2021 WNBA COMMISSIONER’S CUP

August 12, 2021

DeWanna Bonner

Jonquel Jones

Natisha Hiedeman

Connecticut Sun

Postgame

Seattle Storm 79 - Connecticut Sun 57 ...

Q. You still made ten grand each or so, what's the feeling going into the rest of season now that this is finished?

JONQUEL JONES: The feeling is to get our behind back in the gym and work on the things we need to work on to be successful moving forward. Ten grand, we are not thinking about that right now because quite frankly we were outplayed tonight and we got to get back to the drawing board because our mission is to win a championship and the way we played tonight is not going to do that, so we need to get back to work.

Q. Is this good to get this game out of the way if it's a clunker, knowing the rest of the games mean something for the standings?

JONQUEL JONES: I don't know what to say to that. We came in with a mindset to compete and go out and put our best foot forward and we didn't do that. Even though it doesn't count, it's still a poor representation of what we want to bring every night when we step on the court so luckily it didn't count, like you said, so we have a chance to bounce back and fix a lot of the things that we need to fix.

Q. Did you feel a little on-the-court rust?

JONQUEL JONES: Me?

Q. All of you guys, have you ever felt any on-the-court rust in your first time back in over a month?

NATISHA HIEDEMAN: We've been practicing for like two weeks for this game, so not really any rust. We just didn't play our best game tonight.

Q. It looked like Seattle changed up a lot of the double teams they were sending. Usually they are confusing in the first place for players to handle, wondering for anyone who wanted to answer, do you have any idea how much that might have thrown you off or how hard that is to prepare for in practice?

JONQUEL JONES: I know for me they are sending bodies at me constantly, sometimes it's early or sometimes when I dribble or try to get my back to the basket. It was definitely something that is challenging. Hats off to them because they do keep you off-balance with it and they make you think a lot while you're out there trying to play. Definitely a tough thing to deal with.

Q. With such a quick turnaround before the games start counting again and you play a tough team in Dallas, what do you think is the priority to come out strong on Sunday?

DeWANNA BONNER: First thing, go back and watch this film. I think that's where we start. But we just got to get in the gym, get some shots prepared, the same way we've been doing since the beginning of the season. I feel like today we were a little sluggish, a little slow. But we know they play just as quick. They are just as fast, so we've just got to go watch a little video on them and see how we can prepare and slow them down a little bit and get back to the way we play.

Tonight was a lot of pressure on ourselves, I don't know why, missed a lot of easy shots. But I think if we can get back to the way we play, we'll turn it around in Dallas.

Q. There's some uncertainty as to whether the Olympics, the jet lag, but that didn't seem to be the case. Do you think that time in Tokyo helped them going into this game?

DeWANNA BONNER: They are a well-oiled machine, man. They have been Seattle Storm for how many years? They have been a top team in this league now for years now with those three players. Doesn't matter if there was Olympics here, they play the exact same way no matter where they are on the court. Those three have been playing together for a very long time from the beginning.

We never said they were in the Olympics or they were tired. It was always focused on those three. They just play well together. That team knows how to put it together and they have championship mentality. For me this game was like a championship mentality. It's one game, you win the money, and it just takes a different type of mentality to play in these games, and they have it right now. We are still trying to figure it out, so hopefully we can figure it out before -- well, this next half of the season.