Minnesota Lynx Playoffs Postgame Media September 26

okay um i told james at the end of the game um i i thought that um they played um as as they are they know who they are and they were so persistent and their identity we couldn't break we couldn't break their identity um it's a sign of a really good team uh we spent a couple days on on our focal points and and you know what was important obviously it was the team that was going to be taking away able to take away the paint as some of you wrote about uh and it was chicago and it wasn't the lynx and that's why chicago is advancing the links or not um you know whether it's the fast break points um you know i don't have an explanation for you know getting out worked in those areas um you know the layup after layup after layup and then you know obviously our offense wasn't good enough you know but without taking the ball of the net so frequently you know shooting shooting close to close to 50 percent they were at over 50 for most of the game um we just didn't get the job done is that the most uh the defensive end of it is that the most frustrating for you i mean they scored 48 obviously a lot of that came from the turnovers but 48 points in the paint is pretty tough to overcome yeah no i mean yeah i mean it's the name of the game i mean those of you that come you know that's something that we prided ourselves on and we were one of the better teams and frankly chicago was not during the regular season if you look at the data you know it should have been an easy thing for us to do but we didn't get it done in any of the three games that we played these guys um and so you know i mean for whatever reason we can't stop chicago in the paint and we had three shots at it and we didn't get it done in any three of the games so no question about it that was the most difficult and will be the most difficult thing to swallow because it's not that hard that doesn't take a whole lot it's not like you have to be uber talented so but we didn't get it done sure it was an assessment of a fees game and is she bothered by that plantar fasciitis or anything else right yeah i don't think so um you know obviously if he struggled um but i think to put it on health or anything like that or losing a contact or whatever um i think she made shots without the contacts and people talk to her about that but uh but no i mean you know it didn't it didn't happen for for free tonight and you know obviously we're a much better team when it does happen for fee cheryl still seemed to really establish herself early in the game what made it maybe difficult i guess to get the ball down to her and get her looks in the second half she was the only one that was established and so they literally were taking three four people and saying you can throw it anywhere and then you came back you can take out as long as you want to and that's that's what the mindset was for our team that we were gonna be we're gonna live with you know the idea that they could have 10 or 12 threes if that's what it was for them that night but they weren't going to be in the pain against us but you didn't know that by watching the game because that's not what happened um so yeah just just uh you know for still it got harder and harder and you know and we don't have great entry passers you know i mean lays one of our best and we see a really unfortunate ending for for lay and you know they're taking it really hard but you know you can't help those kinds of things that was that was such a bummer um we need lay you know when he taunts us you know we need those players but you know with all that i mean i can't say anything bad about this team you know and and the team that we became you guys wrote so many great stories about us just sucks um first home game you know since 2017 and great great showing by our fans and passionate and um you know obviously it always hurts not to deliver for them to follow up i mean it was pretty clear that lay was just going to be limited and it just wasn't yeah didn't have the this just didn't have it and that wasn't going to change going forward now now so unfortunate but you know but for whatever reason that was that was the way it was supposed to go for whatever reason um but it's not it wasn't good for our team you know when when chicago went up 14 i think with about six minutes and 30 seconds left your team made a decision that they weren't going to roll over we're going to come back and fight that's right um you know what what was kind of the conversation no he said don't go yeah we told him don't quit we said there are plenty of possessions left and we cut it i think we cut it to four i mean each time we cut it to four then it just went the other way so um i do appreciate that now that that happened for us that we you know we got some fight to us and and but they controlled the game in terms of you know just overall activity and ball movement and aggression you know that showed and officiating a little bit we're asking for calls and we're not attacking the room very hard um and so yeah i mean i think i think that that fight that we showed the way we played in those minutes was obviously what we needed for the other 40 minutes of the game um but obviously it didn't happen um annie castle from the sun times courtney vanderswood had four in the first half and then came out and really exploded in the second can you speak to how challenging it is or how challenging it was for your team to um contain her and contain a guard like that that can really uh just take over the game well she's just as good at putting pressure at the rim as copper and shields are i mean they're all very good at you know imposing their will on you and i would love to know how many of of the 15 um you know came in the paint uh came off the steels you know where she had a big imbalanced deal where we have a young point guard that you know make some you know a tough mistake there and you know salute steals and goes for laps how many layups did you get um that's that is not the formula for successes let's luke get in there and you know i have visuals of her coming down in transition probing probing she's very persistent seeing no one gardener and going right to the basket really um so she's a great player you know she played well and obviously she's she's you know means so much to that team and uh yeah she she's a big part part of why they were successful we have fun for teamwork we'll go to the zoo we'll go alex and then danny alex go ahead hey coach alex hassey with nbc sports um you mentioned malaysia's um missing malaysia and i'm curious about like reflecting on like the season as a whole in malaysia you know months ago being waived by the liberty and kind of just uh your your reflection on their performance over the course of the season and what they were able to bring out of that tough position that they found themselves in earlier this year yeah they just talked to the team about it um the amount of gratitude that they have for um you know this being a place that that could you know get out of the darkness of that situation um and how important it was um to find what what they found here um and you know obviously equally important for us um you know i loved everything lay did for us and was for us and we were a different team when one lays healthy and running things and gives us our physicality our intelligence um maybe gets us to the paint a little bit more you know from our play um yeah yeah i mean i i'm thrilled that things worked out as well as they did you know it was one of the better stories of the wnba season you know where someone else is you know discarded uh became our treasure um so um i'm happy that that leigh was able to experience um and i'm equally happy that we you know we got to share and find out what lei was about well the last question on the zoom to danny danny go ahead hey cheryl good to talk to you um i was wondering he mentioned you were talking a bit before about the fight of this team in the fourth quarter uh right before the fourth on the broadcast sylvia fowls was being interviewed and she was smiling year to year talking about how she's you know excited for the challenge to try to fight back into this game i was wondering if you could talk a bit about just how um sells attitude in those kinds of situations smiling like that impacts the rest of the team well i mean you know it's your best player it's a player that's got 14 years behind her and you know has kind of been there done that been in finals series you know won championships and all of that and and so it gives you a great deal of confidence um when you know when so is bringing that mentality and that's just so it is i mean you know cell's never quit on anything and uh you know she's somebody that's really easy to get behind and so i know it gave our team gave our team confidence when she approached it that way thank you [Music] hard all right uh uh oh is all right we're gonna bring chicago players in first you um hi everyone sorry for the delay okay foreign yes if you have a question you can let me know torso is small um courtney you had four in the first half and finished with 19. what did you see differently in terms of getting to the rim in the second half um you know just trying to be aggressive we said a lot of drags in the second half trying to open things up and keep up the pace a lot of it was run outs and transition after steals so i'm just trying to do my part you guys have been talking all year about um having a game where you where you control every quarter and tonight um i mean other than being down by one in in the first quarter you guys um maintained your composure and never got down so um what is that what does that mean to this team at this moment now headed into the semifinals to be clicking like that well it's huge it's been um top of mind since we've entered the playoffs is and i think it shows a lot of growth as a team that we aren't letting you know runs or moments uh bad moments turn bad moments a lot to candace and her leadership out there she's really kept that top of mind and i think it's really working for us last for me the last time this guy were in the semifinals y'all played the sparks and candace obviously um back in the semifinals now as teammates um you know where we wanted to be as soon as she uh decided to come to chicago this was uh our first conversation was you know going winning a championship and to do that we need to be in the semifinals and so we're exactly where we want to be i think we're playing the best basketball of the season so at the right time and you know we just need to ride this wave and continue the momentum uh candace i'm not sure if you're aware but you did pass your former teammate lisa leslie on the all-time playoff scoring list today what does that mean to you um and have you had any discussions with lisa about that um you know obviously i was fortunate enough to be your teammate for for two seasons a season and a half um and i just watched her work and she was around my age when i came to league i think she was 36 when i came to the league so i think i'm even more so i i even more so commend her um for the way that she played at this age and so i think um you know your role kind of changes as your career goes on and i think that it's a testament to the way that lisa played consistently i mean the playoff to be in the top and playoff that's what you want right that means that you're in the postseason and you're battling for titles absolutely uh courtney um you've been with diamonds since 2018 you you as well caught um when diamond plays like this when she's able to attack the rim um be this efficient does this team just go up a level offensively absolutely you know the way she's been attacking and her efficiency defend and rebound she impacts the game coming off the bench um you know it just takes us up a complete level like we can rest um some players and we're not playing as many minutes so that's of course candace defensive team you know sill is a tough guard i mean um it's her ducking in and obviously i've seen a heavy dose of that just facing the links in the playoffs as much as we we have so really still we're just trying to make things as tough as possible um and show her different looks and i think just with our post players like everybody kind of got their time on her uh stu myself steph z but your work's not over when she doesn't get the ball you still have to block out and so i think in the first quarter we didn't do that and then the reason why we were able to kind of extend the lead and win the last three quarters was because we did block out and we were able to get the rebound azerite came up big tonight in the post can you guys speak to um just how critical her performance was tonight going up against still and really not um not backing down yeah it was huge we expected a lot from z today and i think the biggest thing was extra possessions giving five offensive rebounds for us i mean that's a huge game changer um and she's able to do that one of the best rebounders that's huge for us when we were getting extra possessions um you know especially late so and you know she was able to guard sylvia at moments and um like my candice said it's not an easy test so we're really proud of her and we're going to need that going facing two very good post players in our next series not enough could be said about your importance to this team this year an all-star first time all-star and tonight you finish with a double-double you're one of the most aggressive players in the league getting to the rim so for you um where does that confidence come from and is it just an initial thing every game you're coming in and you know you're gonna get to the rim no matter what first of all i want to give a shout out to candice parker for letting me get that last rebound let me get back um double double thank you very much um but i think my confidence just comes from my teammates you know they believe in me they call plays for me um i think we were just feeding off each other out there and if i'm out there just get bringing the energy and defending and that's just where my confidence comes from because i know what i can do out there um it just felt like every single time in the second half that the lynx threw a punch at any of you guys um whether it was a player individually or you guys as a team that everybody just got up and responded um just with each punch that you guys ate and and through another one of your own just just how much confidence does that give you especially you know deep in the fourth quarter when the lynx you know did cut the cut the game to four um well i think with like 3 30 to go oh for me i think it it comes from just being in this situation you know um i think our team really has prepared like we've had different players that have been in there throughout the season you know and um i think we just our whole mentality going into this playoffs is like we're not gonna freak out like teams play basketball they're good at basketball they're gonna make runs and we gotta maintain our composure and get to get back to us i think we saw improvement in the third quarter because the third quarter has been tough for us and i think we came out with a mentality and we were able to extend the lead a little bit um and then we put ourselves in position in the fourth all we had to do was win the fourth quarter and we won the game and said that going into the fourth quarter like we just gotta win this this fourth quarter even if it's by one point uh oh hurry up [Music] hey so when you were walking to the bench after having filed out late there what was going through your mind um we missed the opportunity um and um it sucks to be in that position to not be able to be out there on the court um that was going through my mind at that moment so how would you describe the level of attention they were giving you defensively to really make it difficult for you to even get touches down there um it was pretty much pick and choose your poison um i tried not to think about what they was doing but more so uh catching the ball and who was open on the perimeter if i can take it make sure i take it and get a good shot but if it was needed to be passed out make sure i pass to pass it out to my teammates this guy um annie constable from the sun times this guy really got to the rim tonight um you know they led with points in the paint and it wasn't just uh clear copper or ezra stevens courtney vanderswood got to the rimington tonight so what were you guys seeing defensively that um maybe were missed opportunities defensively um chicago got to the rack what the last two games too um so i think we just didn't get it done tonight but you got to give chicago credit we knew that was one of these strong suits and we knew they was going to come out and try to get in the paint because that's something that they do well and we didn't respond to that with keeping them out the paint fee are you healthy is the plantar fasciitis bothering you and how'd you feel about your game overall today um i mean yeah i think everyone has things that are hurting at the end of the year but it's the playoffs so you have to be able to push through um and how am i feeling about the end of the year um i mean i'm disappointed in myself just because you know i wanted to help the team anyway that i could and i feel like i didn't do that so um i'll just use this motivation for so i don't feel this way again i can contribute in a meaningful way next year um so cheryl said you know when she came in here that lay addressed the team um after the game and you know expressed their gratitude for for everything that you guys did maybe you know each one of you what was you know something you took away from that or you know what what was kind of going through your mind when um you know when he was talking to you guys um you know lei is very passionate about the game and that stood out i think for all of us when she came to the team and really just helped our team turn over a new leaf uh we welcomed her with open arms but she was so you know down for what our culture was from the beginning so we're happy that you know she's the lynx and um i mean while she was talking i was very emotional but overall we're happy that she's here um i just was thinking about how proud i am of her and what she brought to our team as a leader from a leadership standpoint from the point guard and her work ethic um not taking note for nasa feeling like she have something to prove and so i think she was a good contributor to our team this year i'm also really proud of way just everything from the beginning um what they brought to the team and leadership wise on the court really coming in when we needed that position filled kind of slowing us down on offense and making sure we were together and then just leading in her own way and i really appreciated you know it's hard to come into a new team especially in the middle of the season but she came in you know hitting the ground running and doing what she did and it was so appreciated from us were you able to get going particularly in the second half after the game probably didn't start the way you wanted to um i mean my teammates you know they talk to me they come in still talks to me all the time thank goodness for sale um and just i didn't think about you know i'm sorry i didn't think about the start you know it's playoffs so you missed some shots oh well get back on defense and just try to get to your teammate you you really can't think about what you did wrong so i was just playing out there and like i said my teammates had my back and just was like yo ap forget about it let's go next play let's get a stop so that's it really um fia you hit that three-pointer if they i think they've grown in the lead to 14 and you guys came back hard you hit that three-pointer to make it four what in your mind happened after that what what prevented you from kind of pushing the door all the way i guess you know pushing in the you know what happened at that point that they were able to re kind of take control of the game uh they were really aggressive and they got a couple you know pick sixes which are really hard and um we didn't use that opportunity to kind of keep pushing we kind of allowed them to put us on our heels so i think again it's just a learning experience like this is a do or die game and people are fighting for their lives it's you know potentially last game of the season which it is for us now so we have to come in with an energy that represents that and just making sure that we're being really um assertive and mindful when we're whenever doing anything as a follower for you three i mean just i mean lay tried to go but she wasn't you know it wasn't it wasn't they weren't 100 at all i think that was going to be the way it was going to be down you know how far however far you guys went how difficult it is is it to kind of lose such an important player at this point of the season um it's always difficult especially once you get going um but at the end of the day leigh gave us what she could and for that i'm always appreciative we knew lei was going to come in and give what she got so it was up to us to try to carry lay at that point and um i think we tried but we didn't succeed ariel when you look back at your first season here i know it definitely didn't go the way that you wanted it to in terms of things that were out of your control but what gives you the most excitement or maybe the the most i do the most excitement about you know your future here in minnesota my teammates how we fought you know we started zero and four and no one would have thought we would have came out the 3c no one you know um and i talked about in the locker room you know my injuries and how they still accepted me and still was there for me through the whole time you know um that excites me my teammates excited and i think we have a good group i think we have a good group and sylvia touched on it we work hard you know it sucks that you know this is a single elimination game and we didn't come out on top but we'll just use that as fuel for next year and i think the results will be different you know my last question for any of you through maybe maybe you've seen what you guys can do when you're healthy you've seen how well lei fits with this team assuming she'll know they'll be back what do you think the future of this team holds i guess next year when you get maybe damaris back and you're back to 100 i'm really really excited and i think we're gonna hit the ground running you know it is it was a big adjustment having a lot of new players this year people coming late um and we figured it out so to have a year under us where you know hopefully most of the core team will be back and we can play with each other again um you know this loss sucks so we're gonna come in with kind of a chip on our shoulders saying we don't want to feel this way again uh so making sure that we're coming out and showing people who the links are we'll move to questions from the zoom now we'll start with danny danny go ahead this is uh also a question for any of the three of you um there was that stretch in the fourth quarter where you uh came out hit uh got those 12 point straight points off threes uh forced several shot violations um can you talk a bit about kind of the emotional journey towards uh coming back in that instance and just what kind of allowed you to push yourself to you know close that gap say fear ap not any of you um whichever of you wants to take it i think just you know staying resilient and that was i think someone asked the other day what's one word to describe this team and it's definitely resilient even though we're down in the clock slate you know some teams would fold under that and it is a lot of pressure but we knew what we could do as a team we've been down before and so coming back was just you know part of our story and unfortunately we weren't able to close the gap all the way but i knew we were gonna you know chip away at it as much as we could and so it was really exciting obviously when we went on that run and i just wish we could have you know um held out a little bit longer and don't we need to do yeah we'll go last question on the zoom to cheryl cheryl go ahead cheryl can you hear us all right thank you guys [Music] huh um like tonight the game's on tuesday would you say play games on tuesday no i know what i'm saying like right now i don't know what time but oh so oh this hey charles how you doing man all right oh yeah okay is it can we go um i'm i'm not the i'm not the boss oh azera came up big tonight can you um speak to the importance of her play tonight and and just how um yeah how big she was in the paint going up against hill i mean she was big um those it seems like all the five offensive rebounds that she got were at key moments and they were really important uh the fact that you know they they got six offensive rebounds early you know you know and and uh we as azerae just she just took it to another level uh we boxed out better they they ended the game with six offensive rebounds they didn't have one in the second half uh and azerite had all the offensive rebounds in the second half and they was just clutch and they were key and uh she made good decisions she ran the floor um you know she got to the foul line because she you know she enforced her will and that's what we needed from her and that's what you know we expect from her now that she's healthy i think you know you're gonna start seeing these type of performances more often you talked about after the game against the wings um needing that third quarter to to match the rest of your team's game tonight you guys held on in the third quarter um you didn't get behind so how do you feel as a coach looking at this team um and the way that they've chipped away at coming together and and playing a full game i mean with each game you know you you comes with experience and you get experience so you just are hopeful uh with a team like we have with a veteran team like we have that they use that experience that they got from the early around game and they're mindful of that and they talk to each other and they pick each other up and understand that the third quarter was key especially going into the locker room against a good minnesota team we knew that we had to come out with um a high energy level and and a focus on execution so uh we we knew that this was a big step but getting to the next round and we knew that third quarter was going to play a big part of it coach wade charles homer minnesota spokes recorder uh in all three games chicago has scored over at least 80 points or more against minnesota in all three games including tonight what is what has been your success to be able to score that many points especially one now you want two of them i mean the the players that we have um it's about you know playing at the pace we want to play at but also you know taking the best shots as possible we have a talented team i think you know the the big thing about it is uh we're good enough to get good shots uh down anytime down the floor uh but it's just gonna take a concentrated effort on each individual at just just being a willing passer and being a willing penetrator to pass or you know and making good decisions once they get to the rim so i think there's a little bit of that and um you know i i like you know the offensive explosion the potential for an offensive explosion at each position that we have so um that is i think it's just us playing together and and just feeding off each other and buying into that um courtney had four points in the first half and and finished with 19 and we saw her get to the rim a ton in the second half i don't have exactly what her numbers were in the paint but um as far as her game goes in comparison to some of the other players like diamond and kalia who everyone talks about how good they are at getting to the rim what's your take away on on how good courtney is at getting to the rim uh she's really good i mean she's she's always been uh good and i think some of her her her game at getting into the basket and penetrating is underrated because she passed the ball so well she has other things she can shoot the three and and so when you when you have a player like that that's you know valuable in in different uh facets of the game uh sometimes um some stuff is going to be overlooked and and not you know as uh prepared for is is the other things not good you're fine well coach team gave up the um points uh per game more than any other team in the league but in the last two games of the 64 points and 76 points um do you like where the defense is at do you think that energy is there yeah i think it is um you know we we are more connected defensively we're doing things a little different so and the players are are locked into each other and so if you look at us play the last two games even last three you can go back last three you'll you'll see a lot of uh communication a lot of eye contact uh a lot of activity uh on the ball laying off the ball and um you know better late than never but um i like where where we are and um it's always things to clean up uh so you can always look at things to clean up but um they're doing a good job of executing the game plans that that the coaches uh present to just being them attacking the rim even seems like she made some decisions tonight that like instead of taking along the rim um does this team go up a level offensively when she's able to be this efficient so this is like this is um important for diamond as she grows into the player that she's going to be that she understands like what makes her successful and that's a part of it she's she's so talented with a touch to the ball and and all these things were the first step and um and tonight she had no wasted movement uh she was attacking the rim like you said and making good decisions and when she didn't have anything she she moved it and then she got it back she attacked again and so everything was just and this is what this is championship level basketball when you can do those things on a consistent basis uh but i think when you when you're so talented you have all these twos it's just how do you hone them and i think she's learning that now so um this is a big game on her part and uh it was important uh that she come out and do this and it lifted us along with others but it was it was a big game by her yeah all right thanks guys i appreciate it you

Channel: Sportainment TV

Views: 1,629

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: V18Nc4XTMxE

Length: 48min 3sec (2883 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 26 2021