Postgame Quotes/Notes - Storm 72, Minnesota 66
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TONIGHT'S NOTES | |||
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ANNE DONOVAN:
On winning on the road:
It's been a very long time since we've won on the road. We like to make it difficult for ourselves - that's obvious - but a win on the road against Minnesota, who's a good team, they're fighting hard. ... They stayed in it all of the way until the end. It got a little hairier than I wanted, but it feels good to get the win.
On 
Sue Bird's performance:
Sue Bird was the key during the 17-2 run. They struggled with our ball screens, and Sue stayed aggressive from beginning to the end... Every win helps us get closer to the playoffs. We still have a ways to go before we are there, but we got the monkey off of our back by finally winning a game on the road. Hopefully we go to Houston and have a better effort against them.
On 
Suzy Batkovic stepping up off the bench:
Minnesota tried throwing many more post players at her, especially in the second half ... Minnesota tried making (Vanessa) Hayden the focal point in the second half. We struggled against her. 
Janell Burse fouled out, and Batkovic came in and did some nice things. She's been struggling a little bit, but I think she got some of that back tonight.
On the Storm's tempo:
We have talked about how our defense creates offense, and I think that was the case tonight. We had some good stops. We wanted to run a lot. We knew they played last night, and I think that's where our ball-screen offense comes in - make them pursue - and a combination of stops and transition offense really helps.
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LAUREN JACKSON:
On the Storm:
We just didn't play like a normal game. That's the one thing about (our team): we don't play with as much energy on the road as we do at home. Again tonight, we're real lucky to come away with a win.
On the second-half run:
I felt like we were more tired out there, which I don't know why we did play like that... Sue had a really great game for us. She just kept playing good defense and rebounding. We got on a little run in the second half and we sort of went from there.
On moving forward:
We have a huge game against Houston in two days, and we need to get that win. We really need to just get out there and play, and play hard. We just have to get out of here and play against Houston... At the end of the day, you just want to do everything you can to win and make the playoffs.
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On the win:
This puts us in a position to get home-court advantage with a second-place finish, so it was very big for us. It was a win, but not only that, it was a win on the road. So hopefully we can take this momentum and head to Houston.
On the Storm's run:
It started out on defense. We were able to get a lot of transition buckets, get some layups, just get some easy ones. ... We did a great job running our offense. We took what they gave us and when we're playing that aggressively, we're a really good team.
On the Storm's defense:
For us, this has been the story of our season. We're at our best when our defense is at the best... Our offense will be there. I don't know what we are in the league for scoring, but I know we're up there. Our offense is going to be there, so if we can stop teams, that's when you see us get the win like this.
On the Lynx without Katie Smith:
Obviously they are different. I think they miss Katie in some ways, and then in others it gives a lot of really talented players an opportunity to step up. Normally their offense was run through Katie, and now you have Stacey Lovelace, who does a great job for them. ... Chandi Jones has come in from Detroit, and she's a scorer just like Katie is, so I think maybe it has opened things up for a lot of the other players.
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SUZIE MCCONNELL SERIO:
On the game:
I'm baffled... We outshoot them; obviously, we don't shoot the ball well. (We have) only 11 turnovers. ... We just had no energy at times. We made adjustments defensively, but we didn't have an answer for Sue Bird consistently.
On the Lynx playing the second game of a back-to-back:
I told our team that fatigue is never an excuse. We have too many players. We go through training camp to prepare for this type of situation in the season. We're professionals. We need to be able to deal with this, but fatigue is never an excuse. Everybody plays back-to-backs.
On the difference in the second half:
Obviously the full-court pressure picked up the tempo of the game and created some of our offense. We ended up reacting a lot defensively to what they were running. We knew their sets, and we went over them right before the game because we didn't have a shootaround this morning. So this team was prepared, and we even knew the calls. Sometimes we anticipated too much, and they countered. They got easy opportunities.
On going away from Hayden down the stretch:
Vanessa was hot at the time, and they couldn't stop her. They didn't have an answer for her at that time, so we continued to go with what's working. I think she ran out of gas at that point, so we had to sub. But then, when we were down in double figures, we had to go more up-tempo - pressing - and that was the lineup we put on the floor to be able to do that.
On the Lynx losing two straight games:
We're disappointed (being) 2-2 (this week). I thought we could've been 3-1. We let one slip away last night, but we'll wait and see what happens. Right now we're still in the thick of things -- obviously not where we want to be, but it's better than being completely out of it right now and just playing the games out. We have something to fight for. That's the one thing that we keep talking about all the time, is just coming out, fighting for 40 minutes and never quitting. That's the mentality we have. Give this team credit. We ran out of time... We didn't quit, right up until the end.
On Jones' career-high 16 points:
That's what she's capable of doing. She is an explosive player and a three-point threat. But one thing we love about her game is her ability to get in the paint and create a shot, and create for her teammates. She did a nice job of feeding the post. She had six assists to go along with 16 points. She's aggressive defensively. She's athletic. It's what we've needed.
On the Lynx's offensive balance:
We had three players in double figures, but obviously we needed more production across the board. Defensively, we just gave up offensive rebounds late in the game, and it hurt us once again.
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On the Lynx's playoffs hopes:
We're in a situation where obviously we are underdogs, and it is going to take a lot of different things to happen for us to make it into the playoffs. But we can't really worry about any of it. We've just got to try and win our upcoming games. We have six games left, and we've got to go into each one like it is a do-or-die situation and hopefully everything else will take care of itself.
On frustration from the close loss:
Any close game is really hard on a team, especially a team that is in the position that we are in: just that close to making the playoffs. Being that close to a win and not being able to pull it out is really difficult to handle - especially two games in a row when you needed them both. It's a tough situation, but we've just got to come back, do the best we can in our remaining games, and everything will take care of itself.
On the Lynx's second-half problems:
I think that for the season we tend to have lulls in the second half, whether it was from back-to-back or not. For whatever reason during games, that second half we seem to go stretches without being able to score. I don't think it was only tonight's game, just because it was back-to-back. It is something that has happened over the course of the season. We need to focus on our remaining games and go into them ready to fight, and hopefully other teams will take care of other teams. Hopefully, we will be able to hang on and gain that fourth spot. That's our goal, and we are going to stick with it.
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On the Lynx's playoff hopes:
We're down, but we're not out. We're not going to stop and say it's over for us, (that) our playoff hopes are over. Right now, it's us. The people we are playing are the ones we are fighting for to get into the playoffs. So it's all on us, it's all about us. We can say we fought, fought, fought to the end, but how long can we say that? We've got to fight and actually get a win. That's going to be the key (in the) next games.
On the schedule:
We could use that as an excuse, 'Yeah, we ran out of gas.' But this is the WNBA. We are professional athletes. We've got to find it somewhere, some way. We did play four games in six days, and I'm very tired - but hell, that's nothing new. We've just got to man up and play... It's frustrating. The most frustrating thing is just working your butt off out there and coming up short. We worked hard; just came up short. We need to get better at what we need to do. The focus is on Minnesota; we need to worry about ourselves. Make it about us, not about other teams. We are deciding our fate.
