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TONIGHT'S NOTES | |||
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ANNE DONOVAN:
Betty (Lennox) was trying to get to the rim and get fouled, look for a three-point play. I think she thought she had it there, but unfortunately ... .
On her feeling about the Storm's effort:
Really pleased. At this point of the year, there's not many moral victories you can walk away from and feel good about, but again, just like the Detroit game, the effort and the guts and the hearts (were great). I have to talk about the fans. It's just incredible in the building right now. It's totally playoff atmosphere. It's disappointing that both times we weren't able to come out on top, because they're giving us incredible energy. Hopefully we're going to heal up. It's tough when you play everybody long minutes in a game like this and now we travel tomorrow. That makes me wonder what we've got left for Minnesota. But we've got to get some wins here.
On Lennox's and 
Lauren Jackson's condition:
They're spent. They're gassed.
On a potential playoff matchup with the Sparks:
I feel good about this matchup. He went huge late in the game and we still were able to handle it somewhat. I know they're down (Mwadi) Mabika, we're down 
Janell (Burse), but I like our chances against L.A.
On the Sparks frustration:
I think our fans got in their heads. I think our fans were awesome and I think you can't help but be frustrated when you walk onto this kind of home court.
On Jackson's determination in the fourth quarter:
Great. You saw she fell. Between her foot and her shin, it's hard to tell what's more painful for her. For her I'm very concerned about our next game and what she's going to have left, because she's playing through so much, you wonder how much she can keep doing.
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On the loss:
It's hard to swallow something like that because seeing us fight and seeing us play to the end and just continue to battle out there, it's kind of hard when the outcome is a loss by one.
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On the final play:
I don't think it was her (Lennox's) fault by any means. I think that we should have probably yelled out to her. We should have probably communicated to her a little bit better, but it's just one of those things. It's pretty much our game in a nutshell. We make a great play and then nothing.
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JOE BRYANT:
On taking the top seed in the West playoffs:
We’re in good shape because I think we’d have to lose all of our games and Sacramento would have to win all of their games so that could be difficult.
On games like these preparing the Sparks for the playoffs:
Yes, even before coming here we’ve been all over … doing the Texas two-step in Houston and San Antonio back-to-back. That’s what I’ve been preaching, though - that every road game would be a playoff-like atmosphere. Not only that, first of all, the other teams want to beat the best team in the West. Number two, there are a lot of teams still fighting for playoff position and number three some players are playing harder to play for a contract moving forward. So we’re fighting against three situations and I just told the players we need to be focused and play hard. That’s what we’ve been doing so I’m very happy.
On the final play:
Yeah, I’ve seen that before. The first thing I said was we don’t need to give them a 3 and we really played up on them. (Betty’s) natural instinct was to go to the basket because the defense forced her that way. It really wasn’t her fault - we kind of forced her into going that way. With her attacking mentality, she went right to the basket, made it and thought, ‘Oh my goodness, we were down three.’ That’s the way it goes, but I think our defense helped force that because we were all up above the 3-point line so we made her go. If she’d have tried a 3, it would’ve been over someone and that would’ve been difficult.
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LISA LESLIE:
Lauren and I, as usual, battling it out to the end. It was a lot of fun, though, and both teams played hard. Obviously we can see each other again in the playoffs, so it felt good for us to get a win here. That’s a confidence booster.
On the final play:
Yeah, I’ve seen something like that before. I was kind of surprised when she turned the corner to come in because I thought she was going to make the pass out to the corner. I was playing in between there and when she turned I was like, ‘Oh, you can have the two!’ I thought she was going to make that pass, but she didn’t. It was clearly a mistake on her part. Obviously we played her up on the 3-point line because we thought she’d pull up since Betty can pull up from anywhere. When she just kept penetrating, I thought she was going to dish, but I’m sure if she had to do it all over again, she would’ve shot the 3.
