WNBA FINALS: LAS VEGAS VS. CONNECTICUT

September 15, 2022

Kelsey Plum

A'ja Wilson

Jackie Young

Las Vegas Aces

Game 3: Postgame

Connecticut Sun 105, Las Vegas Aces 76

Q. For A'Ja and Kelsey, what went wrong in that first quarter from your guys' perspective?

KELSEY PLUM: You tell me.

A'JA WILSON: I guess they was watching and we were playing.

KELSEY PLUM: Right.

A'JA WILSON: Defense. We just were not locked in on the defensive end. We were a step slow on the defensive end and that fuels our offense. So we have to be more locked in on the defensive side more than anything when you're playing against a team like Conn. For us to come out and lack that, it was going to be a long game regardless of who we played.

Q. How different did they look after that first time-out there?

A'JA WILSON: They are home. The momentum's swinging. It was nothing -- it was just energy, energy-wise and we lacked that, and I'm going to take full accountability of that. We lacked energy at the end of the day and you need that coming into a road game like this with the first road game and they just had more energy than us. They looked new. They looked fresh. I think that was the biggest difference. They just came out and wanted it more and we can't be like that. I don't care what game it is, we can't be like that at all.

Q. Curious how you would characterize how Jonquel played tonight and what maybe looked different for her?

A'JA WILSON: Jonquel played like Jonquel. She's an MVP. She played exactly how she's supposed to play. I'm not going to take anything away from her. She dominated the game the way that she should. I don't know why people forget but she's an MVP. She's that for Conn and she played exactly how she needed to play for her team to get a win.

Q. How does Alyssa's versatility make it hard for her to defend?

KELSEY PLUM: I mean, she can -- she got into the high post tonight and really did a lot of damage. She hit her shots and obviously we started stepping up and she was finding her teammates.

Everyone on their team shot great. And you know, when she gets the ball in there, it's tough. When she rebounds, she gets it out in transition and she's able to get downhill and make plays for her team. She played great tonight. She played with a ton of energy and we didn't match that.

Q. How tough was it to guard Alyssa Thomas? She had the first WNBA Finals triple-double.

KELSEY PLUM: I'm not guarding her, so I don't know if I can really attest to that. I feel like as a team, you know, we were doing defensively different schemes and they adjusted. I don't think we adjusted as well as we could have.

But again, they got to the 50/50 balls. Physicality-wise, we didn't match that. The energy they played with, specifically Alyssa Thomas, she beat to us a lot of those balls and that's on us and that will be fixed for Sunday.

Q. Kelsey, seemed like you were a little stagnant moving the balls out of the traps compared Game 1 to Game 2. What was the reason behind and that how will you adjust to that in Game 4?

KELSEY PLUM: They really trapped Chelsea hard, and we didn't do a great job personally, me, like figuring out -- getting to those outlets. Becky calls it a .5 pass; so making a decision in .5 seconds. Like the ball stuck a lot and that was my fault, picked up the dribble a lot.

Yeah, I mean, you have to give credit to their defense. They were super aggressive and they full rotated, and they made us hit, like, the third pass. We just didn't keep the ball moving, and, you know, that's on me. I'll go back and watch the film and be better for Sunday.

Q. The first quarter, you were hitting threes galore and that got the team going. Talk about offensively how you played tonight and defensively are things fixable for Sunday, energy, as opposed to schemes that weren't working?

JACKIE YOUNG: Yeah, I think I just did what I was supposed to do, knock down open shots. They were leaving me open and I just have to step into it with confidence and make the shot.

On the defensive side of things, we'll make a few adjustments. We made it too easy for them. They are a physical team, so we just have to match their physicality and energy.