Postgame Quotes/Notes - Storm 81, Los Angeles 67
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TONIGHT'S NOTES | |||
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STORM HEAD COACH 
BRIAN AGLER:
On the game:
It was just a good win. L.A. is a good team. They came in here really wanting to win; both teams did. If you look at the minutes played, both teams kept their players on the floor. That’s not our big-picture plan by any means and that’s what I told our team after the game.
On 
Lauren Jackson's defense:
Candace Parker is a great player. There’s no question about it. But Lauren Jackson’s defense tonight was unbelievable. We were just talking about we have some people who can stay in plays with Candace, and a lot of teams don’t have that. They have to gimmick and do different things with zones and things like that. I’m sure Candace will have big games against us. She played well tonight. She played 39 and a half minutes and had her opportunities, but Lauren really did a great job and I told her that afterward.
On pulling away in the fourth quarter:
We just sort of hung in there and played with some persistence. They were on a back-to-back and I’m sure that factored into it late. They looked a little tired and that was an advantage for us. They’re a great team and they’re going to win a ton of games.
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STORM GUARD 
SUE BIRD:
On the game:
Tonight, defense is what kept us in the game for four quarters. We changed some things offensively to give them a different look, but otherwise we relied on our defense and let the rest play out.
On defending Parker:
I’ve been able to see Candace play a lot over the last couple of years and she is an extremely difficult person to guard. There is a variety of things she can do and she’s hard to keep off the boards. For a post player she has a pretty good handle and tries to take you off the dribble. A-Rob (
Ashley Robinson) and Lauren both did an excellent job.
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STORM FORWARD 
SWIN CASH:
On the fourth quarter:
We felt very confident. Obviously our core group was out there and we’ve played together for a few years now. We just made plays.
On the win:
It feels really good. I’m just happy and impressed with our team tonight. I think Lauren did an excellent job offensively - she was dominant on the blocks - and defensively she did an excellent job on Candace. The new players are just getting here and acclimated to the system so we’re just scratching the surface right now.
On the Storm's defense:
it was a total team effort. We understand how much offense L.A. has and we had to do a lot of adjustments down the stretch. But like I said, we have a core group of veterans and we were able to make plays.
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On the game:
You know, it’s hard to win when every game we’ve got teams shooting 30 free throws … every game. We can’t win. It’s just tough. I don’t know what the deal is but maybe there’s something that we need to do a better job of. That’s something that’s been plaguing us for the last two games and we need to correct it somehow, someway. I thought we looked a little lethargic in places, but we looked brilliant in places. I think the extra two or three days is going to help us to evaluate what we need to do. It’s a tough loss because I thought we stayed in the game most of the time until the very end. These are things that can be corrected. My team is giving the effort. They’re playing aggressive and they’re playing their hearts out. But when you put people on the line for 30 free throws it’s tough to play defense. That’s something that needs to be evaluated in the next week.
On whether fatigue was a factor in the fourth quarter:
It might have been. But every team is going to play back-to-backs and we’ve just got to be able to overcome that mentally and just play hard. That’s all we’ve got to continue to do is play hard and hopefully things will go our way eventually.
On Jackson's defense:
I think Lauren has a little bit more experience over Candace and she probably knows how to defend her. With them being the same size it definitely helps her as well. Yeah, I thought she played her pretty tough, but all that’s going to do is get Candace better.
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On the game:
It was tough. I think we lost it. We were up and then I think it was tied 62-62 and then we just collapsed – mentally, physically, missing box outs, all of that.
On fatigue:
No, there was no fatigue. It was all mental. We just didn’t execute down the stretch.
On Jackson's defense:
I think she did good. Lauren Jackson is a great defensive player, but I think there are other things that we could’ve done. Other players stepped up, so it’s not solely a one-on-one matchup.
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On the opening weekend:
We had a good game in Phoenix but kind of lost it at the last second. That wasn’t a negative. We looked at it as a positive because of the way we played at the end of the game. Here we played strong for the first few quarters, but then we kind of collapsed a little bit. I don’t know if it was fatigue or inexperience in the situation. We’ll be okay. I’m not worried.
On the physical nature of the game:
Yeah, it was physical. Fouls, I’m not sure about. I know that we shot less free throws so I don’t know if you can call that physical entirely. It is what it is. We’ll look at film, see what we did wrong and go back to the drawing board.
