Quotes: Silver Stars vs Mercury: Round 1 Game 2

On execution against Phoenix
This is the championship team from last year. Obviously, they don’t have Cappie Pondexter, but they’ve added a player in Candice Dupree. She really fits their style. She has that mobility. In that last game she was a hard guard for us as she had 32 points. But they played extremely well. It wasn’t just one person executing. They moved the ball… someone’s open and they’d make shots. Penny Taylor is a great player. It’s hard when it’s not just one person you have to focus on and everyone is putting numbers on the board. That’s tough for us. On the other end, we didn’t shoot a high percentage. We shot 27 percent in the first half and it’s hard to survive against a team that’s going to put numbers up against you. We executed much better in the second half but it was not enough and Phoenix played an extremely good game.

On physical mismatches against Phoenix
I think that’s just the way they play. They do things 100 percent. They cut, they move the ball, and they’re a smart basketball team. We’re undersized. Our starting backcourt is 5’6”, we match up pretty good with Tameka Johnson, but not everybody else. The match-ups are tough. They’ve got some of the best players in the world on their team. Becky is right up there and Sophia, and they’re battling. But they just overpowered us, especially in that first half.

On moving forward
We’ll take a couple of days off, and the time will come when we need to start analyzing what we need to do to get better. The West is going to get better. We had our ups and downs this year and the East got stronger. But the West is going to get better. That’s just the measure of the league. This is the best league in the world. Just to make the playoffs in itself is such a great accomplishment because it’s such a competitive league. But we’ll take a few days. It’s been a great experience regardless. It’s disappointing to lose today.

On Phoenix’s play
I think it was mostly their offense. I don’t think Phoenix is that aggressive on their defensive end. Their hands were big so maybe they got a lot of deflections, but they were really aggressive on offensive. Phoenix is pretty much an offensive minded team. Just look at the score.

On missing Silver Stars forward Chamique Holdsclaw
Obviously Chamique is a big part of our team and someone we definitely miss. But stuff happens. That’s the game of basketball and just life. So to be able to have someone else step up is what we needed. Chamique is a big part of us and we definitely miss her.

On Phoenix’s play
You can’t shoot 38 percent and beat Phoenix. I don’t care, it doesn’t matter. You can’t beat them shooting 38 percent. You’re missing a lot of shots that initiates their transition. They’re a run and gun team and they’re at their best. We just didn’t play our best tonight. We held them to 92 points, which people would be like, ‘Oh, 92 points, good job.’ But it actually is a halfway decent job on them because most of the time they usually get up over 100 (points). The problem is that tonight we didn’t score enough points. We buried ourselves early and then you’re just fighting. Then you have to have everything go right. You can’t miss shots. There’s just no margin for error. And that first quarter, we just came out flat. And I don’t understand that, we just did. Then we were just fighting to come back within striking distance.

On missing Silver Stars forward Chamique Holdsclaw
She’s a great player. She’s someone who can go get her shot. She’s a great one-on-one player. We did miss some firepower tonight. We missed having someone who could step up and score 20 points on any given night. And she’s that kind of player. So we definitely missed her, but that’s no excuse for our effort in the first quarter. We definitely bounced back in the second quarter and we played a solid 20 minutes in the second half but it was just too much early.

when asked how important it was to close out in San Antonio and not go back home 1-1
“We really didn’t think about it. We knew we had to come in here and be aggressive from the tip-off. No matter what happened in the game, just stay aggressive.”

when asked about facing Seattle in the next round
“Seattle is the number one team and that’s who we want to play. You don’t want to go and face someone who isn’t number one. We want to prove it to the league that we deserve to get to the championship and we have to go through Seattle to do that.”

when asked what part of the game made him the happiest
“It was probably our defense in the beginning of the game. It really took them [Silver Stars] out of their sets and it let them take the types of shots that gave us fast-breaks and that’s what we live on, the fast-breaks.”

on Tangela Smith and Diana Taurasi tonight
“Tangela [Smith] is a veteran; she has won a couple of championships with us. She knows that this time of year she comes to play. With Diana [Taurasi] teams key in on her, so we had her coming off picks and moving around. Then in the break she is delivering the ball to people in their spots. If you back off of her she’ll take the shot herself, so double trouble.”

on what got the team such a big lead in the first place
“I think we did a good job of executing what we wanted to do on defense as when we can rebound like we did today is when we are truly at our best. In the open-court we have our advantages as we feel like we can do some great things.”

on if they feel like they are peaking at the right time
“We’re going to have to get better because things don’t get easier from here on out. Things get very difficult as if we don’t get any better we’ll be going home too.”

on what got the team such a big lead
“It was our defense, especially our defensive pressure and the intensity in how we played. Having a focus on Becky [Hammon] was important for us obviously as well as crashing the boards. Those were simple things but we really got them done well.”

on the recent trend of their team knocking San Antonio out of the playoffs and winning the championship
“We’re hoping it’s a trend that continues. We’re focusing on every game as whoever it is we know it’s more us then the opponent we’re playing at the time. It’s really us that controls it.”