WNBA FINALS: MONARCHS v SUN

September 18, 2005

Taj McWillaims-Franklin

TAJ MCWILLIAMS-FRANKLIN: Definitely. There's no pressure. We are going to play the same way we have been playing. Come up with a lot more loose balls, and box out a lot better and the game will take care of itself. It's not about X's and O's for us, it is about who wants it the most. We have proven that we can play well, we just have to do it for a consistent basis.

TAJ MCWILLIAMS-FRANKLIN: I think it's a combination. But you have to be prepared. A lot of times we come out and we're not prepared, like they're going to play another kind of defense. So it's all about preparation and knowing when you go out there may be after a timeout or a free throw to be prepared to make that extra pass and to use ball fakes. So it's a combination of both.

TAJ MCWILLIAMS-FRANKLIN: I don't know, you were watching the game. You tell me. I don't think we expended our energy. I didn't. I had a lot more left to give. I definitely think we just -- Jamie Carey had a layup, it didn't go in. We had a lot of great looks. The same as they did. We take it, we lose it. We won the last game in overtime by a last-second shot in regulation, the first game we lost because we missed a last-second shot in regulation. I mean, you take it how it goes. They're great games. People are enjoying them and we feel good about the game. It's not like we're going into the locker room ready to kill ourselves. It's just about tweaking the little things and taking care of that.

TAJ MCWILLIAMS-FRANKLIN: Yeah. I'm playing defense on her, I don't know if I want to answer that. Yo's a great player. She always has been. You got to get touches. When you're big, you can't really bring the ball up and pass it to yourself and score, rebound and dribble down, so you have to have somebody good to pass it to you. And they're looking for her and that's what you're supposed to do when have you an all star player, you're supposed to give her the ball and let her get her touches. Me and Yo do battles since the ABL, so I know her game a lot better than a lot of the other players. So that's probably why he puts me on her. Great player, great touches. Get her where she can score. She's never far from her scoring range.

TAJ MCWILLIAMS-FRANKLIN: Oh, you would hope so. You would hope there's one more player to step up. It's not really about myself and Kesh, it is about the Connecticut Sun and when we start focusing on two players, then we're going to lose anyway because two is always less than five. So it's definitely about the Connecticut Sun and what we're going to do to stop the Sacramento Monarchs on Tuesday and push the series to Connecticut for a Game 5.