Catching Up With Kara
Sun guard Kara Lawson is off to a hot start, including a 5-of-5 performance from behind the three point line against Atlanta on Sunday. She joins Tan White (7/13/11 at Indiana) and Evanthia Maltsi (7/7/07 at Los Angeles) as the only Sun players to make five threes without a miss in a game. Lawson has made 10 of her last 13 three-point attempts, and connected on 26 of her last 39 attempts from the field (66.6 percent) over the last four games, averaging 17.7 points per game in that span. Recently, she sat down with us to answer a few questions after practice.
Angel McCoughtry said the other day that you’re playing like a 20-year-old. What do you attribute to your quality of play right now?
“I pride myself on preparing for the season each year and trying to have a willingness to improve. I think the best players have a desire every year to go out and to prove their worth in the league, and to not take for granted something that they might have done last year or three years ago or five years ago or in their college career or whatever it is. I’ve always looked at it as every year is a new opportunity to define who you are as a player and I think my preparation in the off season has given me the ability to have a good start.”
Has your vegan diet played a role in your fast start this year?
“It’s hard to know, to quantify it. I don’t know how much, but I’m a firm believer in nutrition. I can only speak for myself and the impact it’s had on my life but as far as recovery and energy levels and having high-impact performances, that’s definitely what every athlete wants to do. You want to be able to have high-level performances and then be able to replicate them. Throughout the season, we have a brutal schedule with back-to-backs, three games in four days, and seven games in 14 days. Nutrition to me is one of the things you can use to your advantage and it certainly helps.”
How have you been able to step your game up in the second half?
“In the second half, a couple things start to happen. One is players’ fitness levels really show. If you’re fit, you’re going to have more opportunities in the second half to make plays because those who aren’t fit generally aren’t going to be able to make plays. The second thing is I think we have good balance on our team. Tina (Charles) and Asjha (Jones) got off to really good starts this season so there was a lot of attention being paid to those guys and you’re going to have some cracks in your defense if you pay too much attention to one specific player or one specific part of our offense. I think there’s just a lot being concentrated on our post game and as a result I’m getting some pretty good looks. I don’t know if they’ll continue to happen but as long as they do I’m going to keep firing.”
When you’re on a hot streak like you are right now, do you realize how many shots you’re making during the game?
“I can’t say I know how many I’ve hit during the course of a game, but you do know that there’s certain nights where it feels better than others. I’ll be honest, there’s certain nights where my shot feels really good and I might miss three. I might go 0-3 but that shot felt good coming off my hand. There’s certain nights where coming off my hand it doesn’t feel so good but it goes in. In fact, one of the five I hit yesterday, I didn’t think it was going in and it went in, and because of that I try not to get too mental about it. I’m not a baseball player but I think it’s similar to hitting. When a guy’s on a good run, you’re not thinking about it, just seeing the ball, hitting the ball, and if I get an opening I’m not going to think about it I’m just going to shoot it.”
You guys have a fairly young team that’s off to a great start. How much of a leadership role have you taken on with this team?
“The great thing about our team is that we are young, but we have played together, this is our third season, so we’re not new to each other. We’ve been able to build off the last two seasons. As far as leadership goes, that comes with playing point guard. Whether you want it or not, you have to have the ability to control the game and call plays. Coach has given me a lot of freedom this year to run the offense on the floor.”
Angel McCoughtry said the other day that you’re playing like a 20-year-old. What do you attribute to your quality of play right now?
“I pride myself on preparing for the season each year and trying to have a willingness to improve. I think the best players have a desire every year to go out and to prove their worth in the league, and to not take for granted something that they might have done last year or three years ago or five years ago or in their college career or whatever it is. I’ve always looked at it as every year is a new opportunity to define who you are as a player and I think my preparation in the off season has given me the ability to have a good start.”
Has your vegan diet played a role in your fast start this year?
“It’s hard to know, to quantify it. I don’t know how much, but I’m a firm believer in nutrition. I can only speak for myself and the impact it’s had on my life but as far as recovery and energy levels and having high-impact performances, that’s definitely what every athlete wants to do. You want to be able to have high-level performances and then be able to replicate them. Throughout the season, we have a brutal schedule with back-to-backs, three games in four days, and seven games in 14 days. Nutrition to me is one of the things you can use to your advantage and it certainly helps.”
How have you been able to step your game up in the second half?
“In the second half, a couple things start to happen. One is players’ fitness levels really show. If you’re fit, you’re going to have more opportunities in the second half to make plays because those who aren’t fit generally aren’t going to be able to make plays. The second thing is I think we have good balance on our team. Tina (Charles) and Asjha (Jones) got off to really good starts this season so there was a lot of attention being paid to those guys and you’re going to have some cracks in your defense if you pay too much attention to one specific player or one specific part of our offense. I think there’s just a lot being concentrated on our post game and as a result I’m getting some pretty good looks. I don’t know if they’ll continue to happen but as long as they do I’m going to keep firing.”
When you’re on a hot streak like you are right now, do you realize how many shots you’re making during the game?
“I can’t say I know how many I’ve hit during the course of a game, but you do know that there’s certain nights where it feels better than others. I’ll be honest, there’s certain nights where my shot feels really good and I might miss three. I might go 0-3 but that shot felt good coming off my hand. There’s certain nights where coming off my hand it doesn’t feel so good but it goes in. In fact, one of the five I hit yesterday, I didn’t think it was going in and it went in, and because of that I try not to get too mental about it. I’m not a baseball player but I think it’s similar to hitting. When a guy’s on a good run, you’re not thinking about it, just seeing the ball, hitting the ball, and if I get an opening I’m not going to think about it I’m just going to shoot it.”
You guys have a fairly young team that’s off to a great start. How much of a leadership role have you taken on with this team?
“The great thing about our team is that we are young, but we have played together, this is our third season, so we’re not new to each other. We’ve been able to build off the last two seasons. As far as leadership goes, that comes with playing point guard. Whether you want it or not, you have to have the ability to control the game and call plays. Coach has given me a lot of freedom this year to run the offense on the floor.”
