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WNBA FINALS: MYSTICS VS STORMSeptember 9, 2018Breanna StewartSue BirdSeattle, Washington Storm - 75, Mystics - 73 Q. Winning this game with a defensive stop, forcing the jump ball and then winning that and kind of the defense in general down the stretch, was that symbolic of the difference maybe between this year's team and last year's team that might not have won a game like this when you didn't have a great shooting night? SUE BIRD: Probably, yeah. I think obviously the tale of the season is that in the last two years, I think we were one, two, top three for sure in offense. We could score. That wasn't a problem. We had a problem getting the stops. And when we did get the stops, we had a problem getting the rebound. That's been the tale of this season. That's what's been a part of the turnaround. So in some ways, it's fitting that we won a game with our defense. Definitely says a lot about our team that we just kind of hung in there. It was a tough, gritty game. Both sides, to be honest. I think both sides, both teams had moments throughout where they could have thrown in the towel, and what you saw was two teams just fighting to the end. So hopefully it made for good basketball, and of course we're beyond thrilled to have gotten the win. Q. Sue, take me through the final defensive possession and what you were trying to do there? Washington seems to think you were looking to use the foul to -- SUE BIRD: No, I wasn't. If you want to go talk to somebody about that play, you should go talk to Chris Daley. I've been doing that swipe-around-the-back thing since I was like 18 years old. She absolutely hates it. She calls it the Sue Bird move. In fact, when she does scouting reports, she will say like watch out for so-and-so, they do the Sue Bird move. I literally, the minute I walked in the locker room I checked my phone, I knew I was going to have a text message about it, like sure enough, congratulations, you did the Sue Bird move. That was a play where -- no, you go into that, you don't want them to get a good look, right, so when she caught it in the corner, there was a moment where -- and you're guarding Kristi Toliver, there was a moment where -- and we're only up two, we're thinking, I'm thinking, she might shoot this three. So I lunged out a little bit, which kind of gave her that pathway to get down the baseline, and once she went by me, I did the good ol' Sue Bird move and was lucky to get a piece of the ball. I knew we had a foul to give, but that was not my intention at all. Q. Can you describe just I guess the play and your reaction to that 35-footer? How did that make the difference in the game? SUE BIRD: Yeah, you know, sometimes you throw them up there and they go in, and this was not -- this was just that. The shot clock was running down. It has nothing to do with anything other than that. And I was just able to get it on the rim, and it banked. I did not call it, I did not mean it. I'm glad it went in, and I could tell from the reaction of the fans that it was just -- it was one of those shots that can bring energy into a building, give energy to our team. So of course I'm just happy it went in. Not much to it, though. Q. Breanna, you're plus 10 rebounding; what was going right there for you, and then you hold them to 0 for 16 on threes. What was working in that part of the game? BREANNA STEWART: We had a big emphasis on rebounding, and honestly throughout the game it didn't feel like we had a plus 10 rebounding margin. It felt like they kept getting some scrappy ones or big rebounds, and we just knew that they were going to crash offensively. Honestly, we didn't know that they went without a three until we just talked about it like before we came up here. But that goes for our defense, putting them under duress, making them shoot contested threes most of the time, and our close-outs and rotations were hard to do and hard to -- for the offense to figure out what we were doing. Q. Breanna, can you talk about just what a big day this was for you with 25 points and also getting to the line as much as you did? And then Sue, if you could just follow with to me this was a real MVP game for her; if you could just talk about that, please. BREANNA STEWART: You know, right from the jump, I just wanted to be really aggressive. You knew that this was Game 2, and they were going to come out like a better DC team than we saw in Game 1. I was able to get to the free-throw line, and I would have loved to have made those last two at the end, but the majority of the game, just being aggressive, assertive, and doing the plays to win the game. SUE BIRD: Yeah, she definitely came out assertive. You could tell right away. I think what makes this an MVP type game is down the stretch she wanted the ball, she was posting up hard. We wanted to get her the ball, and she finished the plays off. That's -- it's more -- MVP-type performances, anyone can get lucky, right, like anyone can have a great game, á la myself Game 5, anybody can have one night. But for somebody who consistently has presence and consistently wants the ball and consistently is winning your team basketball games, that's an MVP, and Stewie obviously showed that tonight, but in all honesty, she's been showing it all season. This wasn't new. And yeah, she was just super assertive, and I'm glad she was. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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