Dallas Wings Team Notes 

The Wings played their 15th home game of the season.   At home the Wings are 9-6, which stands as the best record when playing at College Park Center  Today’s contest marks as the second time the Wings and Mystics have played this season. The 2018 series is now tied with a 1-1 record.    Overall the Wings are 14-14 with an 8-6 record against the East     Inside the paint the Wings outscored the Mystics 42-20 and are now 11-7 for the season when outscoring opponents inside.   The Wings also outscored the Mystics in second chance points 13-5.   The Wings boarded 40-plus boards with a total of 44 rebounds. It is the second consecutive game they have grabbed over 40 rebounds and 10th overall for the season.     Four players scored double figures for the night.     Two players recorded double-doubles for the day. Liz Cambage with 16 points and 14 rebounds and Glory Johnson with 10 points and 11 rebounds

Dallas Wings Player Notes

 Liz Cambage recorded her 28th consecutive double figure game and 13th double-double to lead the Wings for the day with 16 points and 14 rebounds  Kayla Thornton also hit double figures for the day with 16 points. It is the 15th time this season she has scored double digits. She also registered five total rebounds for the day.   Glory Johnson recorded her third double-double of the season with 10 points and 11 rebounds. She also dished out a season high of four assists.   Off the bench Azurá Stevens led the way with 10 points. It marks as the second consecutive game she has led all reserves. Stevens also grabbed a total of five boards.

Dallas Wings Quotes

Dallas Wings head coach Fred Williams

(On tonight’s game)

“It was a tough game. Shots that should’ve went down for us at the end of the game didn’t. (Mystics guard Kristi) Toliver stepped up. She hit some amazing shots, especially the last one to put them ahead. I thought our team played hard, but we came up on the short end of the stick tonight.”

(On Wings second half)

“I thought we had a quicker lineup in there that got us going more. On the full-court transition, they kept trying to leak out their post players on us and I felt having our smaller lineup in there would help, plus we had to match down on their lineup they had in. We didn’t want to wear (Wings center) Liz (Cambage) down trying to get up and down there. That lineup got us going and we had to stick with it. That’s what got us there.”

(On wings forward Kayla Thornton)

“That is a tough assignment (against Mystics forward Elna Delle Done). I think she did a great job getting some team help on that too. I thought that Delle Donne was very unselfishly letting her teammates work with the ball and attacking their postgame.”

(On Wings guard Skylar Diggins-Smith injury)

“I just think it is more dizziness, not a concussion. If it was, we would be going through that protocol. She took a hard hit on the chin which affects her face and we are just taking it one day at a time to get her back with us.”

Dallas Wings forward Kayla Thornton

 (On tonight’s game)

“I think we had a better game collectively…it comes down to the little things. It comes down to our defense, it could have been better. We just have to focus on the little things and regroup.”

 (On getting back on track)

“Like I said, we just have to focus on the little things. That’s what’s hurting us right now. I don’t think it’s anything big. Everybody gave a great effort. (Wings guard Kaela Davis) KD did a great job stepping in with Skylar being hurt. Everybody else is filling their roles, but at the end of the day it’s the little things that are killing us. We’re going to overcome this.”

Wings forward Azura Stevens 

(On the team’s height advantage)

“I think we’re taller than most players on the court, so that is an advantage. (Wings center Liz Cambage) she does a good job feeling it and she takes  a lot night in and night out. It’s not really that hard for me to make passes to her.

(On playing Washington next week)

“Defense and rebounds. We can’t make excuses for things. We just have to defend. We’ve got to get key stops late in the game. That’s all there is to it.”

Washington Mystics Quotes

Head Coach Mike Thibault

(Thoughts on the game)

“A wild game, I mean, pretty contentious. Both teams are fighting like crazy for playoff positioning. I thougth we played  great first half, I thought they played s great second half, and we figured out a way somehow in the last few minutes to get enough defensive stops and make a couple. Our best players weren’t shooting the ball well, then all of a sudden, Kristi (Toliver) makes two huge plays and we somehow survived. But it was ugly for awhile, for both teams in the second half.”

(On Kristi Toliver’s game – winning shot)

“It was either her or (Elena) Delle Donne on the same side of the floor. We had a choice to go one-on-one, or set a ball screen and post Elena up, but when Elena was trying to post up, they were kind of on the top side of her, and there was a lot of weak side help. Kristi decided she was going to keep it, and, you know, she’s got a knack for getting that shot off.”

(On road approach with 8 – 6 road record and three games remaining as visitors)

“They know that right now, the way the league is, every game seems to be like this. Every team we play is fighting, there’s ten teams in contention for eight spots, so it feels like sometimes you actually do better by not playing – you can move up in the standings if somebody else loses. But winning games like this on the road are really difficult and those are hard to come by. We’ll take every one of them.”

Forward, Elena Delle Donne

(On the game)

“It’s always a weird matchup, and it’s not always the prettiest game, but when it comes down to the last couple of minutes, we were able to come up with some huge stops and put ourselves in a position to score. Kristi (Toliver) hit that miraculous shot that Kristi can do, so amazing shot by her. And she really kept us in the game offensively.”

(On a key road win late in the year and road mentality down the stretch)

“It’s just a one-game mentality, one game at a time. You can’t look backwards and you can’t look too far forwards. Each game is a playoff game right now, wins are so important with the way it’s going. Just trying to focus on each game, figure out what’s the best matchup to exploit, and go from there.”

(On defense – oriented nature of the game)

“We know Liz (Cambage) is just a monster inside, so we just tried to show her as many bodies as we could, and from there we knew that weak side rebounding was going to be tough. And they exploited that throughout the third quarter, and we knew we were going to have to help on Liz, somebody had to slide in and take care of rebounding. So it was a huge rebounding game as well.”

Guard, Kristi Toliver

(On the game) 

“It was back-and-forth, it got chippy early. Which I think, given the circumstances, we kind of expected. But that’s fun, that’s fun basketball. You know, they made their runs, so early it was just a game of runs and who could maintain. We were able to get five big stops in the end and then I was able to convert on the other end.”

(On the game – winning shot)

“It was for iso, which is funny, cuz I’ve just never been an iso player. So it was my moment to just, kind of see what I could get. We had a timeout to give if we needed it, but once I had the ball in that possession, and there were seven seconds left, I just wanted to attack and get my shot.”

(On winning in transition)

“I think everybody wants to win the transition game in this league, we certainly do. So, we know we’re able to do that once we get stops, so once we were able to put some stops together, we were able to get out and run. That’s part of our identity as well, so it’s good that we’re kind of getting back to that.