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WNBA FINALS: SPARKS VS LYNXOctober 9, 2016Brian AglerNneka OgwumikeMinneapolis, Minnesota Sparks - 78, Lynx - 76 BRIAN AGLER: I thought it was a very competitive game. We know that we have a very worthy opponent we're up against, and just proud of how we handled things down the stretch, gave ourselves a chance to win, making plays both offensively and defensively. Moving forward to Tuesday, we have to make sure we keep our same focus and same energy out there on the floor because we know that they're a hungry team. They're trying to make history, and they're going to come after it. Q. Coach, the last possession kind of unfolded right in front of you. What did you see, and how big was it for Alana just to be able to calmly knock that thing down? BRIAN AGLER: Yeah, that wasn't option 1, that was option 2. Option 1 was try to get Kristi a look, try to get some cutters to the rim, and it didn't develop. They did a good job of blowing that up, and so Chelsea just -- who was very effective tonight, she did a great job of just penetrating in the gap. She looked like she was going to take it to the rim, but they really collapsed on her and she found Alana in the corner, and Alana just knocked it down. Q. Nneka, you go 8 of 9, early on you and Parker had some great fluidity. How do you think that helped especially the inside game for Los Angeles? NNEKA OGWUMIKE: I mean, I think that was huge. It's really important with Sylvia in there. We all know what she can bring, and she was heralded as so because of her defense. But we thrive on getting the ball where we want to get it, and a lot of times that happens to be going inside, and we have to finish, and I know that that's definitely a responsibility of mine. I think we did a good job of it, but we still have some things to work on. Q. Coach Agler, I was just curious, during that last possession, the thoughts going through your mind, like yes, yes, no...Alana for three? I just thought that was an unusual shot, but I wondered what you thought. BRIAN AGLER: You know, honestly I can't be more happy for an individual than Alana Beard. If you think about her, first of all, her first championship series, and all the injuries that she's had to deal with throughout her career, and her staying with it, she may not -- you may not recognize the importance of her statistically for us a lot of times, but her presence, her leadership, obviously how disruptive she can be defensively, and then for her to hit a shot like that, it was incredible. I'm really happy for her, big play. But if you're going to win championships, you've got to have people make big plays, and she was ready. She was ready for her moment. Q. Coach, two questions: One, third quarters have not been very kind to you during the Playoffs. What did you do to come out with a better sense of high energy in the third period? And also, how are you able to maintain the fast transition pace that you do without going as deep into the bench as the Lynx do? BRIAN AGLER: Well, we've talked about it since our last series, that we have to come out of halftime a little bit sharper, and I think we did tonight. I mean, we were down two at halftime, we were down four I think going into the fourth quarter, so it's not like we got the lead back, but we stayed right there. So we're going to need that same focus, there's no question. And I think in regards to the depth, I think people -- we have the luxury of players that can play multiple positions, so we're a little bit deeper than what you might envision that way with just playing the seven people because Candace can go play the 3 and the 4, so we can sub Jantel Lavender in for a perimeter player and then move Candace to the 3. Nneka can play 3 if we need that. So a lot has to do with matchups. A lot has to do with just gut feeling on my behalf feeling like what we have to do. Tuesday could be different. Tuesday we might go nine or ten deep. We just have to wait and see. But we're deeper than what you might think. Off the bench, Jantel and Chelsea both had big games, and they're very important to how we play. Q. Brian, can you discuss the defensive effort against Maya Moore? She was shut down in the first half but still came out with 18 points in the second. BRIAN AGLER: Yeah, I mean, we knew Maya, we talked about it at halftime, Maya is going to really try to get it going in the second half. They're going to do things to try to get her looks, and I thought there was times we did a pretty good job of guarding her, and she still hit shots. She's that good of a player, and we respect her, and we respect that whole team, but we really respect what she can do. It's not like we don't think that's going to happen. We know it's going to happen. We tried to stay in plays with her, tried to make it difficult, and I thought Essence really fought her hard tonight. I thought Alana fought her hard down the stretch. Chelsea was on her at times. There could be times on Tuesday where, you know -- we historically have had Nneka on her, so it could happen. She's one of the best in the world, and we all recognize that. It's not an easy task. Not one person can do it. You sort of have to have a team concept to try to corral her a little bit. It's not easy. But I'm sure they're going to be talking a lot about that, and they'll be ready to get her a lot of good looks here on Tuesday. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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