Postgame Quotes/Notes - Storm 70, Los Angeles 52
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TONIGHT'S NOTES | |||
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BRIAN AGLER:
On the Storm's defense:
One of the best defensive games I’ve seen or been associated with, and I’ve been associated with quite a few.
On the defensive strategy against Candace Parker:
We went to double her a couple times and she did a good job of passing out to shooters. But we went back to playing our normal defense. We weren’t going to double anybody.
On 
Yolanda Griffith's performance:
Two plays stick in my mind: The big offensive rebound/stickback in the second half, then the loose ball where her body was parallel with the floor diving for it. That’s the kind of effort and energy you have to have if you’re going to be a great team.
On playing well without 
Lauren Jackson because of foul trouble:
I thought we played well, but I wished she would have been in there. It was good for us for that to happen.
On getting contributions from multiple players:
Ashley Robinson came in there and gave us some great minutes. 
Tanisha (Wright) off the bench was huge. 
Swin Cash was extremely focused tonight. You could see it in the aggressive plays and the rebounds she was getting.
On Jackson's replacement in the starting lineup:
A lot will depend on who we’re playing. It could be Ashley, 
Camille (Little), Tanisha, 
Katie Gearlds. We haven’t been thinking about this, though in the back of my mind I haven’t been looking forward to this day. I’m confident with the group we have that we can stay on the path of getting better each day.
On 
Sue Bird:
I don’t know if there’s a better point guard in the world.
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On the win:
The minute I walked on the court, I said to (Lauren), 'This is like a playoff game.' We’re all fighting for those four playoff spots, so this is a big win for us.
On preparing for Jackson's absence:
She’s a pretty good player. But we’re ready. We’ve won some games to give ourselves a cushion. It’s going to be hard, because the (upcoming) games are on the road, and that’s been our 'problem' or 'issue' this year. But it’s not just about me. I’m not going to go out and suddenly score 30. That’s not happening. Sorry to break it to you guys. Everyone is going to have to raise their game a little bit.
On her jumper:
The pullup is something that is mine. It’s my go-to. It’s what I like to do. Tonight, (the Sparks) didn’t want to let our post players roll. They were yelling 'Squeeze!' and holding our post player.
On replacing Jackson in the lineup:
The best thing about this team: options.
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On the game:
It was a very emotional win. I’m not sure why. Everyone’s really happy. It felt like a playoff game. The loss to them really sparked us and our winning streak. We wanted to do it for Brian because he’s been pushing us so hard.
On Parker:
She could have dunked. She’s very impressive. She could have dunked on the first play of the game, but she held back. If I was her, I would have dunked that. For real.
On her departure:
I’m pretty sure they are going to go and get some wins right now. I’m just so impressed with the way everybody’s playing. With Sue at the helm, I don’t think we can lose.
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MICHAEL COOPER:
On the game:
We played a good game in the first half, but as Pat Riley used to say, ‘No rebounds, no rings.’ I think that was the difference right there - 47-29 and you have 20 turnovers.
On the rebounding:
Oh, we knew that the only way they could beat us is to outrebound us. They did a good job tonight against us. Not just from their bigs, but from the point guard to the bench. We get three rebounds off our bench compared to 11 for them - you can’t win games like that. We’ve addressed that, we said it coming into the game, we put it on the board, we’ve done everything - it’s up to our players. When that ball goes up, it’s all bets off. You’ve either got to box out and if you don’t want to box out, you’ve got to go get the basketball. They did a better job tonight than us. But we’ll see them again. I guarantee we’ll be ready for them. You can print that.
On the L.A. offense:
I thought they did a good job of putting pressure on us and contesting our shots. I thought we should’ve pump-faked a lot more than we did. You have to go the basket strong and against teams like this, especially on the road, you’ve got to take the ball to the basket to score. And if you get a foul, fine. But we weren’t doing that tonight. We were bailing out with jumpshots and we were just settling for things. You can’t win tough games on the road by just settling. You still have to impose your will on teams. They did that better than us tonight.
On the Sparks:
We’re in third place. We’re a third-place team right now. I think we’re better than that. We’ve shown it in flashes. We’re going to get there. We’re a young team still with some veterans and some new people trying to get it together. We’re trying to find ourselves. People talk a lot about Silk (Parker), who is a rookie in this league. She’s done great things, but she’s still trying to figure this out. She’s a rookie and she’s making rookie mistakes. She has to learn how to play against a player like Lauren Jackson. Sometimes you have to show her a pump-fake or something different.
Two times early in the first half she went with the same move and got it blocked. That’s where she has to learn this league and understand how to get her points and how to do different things. Once again, this is not college. You can’t make the same move on a person. Going from my playing days, you can beat me once, but you’re not going to beat me twice on the same move. That’s how Lauren Jackson is and the rest of the players around the league. She has to come with something a little different. And she will because she’s that smart of a player. But I think the physical part is what’s surprising to her - how aggressive players are and how physical they are defensively.
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LISA LESLIE:
On the rebounding differential:
That was definitely the difference. We didn’t box out tonight. I thought they did an awesome job. It wasn’t their first shot that beat us, it was their second shot. We just did a terrible job of staying focused on that and boxing out, so I’m sure we’ll focus on that and take care of it in practice.
On the Storm's defense:
I didn’t think it was their defense or their pressure or anything. We just finished playing Sacramento and that’s pressure defense. I thought the difference was they wanted it more than we did and their rebounding was the difference.
On playing against Griffith:
I missed some shots that I normally make. I don’t know that it was Yolanda, but whatever you need to write.
On positives from the game:
Yes, it was good to see them cheering. Great crowd. It’s not over. It’s not over.
On whether the Storm has improved between the two matchups of the teams:
Honestly, I could care less about the Storm. I don’t have anything to help feed you for the Storm. I’m only worried about the Sparks and we’ve just got to do a better job the next time we see them.
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On the rebounding margin:
We got pounded on the boards, both defensively and offensively. It’s just a matter of putting a body on somebody, blocking out and securing the ball.
On frustrating in the game:
Obviously nobody wants to lose, nobody likes to lose. But I think we’re going to do a good job of staying together. We’ve got our work cut out for us with seven of eight on the road coming up. We started the season 8-1, so we’ll be OK.
On the crowd:
It was great for a WNBA game. They seem to always have great crowds and it was loud.
On deciding not to dunk early in the game:
Honestly, I didn’t really worry about it. I do what I want to do at that juncture. At that moment in the game, I thought it was best for me to lay it up. We got the two points and it was on to the next play.
On having her shot blocked by Jackson:
She made a good play. She blocked my shot. Like I said, I try not to worry about the last play, the next play … I just try to go on. She made two or three very nice blocks.
On L.A.'s season-low scoring output:
I don’t know what it was, but we have to fix it. None of us really shot the ball well. We didn’t really get into our offense effectively and efficiently. When you’re not shooting the ball well, you need offensive rebounds and putbacks and we didn’t have that tonight.
