WNBA FINALS: MONARCHS v SUN

September 14, 2005

John Whisenant

COACH JOHN WHISENANT: My name is John Whisenant, Sacramento Monarchs, and we are tickled to death, of course, to come here and play a great team like the Sun, and get away with a win. And I'm proud of my team, they played hard, they worked defensively extremely well together, but Connecticut made some unbelievable shots. They stayed -- we feel fortunate to have won the game. So I'll be glad to answer any questions.

COACH JOHN WHISENANT: You know, we think we've improved. We said to the media going in here that obviously before July 1 in June, Connecticut was a better ballclub than us. They beat us at our home court, which gave them the better record than we did, and that made the difference in them having home court in the playoffs. The question we hoped we could answer was have we improved more than they have, and I'm not certain that we proved that, but the teams are very, very close, each game will be, I think, a toss-up, and tonight we just happened to come out on top.

COACH JOHN WHISENANT: Yeah, our offense has improved. We still shot 41 percent and they shot 45. They are a great shooting team. I think if we played the games before us, they would win for sure. Our offense has gotten better. I mean, we intended -- we play nine players, and when you play nine players, it's hard to get cohesive early offensively. But we have to play nine players to play our pressure defense. So we sacrifice offense knowingly in the early season because our defense has to be that way, and as the year goes along, players become more comfortable playing with different groups of five, our nine rotation, and they become more cohesive and they work together. I think we're seeing that. We've played well offensively some, but I still think Connecticut is, you know, probably the best offensive team in the WNBA.

COACH JOHN WHISENANT: Gutsy. Very gutsy. She played hard and determined. We intended to give Lindsay fits, whether she had a knee or not, and that's just the way we play, to drive the opposing point guard as nuts as we can. We try to get them out of sync. She is the quarterback of their team and if we can disrupt their quarterback, obviously it makes their offensive execution less likely to succeed. We try to do that everywhere we go. Lindsay obviously was in pain, and I was really concerned the one time under the basket in front of our bench, I thought she had re-injured it. She's a determined young lady, got to give her -- got a lot of courage.

COACH JOHN WHISENANT: DeMya Walker has been, before her injury, the best forward, power forward defender in the league, in my view. Unfortunately I didn't vote for the All-Defensive Team, but DeMya's injury has slowed her somewhat, she's not quite yet as agile and mobile, but she's one of the great athletes in the WNBA, as is Taj, of course, and Taj is very gifted and has some very good offensive footwork moves. DeMya did a good job and Taj got her a couple of times. Becky Brunson tried to irritate her and bother her as much as she could. That's what we like to be. We were pleased when Coach Thibault said we were like going to the dentist, you know, and that's our intention. That's what our defense does.

COACH JOHN WHISENANT: You know, we talk about patience. Our defense is one to just -- we say, just keep the screws, just keep bearing down, just keep it on them, keep it on them, wear on them, wear on them. We are playing nine players and we're asking them to run 60-yard dash speed, not 400-yard speed, and that's why we can't play just five players. You can't run 60-yard dash, as hard as you go, you'll run out of air. So we have to rotate players and we have to try to keep cohesive perimeter scores in there. We don't have everyone that can shoot from the perimeter, we have a couple, in Kara Lawson and Nicole Powell are good deep shooters. But we have to keep our defense on. And then when we get on offense, we tell them we want the ball moved and shared; share the ball. If it takes two seconds to get a good shot, shoot it. If it takes 25, shoot it then but be patient until you get a good shot. That's our goal. By this time of the year, the girls tell me, they could coach the team. They are a sharp group of ladies.

COACH JOHN WHISENANT: She struggled some with her foot. She wasn't the Ticha of old, but she gave it -- her heart was big. She gave us good minutes. She'll be better as we go along in this playoff, and we'll need her. It's a long way from over. A lot of games left.