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WNBA FINALS: SPARKS VS LYNX

September 26, 2017

Brian Agler

Minneapolis, Minnesota

Lynx - 70, Sparks - 68

BRIAN AGLER: I want to commend Minnesota on a game well played. They really came out and set the tone of the game early. I don't think we responded quite as well as we would have liked, but I think they had a lot to do with that. I do like the way we battled back, put ourselves in position to tie or win the game, and it's like anything else, you've got to take advantage of your opportunities.

Q. You have two possessions to either tie or take the lead late. Can you take us through what you saw there, especially on the five-second call and was it a little disappointing not to be able to get a shot off?
BRIAN AGLER: Yeah, it was disappointing. I just felt like we had a play, we just didn't execute it quite the way we would have wanted, and then because of how we run the play, everybody is sort of running away from the ball, and it just put Alana in a bad spot. Unfortunately we didn't get it in, but we did get a stop, and we gave ourselves another opportunity.

Q. The first game you have a 26-point lead and it ends up a two-point game. Tonight they lead by 20 in the third and it ends up a two-point game. What does that say about just how closely matched these two teams are?
BRIAN AGLER: I just think that these two teams are great teams, and they're filled with a bunch of competitors. It didn't shock me at all that Minnesota came out with that kind of aggression and urgency from the start. I wish we could have hung around a little bit closer, but you know, we talked things over at halftime. I think that our fight and our grit and our persistence was better defensively, especially in the second half, and forced some turnovers, got in transition, scored, started moving the ball and moving people a little bit better offensively.

I mean, I think everybody in here probably watched last year's series. I mean, there's tons of similarities. It's not really surprising to me. I sort of expect every game, to be like this.

Q. You mentioned the defense just now, seemed like it was kind of a night-and-day thing from the first half to the second half, seemed like Fowles wasn't really able to get many touches in that second half. What were some things you were able to do successfully on the defensive end there in the second half?
BRIAN AGLER: Yeah, I just thought we were more proactive, we anticipated better. I thought Minnesota really did a good job, even both halves, of executing their offense, running the stuff they wanted to get. I just thought the second half we were better at staying in plays with them, making things a little bit more difficult. They've got a lot of good players. You know, they've got three or four always on the floor that can make plays, and so -- and they run a ton of screens away from the ball, and they're difficult to defend.

Q. Do you leave town here happy to get the split, satisfied with that, or thinking you let one get away here?
BRIAN AGLER: I mean, as an outsider coming in, or before you get into the middle of the series, you're thinking, okay, when you don't have home-court advantage, you know you've got to win a game on the road. You have to. So we did accomplish that the first night. But now that -- once you get in the series, okay, now you just think about the moment, and the moment just happened basically, the game. So we've got to take this and evaluate and make some adjustments. We've got to get better. We have to improve. And you know, I think that your improvement, not just X's and O's, but it's also your mentality, the intangible stuff we have to get better at.

Q. How much did Candace's ankle bother her in the first half, and what does it mean to see her carry you for a big part of that second half?
BRIAN AGLER: I don't think it affected her. You know, we're not a team that makes excuses. You know, if she plays, she plays. If she can't play, then she doesn't play. So as long as she's on the floor, then we expect Candace to be Candace. I don't think it really affected her at all. I thought that across the board, not her but across the board, our team just -- we didn't have the fight and the grit in the first half that could match or come close to Minnesota. A lot of the outcome of the game had a lot to do with how Minnesota played, okay, and not so much about what we didn't do. They set the tone early in the game.

We have to respond.

Q. Was there an opportunity opened up for your team when Moore got that fourth foul so early in the third quarter? Did that change the tone?
BRIAN AGLER: I mean, I think that probably -- obviously when you take a great player like Maya Moore off the floor, things change a little bit. I think Cheryl [Reeve] will probably have a better answer for that than I will. I sort of focus on who we have on the floor. We didn't change anything defensively when she was off the floor. But she's one of the best in the world, and so when she's off the floor, I'm sure that it impacted their team in some kind of way.

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