WNBA FINALS: STORM VS. ACES

October 2, 2020

Jewell Loyd

Seattle Storm

Game 1: Postgame

Seattle Storm 93, Las Vegas Aces 80

Q. You really brought that "goal mama" mentality to the Playoffs; how have you been able to maintain your high level of offensive efficiency?

JEWELL LOYD: That's a great question. I think for me, just going in and being confident in my preparation, being confident in our team and just really just trusting what we've been doing all year. It's easy to kind of get into the Finals and think you have to do something abnormal and kind of play hero ball, but for us, it's just do what you do all season and stay confident and true to who you are.

Q. As I take a look at the stat sheet here, there's so many numbers that pop out at you, but the one that just really jumps out is 48 to 18 points in the paint that you guys outscored them. Wow. Did you think that was possible going into -- considering what they do, who they are, it seemed like you guys took away their identity.

JEWELL LOYD: You know, for us offensively we have really good shooters, so when our drives are open, when we were moving the ball, we were able to attack. That's just the versatility of our team. Everyone can dribble, everyone has a pretty high IQ, so knowing when to attack, how to get to your spots, that's something that we constantly work on in practice, and defensively we really wanted to make sure that we were together, talking and making sure that we understood our scouts. So it's just the preparation from our coaches, from Sue, from AC, our defensive specialists, making sure we knew exactly where to be, and just really be ourselves, pride ourselves on our defense and hopefully that leads to good offense, so we were able to play our basketball tonight.

Q. Your mom has become sort of like a viral sensation over the course of the Playoffs, her and your Auntie Shirley. What does it mean to have that support? And Kyrie Irving was watching earlier and he made a comment that you're such a problem on the floor and that you were the No. 2 for a reason. So can you go into that mentality that you had today?

JEWELL LOYD: My mom -- that's my mom. That's something that I grew up with, so it's not new to me. It's maybe new to everyone else and she's just now going viral. She's my biggest fan. It's crazy because she didn't really know basketball when I was in high school, all the rules and players, and now she's invested herself in knowing a lot of things about the WNBA and the players, the rules. Just having her as my No. 1 fan is super important to me. My family means everything to me, so the fact that she's involved and she's all in, it's great entertainment for everyone. So as I said, it's kind of been my childhood growing up, so welcome to my life.

And the second part, I put a lot of work into preparing myself and surrounding myself by people who knew Kobe, people who understood the grind and the focus that you need to have to make a push into your next phase of your career, and having Ky as my big bro and being a mentor to me, and talked to him before the game. I talked to him last night, and playing for a different purpose and playing for a different reason, not just for a trophy but for a bigger cause. The biggest impact Kobe always told me was to create forever and be epic, so that's always in the back of my mind, it's bigger than basketball; it's inspiring the next generation, inspiring my niece and nephews and that's what my focus is on is be sound in your fundamentals but understand you're playing for a bigger goal.

Q. In the first game this season against Las Vegas you just had three points but the last game of the regular season you had 30 and then tonight you had 28. What has been working so well the past two games against Vegas and what do you have to do to maintain that?

JEWELL LOYD: I could care less what happened before this postseason. I'm just looking at this new season now, so after tonight's game I'll go back and figure out what worked, what didn't work, how to be better, and for me I'm just staying patient, taking what the defense gives me. I'm able to have really good looks because my teammates make really good plays. A lot of the credit is to my teammates for setting good screens, Sue finding me when I'm open, but I'll go back and watch film and see how I can be even more efficient.

Q. Your two losses to Vegas in the regular season there was no Sue. She's out there today with a record number of assists for the Finals, 16. How big a difference was it to have her, and what's it like when she's orchestrating a game like that?

JEWELL LOYD: I mean, I've been spoiled to have Sue as my point guard since coming in the league. And seeing her grow as a leader, seeing her even more so being able to pick apart defenses and just be so smart, I think that's something that we definitely missed. But having her on the floor, she sees things, she's constantly talking to us, she's encouraging all of us to be patient and be ready to go. So her ability to not only just encourage everyone but also be able to know what play calls and know what we need to run in those moments are super vital for us, and that's something that we need going into the Finals and the Playoffs is to have a solid leader, and she's been that solid leader for us ever since I met her.

Q. What was your nephew's goal for you today to do?

JEWELL LOYD: So I had -- I think it was four assists, five steals, six threes, two rebounds, two blocks, one floater and three threes.

Q. You might owe him a couple but that's still a pretty good game --

JEWELL LOYD: Trust me, they let me know when I come up short, so I'm sure I'll get a call later tonight.