Minnesota vs. Los Angeles post game quotes18 July 2006
Minnesota Coach Suzie McConnell Serio:
"Obviously, I am very disappointed. But at the same time, when you put things intoperspective, L.A. is the number-one team in the league right now -- best by far --and we had the opportunity to cut the game to four. We got it close... As a coach,it's always disappointing when we lose. We were hoping that our last win wouldjumpstart the second half... We had two intense practices coming into today,concentrating on defense, and we allowed a team to score 90 points. It's justfrustrating... We gave a good effort, but not good enough."
"We had our opportunities, had some missed opportunities, but when it's all said anddone, we still have to be better defensively. We just allow teams to shoot from allover the floor. They went into the locker room shooting 60 percent -- a lotcontested, but just allowing them to shoot well within their shooting range insteadof forcing people into tough shots. On the offensive end for us, we allowed theirdefense to pressure us into 18 turnovers, 26 points. We held them to two offensiverebounds in the first half and allowed 12 in the second... Just some lapsesdefensively that hurt us at times."
"I don't want to say that we took a step backwards, because we did a lot of goodthings. We were right there with them in the second half, late in the fourthquarter. We had an opportunity to cut it to four. With Chamique back, they're verytalented. Lisa is doing what she does best by putting this team on her back."
"I don't know if I can say that they let any of our players do anything. They forceda lot of our players to turn the ball over with their pressure. They can say thatmaybe they didn't go help as much with Seimone as much as they did with otherplayers. A lot of teams like to double-team our post players."
"We had a lot of missed opportunities where we almost came up with steals... Theymade some great shots, made some big plays when they needed to. Yes, this was amissed opportunity. We'll get these next two practices, more than likely Chandi willbe activated and then we'll just go in a direction of seeing what we have. I thoughtShona gave us some great minutes in the second half from the point guard spot, gaveus a lot of energy creating a lot. So we're obviously looking at her more closely,looking to extend those minutes. Chandi, getting her back, we'll be able to mix indifferent combinations."
Minnesota Forward Svetlana Abrosimova:
"I'm disappointed because we had way too many turnovers. We allowed them to getthose easy shots. I felt like we just came out of the Break. They already had agame. Maybe that's why we were a little bit not organized... Defensively, we didn'tcontain their best players. Basically that was the game. They are one of the bestteams in the league... We just didn't do it for 40 minutes."
"If we would've won tonight, we would feel really good about going on a run, but wehave Chicago next. Our backs are against the wall and we have to fight every time.But it happens. People lose games. We just have to come back and fight really hard."
Minnesota Center Nicole Ohlde:
"That's the best team right now in the league... I think one good thing is that weobviously didn't fold. We kept fighting, we kept plugging away. I think that'ssomething that our team has done in the past, so that's a positive. We also have tolook at, we gave them 13 offensive rebounds in the second half. Those little things,defensive stops that we missed, little miscues that we had, just some of that littlestuff that we can correct... Boxing out, making sure we're rotating right, thatlittle stuff."
"As long as we still have a chance, we don't need to be thinking about that. If wecan get some help from those teams that are ahead of us... As long as we still havea chance to get into that fourth spot, we're going to keep working hard in practice.We're going to keep trying to get better."
Minnesota Guard Amber Jacobs:
"Obviously this isn't where anyone expected this team to be. And, in a sense, youthink, how do you stay positive, how do you keep yourself going this next month whenit really looks like there's not a whole lot of hope... But this is our job, we'rebasketball players, and we're here to compete. Nobody likes to lose. And so everyday, the mindset of everyone is to come in and continue to get better, both as ateam and as individuals. I think that's what you have to do to keep yourself on topof your game and put forth as much effort as you can give."
Minnesota Guard Seimone Augustus:
"It's the defense overall. I think when they found something, they stuck with it.They threw a high pick-and-roll, side pick-and-roll... It was just difficult todefend for us. You've got Chamique Holdsclaw playing the '4', and it's kind ofdifficult for our post players to be out there on her, playing against her. Just thedefensive aspect. We have to know who our personnel is, and how to take away some oftheir offensive strengths and try to do what we can to get our offense going."
"We just have to come into every game and fight at this point in time. You can't getdown about where we're standing. Hopefully we can get on a roll here, and we arejust going to have to hope and pray that some other teams lose to bump us up in thestandings. But we're just going to continue to fight... As a team, we're just goingto try to represent Minnesota the best we can."
Los Angeles Coach Joe Bryant:
"I thought the important thing was that we executed our plays. If you execute yourplays, you don't necessarily have to be the person that makes the shot; it is theperson that is in position to get the offensive rebound. That is what we did. Weexecuted well, and were in position to offensive rebound."
(on Leslie and Holdsclaw) "They're special players. I am very fortunate as a coachto have those two players, and also to have someone like Chamique to come off thebench. She has been a starter all of her life... But she understands the bigpicture, and to be able to come off the bench and give me that type of production isspecial."
Los Angeles Center Lisa Leslie:
"Our coaches always lead us to believe that we're being outrebounded, so we neverknow what the true story is. We take pride in trying to outrebound the other team,and our coaches made it sound like Minnesota was way ahead at halftime. I thoughtoverall we played really well, though. Offensively we shot 49 percent, which ispretty good on the road."
"No use bringing all that (previous meeting) stuff up. We watched a little bit ofvideo on that and we were not happy with ourselves, but at the same time we had noexcuses. They played excellent basketball and would've beaten any team in the leaguethat night."
"Even though we're a young team, we're a hungry team and a veteran team all in one.You can't take anything for granted. Any team can win and lose on any given night,and I think that the difference about it is we don't think that we're going to win.We used to, but not any more."
"We fought hard. Minnesota's a really good team. They have so many offensiveweapons, you don't know where their points are going to come from. Amber Jacobs hasa really nice touch. They were making shots. We're under the basket waiting for therebound and they were making all of these shots, and we were thinking that they weremaking the luckiest shots ever. They were just flipping them off the backboard, butthey can shoot really well."
"(Augustus) is excellent. When she gets that ball back behind her head, it's over.She's a dangerous player. I think the thing about Seimone is that when she learnshow to make the players around her better, she'll be unbelievable. At this pointit's about her being better, and people around her have to make her better. When shemakes that transition to being that kind of player, she'll be unbelievable."
Los Angeles Forward Chamique Holdsclaw:
"They come out and play really good at home. They beat us earlier on in the season,so our goal was to come out and play team basketball and focus on our defensiveeffort. I thought we did that. Of course they made runs, but we were able to sustainall of that by just getting the ball inside along with getting offensive boards, andthat's the reason we got the victory. That's what wins games and championships --hitting the boards -- and I'm just glad we came up big tonight."
"(Coming off the bench) helps our team. It makes a difference. To me, yeah, I don'tstart the game, but I'm still playing 30-plus minutes a game. I'm not a starter, butI am. I understand the reason that we do it. I just try to bring the energy."
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