WNBA FINALS: PHOENIX VS. CHICAGO

October 10, 2021

Sandy Brondello

Phoenix Mercury

Game 1: Postgame

Sky 91, Mercury 77

Q. You could kind of see the fatigue, and then the second quarter and whatnot, and then it just seemed like they got their offense going, they got their balanced scoring and all that. There wasn't kind of enough, I don't know, energy to overcome that in the second half. Is that a bit of what you saw?

SANDY BRONDELLO: Definitely. I don't want to make excuses, but we were fatigued. I understand that. The second quarter, we only lost by three in the second half, but if you're not physically tired, then when you get mentally tired, the execution wasn't really there where we needed it to be on both ends of the floor.

The most important thing for us is we've got to freshen up these next few days. That's actually good we don't play again until Wednesday. We can regroup, watch the video, and play a better game on Wednesday.

Q. Obviously, you know you wouldn't have Kia or Sophie today in particular, and it felt like, I'm sure, Copper may have been the player who scared you the most. For her to attack from the small forward position, what can you say about her performance and what you hope Sophie coming back and being able to play Wednesday can help you guys in adjusting to her?

SANDY BRONDELLO: I think they're a really well-balanced team. They have great a point guard, they have a shooter in Quigley, and you've got Copper, who I thought was going to be the key to the game and really was.

The post players, Stephanie Dolson did a great job coming off the bench, and she really hurt us. Copper, she's had great playoffs. We emphasized her a fair bit in our pregame talk. She got in positions where she made some shots. The team defense wasn't exactly where we needed it to be, and obviously her offensive rebounds hurt us as well.

We have to regroup. Sophie coming back, that certainly gives us another body to be able to try a different option on her.

Q. Sandy, what's different about how Chicago and their bigs defended Griner versus what you saw in Vegas in the last series?

SANDY BRONDELLO: Vegas, they trapped her the first few games and then went single coverage in the last two and surprise trapped her a few different times. You know Chicago, the post players, they'll bring in traps. They're pre-rotating before we even got the ball in there, leaving our four man open.

We didn't quite exploit that as well as we should have, but that's areas we know we can work on when we're a little bit fresher mentally. It's a coverage we've seen multiple times this year. It's not a new thing for us. They're aggressive in their hard hedging. Their activity disrupted us a little bit.

Things we wanted to do, we couldn't quite get through. Like I said, when you're tired, it's like the brain goes a bit dead, and you're just trying to survive out there. I did like the second half. At least we competed a little bit more. We tried. It wasn't always pretty, but we tried.

Q. I wanted to ask a little bit more about that second quarter. Offense kind of fell out, shots weren't falling. Did they do something a little differently on defense, or is that what you mean by tired legs? All of a sudden, shots don't go down.

SANDY BRONDELLO: No, they didn't do anything differently. It was just us a little bit more rushed. We turned the ball over way too much, and it allowed them to get easy baskets in transition.

They just went to another level. We couldn't sustain where we're at. We kind of went down and lost our way a little bit with some of the stuff. Setting a step-up on the side when it's not what we wanted, to get someone who's going to be really aggressive on Diana and not shortening passes. Little things.

Just a little fatigued. We had some decent looks, but the big three are going to get a lot of attention. We know that. The others have to be ready to step up and be aggressive and make shots as well.

Q. Sandy, how much was their pace impacting you guys? Obviously, with you guys being fatigued, and they knew that, and you knew they were going to try to play fast, but how much was their pace a factor in this game?

SANDY BRONDELLO: A big factor. This is how Chicago plays. The biggest key of the game was trying to make them a half-court team. That starts with having good execution on the offensive end and hopefully taking it through the net. Didn't quite happen today. They put us on our heels.

That's tiring when you've got to chase a team like this that's a little fresher than us, to get out and run. Like I said, we've got two days. We've got to freshen up body and mind.

Q. Hi, Sandy. You just talked about how you need to refresh. What exactly is the team going to be doing in the next 24 to 48 hours to kind of find your legs again.

SANDY BRONDELLO: They just need -- tomorrow's off. There's no need coming in. It's been a grind. The playoffs being back to back. We played that extra game, obviously a very emotional game on Friday night. So we're going to be off tomorrow.

We've just got to freshen up. That's what it is. We've been in these situations before. This is a team that's playing extremely well. We've got to prepare for them. We're going to practice on Tuesday, albeit light, because we want to keep their legs fresh. Watch the video, go out on the court, and just execute some areas we need to be better at.

Q. Sandy, thanks for your time today. I think this is the Chicago team that a lot of us expected to see, but like six double-digit scorers is obviously something that's really hard to prepare for. I'm just curious, when their offense is functioning in that flow and they're firing on all cylinders, how hard are they to slow down or even stop?

SANDY BRONDELLO: Very hard. I know a lot of people picked Chicago to win at the start of the year just with the players they had and they found chemistry at the right time. That's what it's all about in these seasons.

They're hard to guard. One player could have a quiet night, and one steps up. They've got DeShields too. She's a pretty good player. She's had zero tonight, which is unlike her. But six players in double figures, that certainly makes it hard when you're putting a plan in place to try to limit their effectiveness.

But credit to them. They do a great job of moving and playing together, which makes it obviously hard, especially when you're a little bit fatigued.

Q. I believe there's only eight points from your bench unit tonight, or for today. Do you feel like you need more from your second unit in order to make this a series?

SANDY BRONDELLO: Yes, definitely. Our starters have carried us all season long, but we've got Sophie Cunningham coming back. Obviously, Kia Nurse out is a big loss for us on covering. She could have done a good job out there on Copper, I think, those athletic players. At least we've got Sophie coming back, and it gives us another option just with energy, her activity, and her ability to make shots. So that will give us something.

But it's not one person that needs to step up, it's all of us, and we'll be better prepared for the next game.

Q. You spoke about Steph Dolson's impact. I was wondering like people say they don't really have a true big like you guys have Griner, but they do have a lot of depth at that position. I was wondering how much the depth sort of played an impact. It didn't really limit Griner. Griner had a great game, but how difficult was it for her throughout today's game, I think.

SANDY BRONDELLO: Yeah, it's tough. Obviously, they start with Candace and they're bringing in traps and Steph coming in. She's a big body, can be a little more destructive and can push her out of the paint a little more. The good thing about Steph helps them is their shooting ability from the perimeter. There's times we should have been switching it. She's got wide open looks, and it's all about makes and misses. She's a good post player that sets good screens. Some I'm not sure if they really all are legal, but she's also a great passer too.

That was hard. They had the other players that can come off the bench. Kia Vaughn, that was her first time being in The Finals in 13 years. Maybe a little bit of anxiousness there. We have a lot of faith in Kia Vaughn coming off the bench here. We know that we'll be better in the next game.

Q. Just a very brief follow-up. 2014 you guys met before. What's the chat around the team? There's only a few players who were around back then. Is there any sort of like, we've done this before, we can do it again? I know it was quite a long time ago now.

SANDY BRONDELLO: Obviously, different decade, but that was a special team. Only Diana and BG are from that team. For us, just freshen up. It's a long series. We just won a best of five, and our only focus is on the next game and making sure that we can tidy up some of the areas that we know. It's all the one percenters really, take care of the ball and make sure we're blocking out. If we can make a few shots and make them move a little bit and exploit their defense, we should be in good shape.