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WNBA FINALS: MYSTICS VS SUN

October 6, 2019

Mike Thibault

Uncasville, Connecticut

Mystics - 94, Sun - 81

COACH THIBAULT: Obviously it's a terrific win under all the circumstances. The good start really helped us because we weren't very good in the second quarter, but after the second half I thought we played more like we did in the first quarter.

We got a lot of great contributions. I mean, you see Kristi [Toliver] struggle the other day and today she pays it back. And Emma [Meesseman] comes in off the bench.

We get -- I can't add -- 37, 35 points off the bench again. That's huge for us. And Elena [Delle Donne] did what she could, and it was a great, great team effort -- the things that we made a priority going into this game I thought we did a pretty good job of, particularly rebounding, taking care of the ball, other than a couple crazy turnovers, but rebounding and making it tough for their best players to get good looks.

Q. With Elena, where she's taking four shots all afternoon, how much of it is just looking for her to pick her spots and you guys thinking about maximizing what you could get from her when you could?
COACH THIBAULT: Yeah, it was – you know, pick your spots. You still have to honor her no matter where she is on the floor. We tried to put them in some tough positions where they had to make some decisions on helping or not helping. So she got some looks because we had some other people open that they had to guard or we were going to get a layup.

I think that's what she was able to do for us today. Clearly she helped us with the rebounding, and I think just overall her ability to just spot up -- her shot is so efficient that even if she's hurting, that part of her game is so compact that that was the least part affected by the injury. It was all the other stuff. And she's got some guts.

Q. Natasha Cloud really limited Courtney Williams today. That made a big difference, especially getting off the blocks. What was she doing that was just working?
COACH THIBAULT: Playing harder. She understands angles. I think the one thing you have to do is, I thought Courtney got a little comfortable the first couple of games where she caught the ball. Tash, with all people she plays, makes them have to catch it a little bit more under duress. You don't get a clean look when you catch it.

Tried to make scorers have to catch it two or three feet out of their normal comfort zone. And that's all you can do. You're not going to stop somebody completely who is a good player, but you try to make them uncomfortable. And our whole goal defensively was to make their whole team uncomfortable today, make them have to work harder to get open, work harder to get a shot.

Q. I'm sure Elena's recovery process was elaborate.
COACH THIBAULT: Yes.

Q. But what was it like getting her back into shape all week?
COACH THIBAULT: To be honest with you, I didn't watch that much of it, so I can't tell you. It was doctors and physical therapists and she just did what she could do with stretching things, ice things. I don't know the rest of it. I don't even pay attention to it. They come and tell me when she's ready to go.

Q. The second part, was her, whenever she subbed out she went into the locker room, was that --
COACH THIBAULT: No, she didn't go to the locker room.

We have a bike in the back she got on to try to keep warm, or walked in the back hallway, get her breath back and her wind back. But, no, she wasn't in the locker room.

Q. When did you find out Elena would be good to go and did you expect to hear that news?
COACH THIBAULT: I did not know anything until about 35 minutes before game time, 30 minutes when she told everybody she felt like she would give it a try. Basically the plan was let's see how it goes, sub for her every four, five minutes to try to get her a breather because I didn't think her wind was going to be there, get her back on the bike, or walk in the back hallway while she got her breath back.

But I woke up this morning assuming she wasn't going to play. And she came early over here to shoot and stretch and then she did her normal shooting routine, I think it's around 70, 80 minutes before game time.

I went back in the locker room and she said I'll give it a shot. Same with Ariel Atkins, too.

Q. What does it do emotionally and mentally for the team when they see the MVP playing with a herniated disc in her back?
COACH THIBAULT: I think any player, when they see that, they say, well, I can't complain about anything. I've got to play as hard as I can play. She's out there doing what she can do.

I think the other thing is it gives them confidence because no matter whether she's limited and whether she can put the ball on the floor and go by anybody, she's such a good shooter. And I know given the circumstances she made two moves off the dribble and I'm sure it didn't feel great, but she wants to win a championship bad enough that we've got another 40-some hours to recover, 50-some hours.

So we'll try to do the same process we've done the last couple of days and see what we feel like come Tuesday.

Q. Can you talk about Natasha Cloud's game offensively, and how that spread the offense to facilitate other things maybe you couldn't do with the injuries, and then a little bit about Tianna Hawkins' defensive effort?
COACH THIBAULT: Particularly Tash, when she makes some threes early, that puts a lot of pressure on teams. She's worked so hard on that part of her game this year. She's gone from being a high 20s, low 30s percent shooter from three, to the mid 30s which is now like shooting 50-some percent from two.

And that's a big part of it. And when she makes those shots, now you're kind of in trouble as a defensive team because the plan a lot of times was, well, if we can't guard everybody, we'll let her shoot. And when she's making them, now as a coach you're going, what's plan B. And we put them in plan B as best we could today. She certainly did.

Tianna didn't play long minutes today, but I thought she came in and played great defense on Alyssa [Thomas] and [Morgan] Tuck. And she comes in and gives you a couple of rebounds. And just because she can shoot the three, she puts pressure on other teams. She offensive rebounds. You have to play honest against our bench.

Q. You've talked a lot about effort and the will to win. There was one play I think where Aerial Powers actually beat Jonquel [Jones] for a rebound and got the put-back layup. How pleased were you with the effort from beginning to end today?
COACH THIBAULT: It was great. That kind of effort is what you need to win a championship. What Aerial did, I think she just made maybe one shot and a couple of free throws. But she had eight rebounds and she is willing to go mix it up in traffic. And her vertical is as good as anybody on our team and she's physically strong. When she gets a rebound, she comes down, it's hard to take it from her, too. She's not afraid to rebound with bigger players.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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