Postgame Quotes/Notes - Storm 74, Sacramento 67
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TONIGHT'S NOTES | |||
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ANNE DONOVAN:
On the game:
There’s not going to be too many blowouts in this league, I don’t think. So in the second half when they came out and made a good push, we never relinquished the lead. Nothing negative about it for me.
On 
Lauren Jackson's performance:
31 (points) and 13 (rebounds) is pretty impressive, certainly. Her and 
Suzy (Batkovic) off the bench, offensively really helped us. Yeah, it was good stuff from Lauren. It was probably her best night of the season, I would say, by far.
On Batkovic:
We got good minutes. Suzy came in in the second half and started to get after the backboard more than she did in the first half. But she’s been such a consistent lift for us in the post off the bench. I don’t know where we’d be without her right now.
On what changed in the second hafl:
They kept on the offensive glass, which hurt us. They were getting two and three possessions sometimes, making us play for a minute at a time. That definitely had something to do with it. They came after us in the post, and we gave up some buckets we shouldn’t have. But I think overall we stayed aggressive offensively. We didn’t come out real sharp, they made us pay for it, and then we got it back again. At that point it became a battle.
On the magnitude of the win:
That’s a great win for us to get our confidence back, hopefully go to Phoenix and get one more win before the break.
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SUE BIRD:
On the game:
Whenever you lose a game, it’s a wake-up call. When you lose four in a row, it’s a huge wake-up call. We definitely wanted to come out strong. The one thing that I guess is disappointing about tonight is just that we gave up our 20-point lead. We took it to them in the first half, and if we could have kept that up in the second half, it probably would have been a little bit better.
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On getting a stitch after the game:
I got hit in the mouth at the end of the game.
On getting a win:
It was awesome to get a win, obviously. We’ve been losing, so to get a win against Sacramento – and they’re tops in the West at the moment - it was great just to get the win.
It was important that we got the win. I think I was so driven to win that game, for me and for the team and for Anne and everyone involved. I just wanted to win.
On whether she found her groove:
Yeah, ‘How Lauren Got Her Groove Back.’.
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On playing with five fouls:
It comes with experience. I think a couple of years ago, if that would have been the same situation, for sure I would have been fouled out. I think I’m getting a little wiser. It’s good to know.
On her offensive game:
At the moment, I’m trying to really focus on the defensive end. It’s just coming nicely. Now that I’ve had more games and trains with the team, I’m finding where I can get my shot, what I can do to help the team, basically.
SACRAMENTO HEAD COACH JOHN WHISENANT:
On the game:
We just waited until halftime to start playing. I guess I know why - it was six games in nine days and going from one side of the country to the other side, playing some pretty good teams. Also the fact that we were playing the WNBA Champions who had a little bit of anger ready for us because of the problems they’d had with their own game. I was proud of my people because they didn’t roll over and they came back and made a game of it. They actually had a chance to win it, but we just couldn’t make a basket and couldn’t stop them. You have to give them credit. We’ll wait for another day.
On being down two with under four minutes to play:
I was worried we were fatigued. We had played so many games and I was looking at my players and trying to figure out who had enough energy to go. I may have chosen the wrong ones, I don’t know. Some of the ones who had played less minutes on this trip, like Rebekkah Brunson - she had live legs and hadn’t played as much as DeMya (Walker) and Yolanda (Griffith) … so I’ll second guess myself tonight.
On playing without Kara Lawson:
Not having Kara hurts us because she’s such a warrior and late game player. She’s a big shot taker and the wide-open shot we had from a rookie, if Kara had taken it, I’d like to think it would’ve gone in. That would’ve put it even or one down with the pressure on them. There are a lot of what ifs.
On the Storm:
Seattle is obviously getting its game back. Sue was back running the show. Even though she didn’t make some shots, she controlled the game for them. Lauren, even though she’s still not as good as she was, she’s still awfully good. I’m sure by the time the playoffs get here she’ll be like she was last year. Those two are a handful, no question. Any team that has those two has a chance to win any game in the WNBA.
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TICHA PENICHEIRO:
On the difference between the halves:
We played in the second half and didn’t play in the first half. We knew they were going to come out strong because they had just lost four in a row and they were playing in front of their fans and didn’t want to be embarrassed. They had to get up for us because we’re the best team in the west right now. We just didn’t match their intensity. Our defense was terrible. We brag about our defense all the time and we were terrible. We regrouped at halftime and unfortunately we didn’t have enough time … we were down 18 or 20 points at the half so that was too many points against a good team like Seattle. We almost did it, but almost doesn’t count.
On fatigue's role in the slow start:
It’s possible, but if we played like that in the second half, why couldn’t we do it in the first half when we had more gas? So we can have as many excuses as we can find. We had six games in nine days and that’s not fun. You eventually get tired, but we are very deep and probably have one of the deepest teams in the league. We rotate a lot of people in and out so if we had energy like that in the second half we should’ve had it in the first half.
On the Monarchs upcoming 11-day break:
It’s good and it’s bad. We just have to make sure we practice hard and work. We don’t want to lose conditioning. We have a two-day break, then practice for two days, then a three-day break, then practice for four days so we’re in and out a lot. The first half of the season was good … 11-5 is a good record and we’re on top of the Western Conference, but that doesn’t get us anywhere. We have to be as strong in the second half because teams are going to come after us. I think we surprised some people in the first half so now we really have to take care of ourselves and do whatever we have to do to get ready for the second half of the season.
