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WNBA FINALS: MONARCHS v SUNSeptember 19, 2005John WhisenantSACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA: Practice Day COACH JOHN WHISENANT: We need to win. We just need to play. They're a good team, there's always the possibility we could play hard and well and still lose. They're that good. But we believe we have got them at home with our home crowd, we have slept in our own beds, we know we can beat them, it's just a matter of us getting the job done. Q. Obviously you had a lot of success this year with all the turnovers you have, has defense surprised you, how big of a discrepancy there's been in the turnover battle in this series so far? COACH JOHN WHISENANT: Well, it's important that we do. We have always preached to our team that we don't have to shoot well to win. It's a lot harder to shoot poorly or shoot a poor percentage and win. Shooting is what they put on the scoreboard to determine the winner, but we shot 37 percent last night's game and we were still able to win. And one of the reasons is we beat them on the boards, we kept their assists down, because of our defense. We caused turnovers, more than ours, and we got points off of that. And we didn't give them any fastbreak points, which were all part of our defensive system. And that's how you can win and not shoot a good percentage. If you don't do these things and shoot a poor percentage, we'll be going back to Connecticut. Q. There was a period in the first half of that game yesterday when I thought their offense was better than your defense. I mean they really, really had it going offensively. They got good shots, they got open shots, they hit their shots. Were you getting a little concerned at that point in the first half? COACH JOHN WHISENANT: We felt like we offensively hit a lull. And sometimes when we have trouble scoring, we let it affect us on the defensive end. We never feel like we can't get stops with our defense. They're a good enough offensive team, you're never going to stop them. We have never shut anyone out yet. So we know we're not going to keep them from scoring. They're too good. They're the best in the league. So we have to play the percentages. If we stay with our system, give great intensity and great effort, and I rotate the players properly and don't get the players too tired, we can make it hard for them to score. So it comes down to us against them. And then we, how well we play on our offensive end makes the difference in how much that factor is. We have to -- it's a game, but with a good team playing a good team. And we have a chance to close them out on our court. So I consider it our advantage. End of FastScripts... |
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