|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
WNBA FINALS: MYSTICS VS SUNOctober 8, 2019Elena Delle DonneAerial PowersEmma MeessemanUncasville, Connecticut Connecticut - 90, Washington - 86 Q. Elena [Delle Donne], two-part question: You played more minutes tonight. Were you feeling more comfortable? And the second part is, you guys worked all season long to get home-court advantage in this situation. You have Game 5 at home. Just the confidence knowing that you're going home to try to win the series? ELENA DELLE DONNE: Yeah, I mean, that's what we worked for this whole season, but we also know you can't just rely on being home to get it done, and the way we came out and started the game, that really dug us into a huge hole. They're a great team, so to give them that kind of lead really makes things difficult. Q. Elena, your dribble drive early on seemed different than the way you were getting to the basket. Can you take me through how you were feeling, whether you felt more comfortable getting to the basket, whether it was a conscious decision to try and affect the game differently than you did in Game 3? ELENA DELLE DONNE: Yeah, I was a little looser today, so I felt better. Hopefully I'll continue to progress and feel even better Thursday. But yeah, they were playing more aggressive defensively. They weren't just letting us sit outside and shoot threes comfortably. So I was trying to just draw attention by driving and hoping to get other people open. Q. Aerial or Elena, you guys didn't score in the final two minutes and 10 seconds of the game, despite those opportunities. What was the breakdown there? AERIAL POWERS: Well, I think we also had a few open shots that we didn't hit. I mean, the ball movement was there, but we didn't hit a few shots. I honestly feel that way. We just have to be better come Thursday. Q. Obviously I'm sure you would have wanted to win today, but we're going to a Game 5. That's the kind of thing that I would imagine you dream of as a kid, getting to play in that sort of winner-takes-all. What is that like going into that for Thursday? AERIAL POWERS: I just think we have to start off better. We were down 16 going into halftime. We came out in the first two minutes and we were down 10. We went on a 6-0 run, had four stops. We have to come out with that aggressiveness in the first half, starting from the starting tip, come out with that aggressiveness, and I think it would have been a different outcome for us. So we have to do that Thursday. Q. Emma [Meesseman], you didn't have any points in that first half. What changed to get you going in the second half? EMMA MEESSEMAN: I think we just changed our way of playing as a team. We moved the ball more around, we cut more, we moved more. So that's how I got my open shots that I'm used to, I think. Unfortunately not too much in the first half, I did not get my shots I needed to take. Q. Aerial, you were finding – Coach [Mike Thibault] said before that you were in the off-ball role and you were finding these shots because other people were pretty heavily guarded. As you kept making shots and getting more opportunities, how were you feeling out there? AERIAL POWERS: I mean, it's good when the ball is dropping, but overall I didn't feel good. Offense is good or whatever, but defensively as a team, that's where we're going to win. As you saw when we got the stops we got, we got it going offensively. It doesn't really matter about me scoring at all. As a team we have to be better on the offensive end and defensive end. It's cool, but it's not what's going to win us a championship. Q. Elena, can you answer the question before being in Game 5 of a WNBA Finals? I know you had a chance at the college level to play for the championship there, but to have a chance to win a title in a Game 5 on your home court? ELENA DELLE DONNE: I wanted to win it in four. That's hard to say. But I think it's great for the league. It's great for fans. It's great to get more people excited about our game. So for that, I'm grateful. I think this has been quite the series, and people better be tuning in because this is some great basketball and some really good teams. From that sense, it's great for this league. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|