WNBA FINALS: PHOENIX VS. CHICAGO

October 10, 2021

Kahleah Copper

Candace Parker

Allie Quigley

Chicago Sky

Game 1: Postgame

Sky 91, Mercury 77

Q. I wanted to ask a little bit about pregame. I was kind of watching you bounding up and down those sidelines really gives you energy. What was going through your mind coming into this first Finals game, and how did you learn to approach it, and when did it feel like, yeah, I'm getting going?

KAHLEAH COPPER: I think I just wanted to approach it level headed, come in with a really good sense of urgency. Treating it like a single-elimination game is important for us because it keeps our sense of urgency really high. I think that goes for me too, just trying to stay aggressive but at the same time make sure I'm making the right decisions.

Q. It seemed like you guys needed to settle in in that first quarter, but once you did, you found the pace that you wanted to play out. Can you speak to what you guys were feeling in that first quarter that resulted in you being a bit jittery?

KAHLEAH COPPER: I think everybody had Finals game, first game jitters, except for Candace, which is very important when she plays a major key. She was that calmness for us. She was telling us, even James [Wade], just telling everybody like just calm down, we're fine. We're in a good place, like we're going to be fine.

I think that was really important for her leadership is for her to be that person for us.

Q. This is the first time you played them this year when they didn't have [Kia] Nurse and they also had [Sophie] Cunningham out. Did that make a difference, particularly for you, Kahleah, playing out there on the wing?

KAHLEAH COPPER: You said did it make a difference? Not really. I wasn't really focused on what they were missing. I was just focusing on what I can do for the team, for my team.

Q. You mentioned how you had to get out some jitters in the first quarter and James said the same thing about the team. You had led the game with ten rebounds on both sides. Is that something, just the energy you brought to the game that helped you kind of find a rhythm?

KAHLEAH COPPER: I think I was just trying to be special, trying to contribute to the game in different ways. I can't just affect the game scoring because I need to get my team extra possessions on the rebound inside of it, and it's also playing good defense.

I think it's important for me to bring all those aspects in order for us to win.

Q. You made that big three in the fourth quarter there. You go racing down the court to the timeout. What's going through your mind in that moment, just in terms of how you're playing and how the team just kind of took control from there?

KAHLEAH COPPER: I felt good. It was a big shot. I don't know, I just felt good in that moment. It was a crucial shot and a big possession for us. So I felt good.

Q. Candace, when Stef [Dolson] was not playing as much in the Connecticut series, James just came in here and said that, your time is coming, your time is coming in the next series. Especially with what the three of you, between what Azurá [Stevens], you and Stef were able to do against [Brittney] Griner defensively, how important is she to this series?

CANDACE PARKER: I think that's what's special about our team. I think it's Stef knowing that and being ready. I think everybody during this postseason has had a moment or had a game, where if we didn't have them at that moment, then we wouldn't win. I think it's understanding that and being patient in that and knowing it, and that's what Stef's done.

I was just so proud of the way defensively she was playing, but also like her aggressiveness and decisiveness offensively.

Q. For all of you, but maybe Allie specifically given your history with Chicago, you guys just gave yourselves home court advantage with this Game 1 win. What kind of confidence does that give you in terms of closing out this series?

ALLIE QUIGLEY: Definitely a lot of confidence knowing that we have that, but our mind is so on the next game here, we don't want to relax at all, and we really want to get two here.

Q. Kahleah or Allie, you can answer this one: In the first quarter, Diana [Taurasi] and Skylar [Diggins-Smith] were able to get it going a little bit, but in the second quarter, I think you held them to like two points. What were you able to do in that stretch where you could limit their offensive output?

ALLIE QUIGLEY: It's big-time help from the post, playing team defense and being there on the ball screens and the pin-downs. It's just us being stronger mentally and not fouling their big-time free-throw scores. We've got to limit our fouling against them and just be there.

Q. Congratulations on the win, first of all. Allie, I wanted to ask about the play that put you ahead. Can you describe that in the second quarter?

ALLIE QUIGLEY: Was that the pick-and-roll with you? I don't know the play that put us ahead honestly. It might have been.

KAHLEAH COPPER: I think it was. Describe that play.

ALLIE QUIGLEY: I think it was a transition pick-and-roll. Candace got out of the screen fast, and I was able to find her on the roll. I think that was the and-one, right?

Q. I had a second question as well for Candace: That was, can you talk about Diana Taurasi and the relationship you have with her. And how it felt playing against her tonight in this final.

CANDACE PARKER: I think everybody within women's basketball appreciates what she's done for the game. I remember being in the stands my senior year in high school and she was leading UConn to a championship. So I think all of us have played against her. She's a tremendous competitor, great shooter, and I had the honor of being her teammate at USA and again overseas in Ekaterinburg, Russia.

I know her high IQ. I know how hard she works. I know she's right for the moments. It's been fun to be her teammate, and it's been fun to compete against her all of these years.

Q. This is a question for Candace: Candace, both James and Kahleah said you were the only one perhaps that came into this game without Finals jitters. A, is that true? B, what kind of responsibility do you feel like to bring that sense of calm to this team in this situation?

CANDACE PARKER: I remember my first Finals, my first Finals game. It's an excitement. It really is. I don't care how many you've been to, there's still the jitters you're going to get, so that's not true.

I think once you realize you're going to settle into the game eventually, it's just who can settle in early. And then once kind of your mind gets lost in it and you start playing basketball like you played all your life. So I think that's the big thing and just keeping that calm.

There's no reason to flip out. They're a great team. They're here for a reason, and we had to settle into the game and get back to what we do.

Q. Question for all three of you, but my first question is for Candace: Candace, I'm curious, when you look back at that seven-game win streak sort of in the beginning of the season for you specifically because you'd been out, what did that tell you about the team at that point in the year since it was preceded by a seven-game losing streak? Like during that stretch when you guys were winning, what did this team learn about itself?

CANDACE PARKER: We've always been confident, and that's why I'm here. I've always been confident in what we're capable of. Potential is just that, though, like you've got to realize it. I think all of us understood during that seven-game winning streak what we're capable of, but we also realized during the seven-game losing streak what we're capable of as well.

So I think that prepared us. I mean, little did we know we'd be in this situation and we would have to bounce back, and I think that's the biggest thing during the playoffs is bouncing back and fighting through adversity.

I think we know our potential. We know how we can play and how we want to play, and we know our identity. I think we developed that during the seven-game losing streak as well as the seven-game winning streak.

Q. Allie and Kahleah, I was just curious, when the offense is functioning like this and you had four, five, six, at one point in the season you had seven double-digit scorers. Kind of basic, but how fun is it to play in this offense when it's producing like that?

KAHLEAH COPPER: It's fun. I think we're just out there moving the ball. At any point anybody out there can get a bucket. From us, everybody just being unselfish and just sharing a ball. Our offense is so great that at any moment anybody can be able to score.

We appreciate the offense, and we appreciate making the defense move.

Q. Candace, Lisa Leslie and Cynthia Cooper were in here as part of the W25, and one of the things they both said, Lisa said she thought this might be your greatest leadership job that she's seen. As somebody who came in, she was near the end of her career obviously when you were young, was there anything in particular Lisa taught you about leadership that you still draw on now?

CANDACE PARKER: I think it's the biggest thing for me that I don't think I understood when I was younger is that you have to be the calm for the storm and you have to be the storm when everyone's calm. That's tough because sometimes you want to go -- like we're real hyped we won Game 1. We are going to refocus.

But we have leadership internally across the board. It's not just me. I think we all have leadership qualities. Q[uigley], [Vander]Sloot, Kah[leah]. We all have different ways we lead. I think it's been fun for me to learn. New people learn from them, and learn how I myself to get better. I know Sloot was one of those lead by examples, and I was trying to learn.

You know, I've had great teammates that have been great leaders, and I've tried to take from all of them as well as my new teammates.

Q. Just wondering if any of you would want to comment on all of the bench's contribution tonight. Stefanie, obviously, but the minutes that everybody on the bench put in.

ALLIE QUIGLEY: We've talked about it in all of the playoffs that our bench is huge for us. Our bench has won games for us sometimes because those minutes are crucial. Like we talked about before Stef came in and just made good decisions, made shots. Even Diamond [DeShields] might have struggled a little offensively, but she's always there on defense and making it hard for the other team's best players. I think it's huge for them to come in and do that.

Q. My question is for Allie: Allie, you and Courtney, I think (inaudible). I was just wondering was it intimidating coming into this going a team that swept you to out of the Finals years ago? But also how does it feel to get your first win against them the Finals?

ALLIE QUIGLEY: If anything, it was just exciting, just kind of memories from 2014. Also, we kind of talked that we just are completely different players, teammates, everything. Kind of like we were babies then, not really experienced in that situation.

So it just felt good going into the game, confident, and just experience and excited to get this first win.