WNBA FINALS: PHOENIX VS. CHICAGO

October 10, 2021

James Wade

Chicago Sky

Game 1: Postgame

Sky 91, Mercury 77

Q. It seemed like in the first quarter you guys needed to get settled in, but then responded in the second and never let up. Was that just the team needing to settle in to this final series, or how would you describe that?

JAMES WADE: It's been a long time since the organization has been here. Even the players, I think the last person to play the Finals was Candace, and she was probably the most settled. So I just chalked it up to pregame jitters and pre-Finals jitters, I guess.

But they're a good team. So I don't want to take anything away from them. They attacked us the way they wanted to attack us. I don't know if we were 100 percent ready for it at the time. Hopefully, we won't have those issues. We've got our feet up under us. Now we have a game under our belt. So hopefully, we can be a little bit more consistent starting the game.

Q. How much of a factor do you think fatigue, Phoenix's fatigue was in that second quarter run that you went on and through the rest of the game?

JAMES WADE: I don't know. I wish I could answer that. Just when it comes to those things, I just worry about us. It's the Finals. I don't think you can really consider that stuff.

Q. Can you talk a little bit about Stefanie Dolson. She didn't play as much the last two games. Obviously today was really effective.

JAMES WADE: I told her during the last series, I said it. I told her, it's like it doesn't matter who we play, you're going to be big for us the next series. So I need for you to be locked in. I told her also that sometimes coaches don't get it right. What we thought was matchup, better matchups in the last series against Connecticut. We knew that we were going to think up a different matchup going into this series, whether it had been Las Vegas or Phoenix.

So that's why we needed her locked in, and we had that conversation. She assured me she would be. We're going to need her to be big for us this series. That's how coaches are. Maybe she would have been big for us last series, but I trusted other matchups better, and that was just a judgment call.

But we know for sure coming into this series, no matter who we play, like I said, we were going to need her to be big for us.

Q. Curious with Diana getting attacked and some of the chippiness that ensued through the course of the game, is that something as a coach you have a message for the players out there? What do you do to get through those moments where there's some tension?

JAMES WADE: No, I think it's just stay focused. Diana's a great player, and we know she doesn't need a lot to get going, so we just want to stay focused and stay on our objective and our goals and just make sure that we try to stay as solid defensively so she doesn't get going the way she can get going.

It's just about us keeping our composure. We know that -- like I said, she's great. We just have to make sure we execute defensively so she doesn't get going.

Q. This team throughout the entire postseason has really stopped opponents from getting into a groove. Any time there's momentum, you find a way to stop them, and you're able to carry on through the postseason. You're 6-1 now. Just how important is it, one, to get Game 1, along that similar theme of being able to stop opponents from gaining that momentum?

JAMES WADE: I think every game you win is important. If you get the first win, it automatically gives you home court advantage. Right now, you never know how the games go, but who would have thought, you talk about this 2 1/2 weeks ago, that we'd have home court advantage in the Finals.

So they're locked in, they're focused, they're concentrated. Our coaches, like I said, they do a great job of not only scouting a game plan and understanding what makes our players go, but they also do a great job of teaching it and making it easier for the players to actually execute it.

I think they're doing a great job of that, and the players are doing a great job following. So you see this great chemistry between the coaching staff and training staff and the players. So it's been great to watch.

Q. Sandy Brondello was just in here talking about how Kahleah was a difficult matchup for them and how they were kind of keying on her as a key. What do you think makes her a difficult matchup for opponents?

JAMES WADE: Her speed, her athleticism, and her tenacity. Those are three things that really make her a hard matchup, but also her talent. She's a high-level player. Now I think, as the Finals goes on, people are going to start paying attention to her. I think people will notice what we know.

Q. Congratulations, Coach, first of all, on the win. Always tough to get the first one. Sandy did talk quite a bit in her side of the press conference about the fatigue, the emotionalism of the Friday game against Las Vegas Aces and they need a couple of days to freshen up, then they're going to be coming back out full force. How do you combat that?

JAMES WADE: We've just got to be ready. We know that they're going to be better prepared and they're going to be more motivated, especially going down a game. Sandy is one of the best coaches in the league, so I know she's going to have them ready and just adjusting and adapting to different situations. I know they'll be ready.

They have Diana, they have BG, they have Skylar, and they have the rest of those players. We just have to make sure that we're not satisfied with winning the first game. We want to come with the same rigor and aggressiveness that we came out with this game and just try to do our best. That's the only thing that we can do.

And not make some of the mistakes we made early on. We had some lulls early in the fourth quarter, too, that we want to clean up. We have a lot to take from and learn from this game even though it was a good game from us. We have some stuff to clean up, and we'll do our best to try and do that.

Q. Did you play the pace that you wanted to play today? And how much do you think your pace impacted the final result of this game?

JAMES WADE: I think we didn't early. I think, as the game went on and you saw us start to settle a little bit, I think we got into the pace that we wanted to get into, but it took us a while. Once we got into that pace, we felt pretty comfortable there. We made a couple of mental mistakes as a team that we have to clean up on. All in all, I think for the most part we had a good time, like a good -- it was a good effort on our part to get to the pace that we wanted to play to.

Q. James, I'm wondering if you could comment on how your overall bench contributed today.

JAMES WADE: We want more. They'll be better next game. I think it was a little Finals jitters for them too. Stef was really good for us, and that's what we needed from her. She had a great game. Like we said, we knew we were going to depend on her a certain amount, and she came through. Now it's just about building that consistency and getting it going.

We'll look at some things with our team tomorrow and try to make sure our bench is in a rhythm. It's important for us that they are.

Q. We saw a lot of clips of Candace Parker talking to a number of different players on the game feed, a number of teammates. I wondered what's the conversation that you had with Candace Parker right at the start of the year about being a leader and how has that progressed throughout the year to the point where you've reached the Finals now and obviously got Game 1 in the bag?

JAMES WADE: It was important when she came. We talked about her coming in, and she was like I want to fit in with the team and just share my experiences and stuff like that. A big thing coming from me was we needed her to lead. It was a player that we were missing. We weren't just missing her talent, but we were missing everything that comes with it, the experience, the big-time plays in big moments, the having that cool shoulder and just being someone to lean on in difficult times.

So she's accepted that role, and now everybody has a sense of comfort when it comes to those moments. So we just have to continue to lean on her, continue to lean on her and understand that -- like me as a coach, I don't have the answers, so I lean on her a lot for a lot of things, and she comes through more often than not. So we just have to keep on riding it until we get to our ultimate destination.