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WNBA FINALS: MYSTICS VS SUNSeptember 29, 2019Alyssa ThomasCourtney WilliamsJasmine ThomasWashington, D.C. Washington - 95, Connecticut - 86 Q. Alyssa, the first half that you had and setting the tone in that way, scoring not just as often as you did but the way you did, how significant was that not just from a basketball perspective but just as a means of setting the tone for the series? ALYSSA THOMAS: I was just being aggressive. You know, they kept switching. I had mismatches on me, so we knew that's how they were going to guard us, and last game we played them I missed a lot, and this time I just kept staying aggressive. Q. Jasmine and Courtney, you both had dart-through screens to try to run with Kristi Toliver. Can you talk about the challenge of guarding her and trying to run through those screens? JASMINE THOMAS: She's a talented player, great shooter, gets her teammates involved, so she demands a lot of attention. She's always on the move, and you just have to always stay alert. COURTNEY WILLIAMS: Agreed. Q. Courtney, you had Ariel Atkins as your assignment today. Can you just talk about that? COURTNEY WILLIAMS: That wasn't my assignment. Q. I'm sorry, Ariel Atkins had you as her assignment. Can you talk about how much of a challenge she was defensively and how you were able to fight through that for your 26 points today? COURTNEY WILLIAMS: To be honest, I felt like I could do it whatever I wanted to do. I mean, no shame to her, she's a great defender, but I felt like I was getting to all my spots that I wanted to get to. I felt pretty comfortable. I think I shot the best I ever shot from the three. But we've just got to get the next game. I don't know, I felt pretty comfortable out there. Q. You took a first punch from them the first quarter, and then after that you seemed to have played even or a little bit ahead. How big is that for confidence going forward for Game 2 such that you were down 17 in the third quarter and rallied back to cut it to 4 and make it even closer, but it wasn't what it could have been? JASMINE THOMAS: Yeah, it's something we definitely talked about against this team. They score the ball so well, and they play so well together that you cannot have a flat start. So we've talked about that first quarter start being a big difference in Game 2. So for sure we'll be focused on that, and what other adjustments we'll have to make for the next game once we watch the film. Q. Courtney, Jas, we've talked about the importance of Jonquel Jones getting shots, getting touches where she's demanding the ball, where she's a center of the offensive attack. Courtney, I'm wondering is there a way you're going to look to pump her up emotionally? And, Jas, I'm wondering if you see different ways to get her the ball more just in the flow of the offense? COURTNEY WILLIAMS: I mean, yeah, I think you said it, just keeping her energy up and hyping her up, letting her know that she's the best player on the floor, because honestly I feel like nobody can stop J.J. when she believes that. So I think we've got to get her more touches, and she's going to do what she needs to do. JASMINE THOMAS: We absolutely will look at getting her more touches, especially down low. I feel like when we play through her on the block, that's the way she was scoring a lot today, but that's also where they show a lot of attention to her, so then it's able to open up the floor for the rest of us. There's a lot of attention going to J.J. at all times, so sometimes she's not able to get as many shots attempts even when she is touching the ball. So we have to find a way to get her open and get her some space to score. Q. Courtney and Jas, you guys obviously shot really well in the first half despite having to face a double-digit deficit, then down 17, were able to fight your way back. What did you think was working to be able to make that comeback and pull within 4 that you can hopefully bring into the next game? COURTNEY WILLIAMS: I think we got out in transition. When we get stops and we get running, we're a tough team to guard. So I think we've just got to do more of that. We've got to get out and we've got to run and we've got to push the pace. JASMINE THOMAS: I also think we need to put our heads down a little more and put pressure on their defense in the paint and force refs to make calls for us and get us to the line a little more. Q. Alyssa, that weird play when you drove the basket and they called a double foul on you and I think it was Tianna, did they explain to you what that was? ALYSSA THOMAS: No, I don't think they even knew what it was. It was just a ref not being confident in her call. She was there, and she wanted to call a block, but she let the other two refs have input in it, as well. They just need to be confident in their calls. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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