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WNBA ALL-STAR GAMEJuly 25, 2015Pokey ChatmanUNCASVILLE, CONNECTICUT Q. Just curious, you guys are down by 10 midway through the third, and you put Elena back in and you also put Tamika Catchings back in at that point and it seemed to spark you on the defensive end. Was that the idea behind it? And to what extent did you feel like it was two of your more versatile defensive players at that spot? POKEY CHATMAN: It sounds like a really nice theory, nice plan. It worked out that way, but it was really, you want to balance a lot of your minutes and give everybody an opportunity to play here. If you notice, we didn't start our starters in the third quarter. You wanted to start the players that play in the next wave of the players in that rotation. They just happened to be two of the very best at playing with any other three people in the world. They can play two, three, four, and I think that's what you saw. It just came at a time when we happened to get some stops and the stops worked as well. Q. Obviously, you were busy coaching, but did you get a chance to sit back and enjoy the coaching and see the talent that was on display tonight? POKEY CHATMAN: It was crazy. I feel like a kid on Christmas morning. I'm smiling‑‑ my face hurts I'm smiling so much. I told my staff. I said, man, it's amazing how better of a coach you can become when you draw up something and they go out there and run it. Sandy and I were joking about that. It's a testament to those players. You can just speak the basketball language and they go out there and they're running. You tell them, rip it, dip it, miss the right, boom, boom, boom, two points. It was great. I thoroughly enjoyed it. The way they have everything set up here, you get to soak up the moment. I think that is important as well. Q. Could you talk about the game Bentley played and what kind of a player she's become? POKEY CHATMAN: Man, I felt like watching Bentley score against Chicago for a minute there. You know, it's her energy. She made a bucket and I looked at my staff. I said, She looks like she's just enjoying it so much. She's having so much fun. It's no secret that her fitness level combined with individual work and the season that she's having and impacting her own team gives you confidence. But I told her, I said, You can't ask me to go back in the game. I'm going to get in trouble. Coach Donovan's going to be waiting for me back here. But just an infectious‑type player. That energy that her teammates cheer for her. Q.  This is Tamika's last All‑Star Game. Was there any design to try to do something for her to get her as involved as she was in the fourth quarter? She just wanted to be one of the regular players and just play? POKEY CHATMAN: You know the answer to that. As a coach, what you're thinking about, let's run this play and get Catch a touch here, and Catch a touch there. Sometimes for the great players, a touch for them doesn't always net a shot because they want to make a basketball play. It's no different than she goes in the game immediately, and offensive rebound, extra possession, offensive rebound, extra possession. But she's such the consummate pro, consummate everything. She just wanted to blend, have fun, and help the younger players truly understand what this moment is about. Q. Coach, you got off to a faster start than the West. What was it that got them in the game? It looked like it might be an East runaway early on. POKEY CHATMAN: I think players probably remember this weekend because it's the only weekend of basketball that you don't talk about defense. So they're excited, number one. And we were challenging them to score baskets quickly for 7 seconds of the shot clock and that's fun. That's when you're free. You're at your best. I think that had a lot to do with it. Q. Maya Moore left college as the best player in college, but she's clearly improved in the pros. Going against her year after year, what have you seen that she's improved on the most in parts of her game? POKEY CHATMAN: Wow, you know, that three‑point shot. I feel like every time she shoots it, it's going in. The thing about it, it's so effortless. She's shooting it from 22 feet, but it looks like she's shooting it from 12, because she doesn't need a lot of space to get it off. I think each year she's adding things. The mid‑range, the handles, coming in as a passer, and that's what the great ones do. But I go back to mentioning about Alex and her fitness. I can remember Maya doing the (Indiscernible) and someone changed her eating and eating clean and how that impacted her game. That's why she can probably play 40 minutes in overdrive because of that. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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