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WNBA FINALS: SPARKS VS LYNXOctober 14, 2016Sylvia FowlesMaya MooreMinneapolis, Minnesota Sparks - 92, Lynx - 75 Q. Maya, how do you explain the first 10 minutes of this game? You guys were 22 down just almost before the game got rolling. They were all over you defensively and it was a very flatfooted effort for you guys in the first quarter. How do you explain the way you guys came out? MAYA MOORE: I don't think there's much to explain other than what you saw. You know, when you have such a long, aggressive, athletic team as LA, we have to be able to respond and anticipate ways to get out of their pressure because they converted those turnovers into fast break points, transition, easy points, where we can't even give our defense a chance to stop them. Obviously we can't respond the way we did in the first quarter for any more time in this series because they're extremely good at converting those turnovers into points. Q. Sylvia, what did you notice down low? You were held to four rebounds tonight after a couple of strong efforts in Minnesota, kind of a huge contrast in Game 3. SYLVIA FOWLES: Just a lot of bodies. I won't say it was a big difference, but a lot of good effort from LA posting guards, just crashing the boards more often and frequent, and that was something different from last night into tonight. Q. Once they built that 22-point lead, what were the biggest challenges for the both of you and for your teammates, either emotionally or tactically? MAYA MOORE: Well, it's a great team, so you know they're going to continue to find a way to go on runs. One of the things that we increased was our defense intensity and getting some deflections, some steals to give ourselves some fast break points and more possessions that way. But at the end of the day, if we continue to turn the ball over, it robs us opportunities to score and gives them opportunities to score. The second half we still have to be able to clean up our turnovers, otherwise I thought there were times where we were really aggressive and on the same page and locked in and had a bounce in our step, but again, if you give that much of a lead to a great team, it's going to be really hard to come back. But I thought for the most part we had some really good moments where we responded. Q. As well as both teams know each other, did they do anything tonight that surprised you? SYLVIA FOWLES: No, not really. It was the same thing that we seen in Game 1 and 2, besides the fact that we had a lot of turnovers and they converted. Q. I asked Coach Reeve at practice the other day, of all the teams that you guys have played in the Finals, is this team about as close as an example of your team playing itself, the talent level? MAYA MOORE: I think both teams throughout the course of the season proved that we care a lot about defense and offense. We were the two most consistent teams holding other teams to lower field goal percentages, putting points on the board, and sharing the ball. I think as far as our desire to get those things done, yeah, and the ability to get it done, yeah, we're pretty even that way. But I think we do go about getting our goals done a little bit differently, but like you said, this is a very appropriately-matched Finals with the top two teams defensively and offensively meeting up. Q. Despite the early lead that they established, you guys really came back in the second half and gnawed into it quite nicely. What were you doing that succeeded for you as you closed the gap in that second quarter? MAYA MOORE: Our defense, I think, intensity picked up. We were able to get to some loose balls, try to mix it up a little bit, and just create some momentum in our direction, and we were able to do that. We were able to get some ball movement, tried to get in the paint and share the ball. That second quarter we were really able to fight, cut it to eight, and the second half was pretty much even. That third quarter we were pretty much even. I think we lost that quarter by two. I don't have the stats. But yeah, the fourth we just didn't have enough consecutive possessions on both sides of the ball to create a big enough run to cut it back within that eight points or less that we did in the second quarter. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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