lauren Jackson was good, but once again you can’t give 16 second-chance points and win any games. We’re not a good defensive rebounding team and until we solve that problem we’ll never be (good).
On what the Comets need to do to turn things around:
I have no idea.
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On Jackson's defense:
I thought she played very well defensively. She was all over the place. She got a lot of blocked shots on ball, off the ball - she was just really active tonight.
On coming back from her injury:
It’s up and down. I have my good days and my bad days sometimes. Depending on how practice is, where we travel, I get a little tight and stuff. For the most part I feel like I’m back. I’m playing a lot of minutes, so I’m not going to make any excuses if I’m out there. I just try to get it done.
On what went wrong at the end of the game:
It was just the little things. We didn’t close. That’s kind of been our nemesis this season - we’ve been in games at the end and just don’t close them out. We continue to say it’s immaturity, but we’re over halfway through the season, so it has to come together at some point.
On the Comets mindset before the Olympics break:
We need to win these two games - they’re must wins now. We’re just putting ourselves in a hole that it’s going to be tough to dig out. From this point on, we have to get wins and that’s the bottom line.
On the Olympics:
I am very excited. This is the first for me. I’ve had opportunities to be there on several occasions and there’s always been something that has gotten in the way, like an injury. It’s the first time for me, so I’m pretty excited about it.
