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WNBA FINALS: FEVER v LYNX

October 14, 2015

Stephanie White

MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA: Game Five

Indiana Fever - 52
Minnesota Lynx - 69

COACH WHITE: I mean, give credit to Minnesota. They outplayed us in every single way. This was a team that was on a mission, and they played like it. They've been one of the premier teams in our league for a long time, and tonight you saw a reason why.
I didn't even realize until somebody told me, Maya Moore goes 1 for 8, and you think‑‑ you say, oh, that's great defense. Well, everybody else stepped up. Everybody else stepped up. And what it takes at this time of the year for other players to be able to step up and respond, and they got that. Their defensive intensity and energy was terrific. Offensively, they were moving the ball extremely well, and they just‑‑ they outplayed us in every way.
I'm very happy for Cheryl and for her staff, and I'm extremely proud of our team. The way that we‑ the growth that we've had from the beginning of the year to right now and the way that we've played. We have 12 players who lay it on the line every single day. That's what we ask. We ask them to be better, to get better, to grow, to lay it on the line, and to sacrifice for one another, and they've done that all season long. I'm just incredibly proud of our group.

Q. The series tied after four games. Were you surprised that it did get away from you the way that it did?
COACH WHITE: A little surprised. You're never really shocked because Minnesota is so good. But at the same time, it seemed like we couldn't quite get a handle on the ball. They were moving us around a lot on the defensive end and really getting great shots. They were executing, setting great screens, and really getting good shots. Then offensively, we couldn't find a handle on the ball. I'm not exactly sure why.
Part of that was their pressure. But I think there was one spell in the first quarter where we had seven turnovers and nine possessions. You can't do that and expect to give yourself a chance to play for a Championship.
So all the credit goes to Minnesota. I'm just, again, really proud of our squad.

Q. Steph, obviously, offensively for a long time, second and third quarter, did you like the shots you were getting? Beyond the turnovers, it looked like there were some open looks there that weren't falling.
COACH WHITE: When you're having a hard time getting into offense and you're having a hard time with turnovers, you certainly don't want to settle for shots, but I did feel like we were getting good shots. We were getting open shots. We were short‑arming some of them, and we weren't quite shooting with as much confidence as we've shot with most of the season really.
I didn't think our shots were bad. I didn't think our shot selection was bad, but we have to give ourselves more of an opportunity to get better shots. We weren't getting shots, and we weren't giving ourselves a chance to even get a shot. Sometimes that really, really plays with you mentally.

Q. Did you feel like you took Maya out of her rhythm, or did she just have a bad day?
COACH WHITE: Does anybody take Maya out of her rhythm? We did as good a job as we could in terms of just trying to play her tendencies, but she didn't have to. You know, that's the great thing about a balanced team. You have a great player, and when they need her to rise, she does.
Tonight she didn't have to because contributions were coming from other players. That's what it's about at championship time.

Q. It seemed like Tamika was trying to shoot you back into the game late. Your thoughts on her. Obviously, a veteran who obviously won't get that many opportunities like this again.
COACH WHITE: Yeah, it's‑‑ Tamika is special. She's just‑‑ she's really special. She has accomplished anything and everything that you can accomplish in women's basketball, and I felt like this year was probably, in my opinion, her greatest accomplishment because of the way she got her teammates to elevate their play. The way she made them better, the way she empowered them, the way she sort of‑‑ you know, like a mom would do‑‑ pushed them along and then handed over the reins, in a sense.
I'm extremely proud of her for that. She looked physically today like she was in her 20s again. She was jumping all over the place. I'm just really proud of the way that she has approached this team, and I just‑‑ I don't have enough positive adjectives to use in regards to Tamika. But she's just really, really special, a once‑in‑a‑lifetime player for a coach to be able to coach.

Q. Stephanie, this ends 2015, but you really do have Tamika playing as well as she has and a bunch of 20‑somethings returning. Any thought about‑‑ you certainly seem to have the pieces to make a run at this next year although New York and Chicago are looming.
COACH WHITE: Not really. It's just too fresh and too early. Being‑‑ the second time of being in The Finals‑‑ and I think Tamika alluded to this with some of her teammates‑‑ it's incredibly difficult, not only to go through the grind of the regular season, but then you have to be on your A‑game through the entire playoffs. There are great teams in the Eastern Conference.
You have to do your work early in the sense you don't want to fall behind too much in terms of seeding and things like that, but you also have to be on your A‑game at all times. It's very difficult.
Yeah, you look at who we have on our roster and a young core, so to speak, but we also realize how incredibly difficult it is. No thoughts on that right now.

Q. Steph, was fatigue a factor at all for your team today?
COACH WHITE: I think it could have been. Mental, emotional fatigue as well as physical. We exerted a lot of emotion. We played every possible game in every series, and each one of those has been highly charged emotionally. So I think back‑‑ I don't remember what game it was where I felt like we had a sugar crash, and it felt a little bit like that today.
But I don't know really. I don't know how you can get tired in an environment like this. The fans were awesome. They have been all season long. It's what you dream of playing for. But at the same time, I felt like some of our decision‑making showed a little bit of fatigue.

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