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WNBA FINALS: MONARCHS v SHOCKSeptember 1, 2006Deanna NolanKatie SmithDETROIT, MICHIGAN: Game Two KATIE SMITH: Obviously we needed this one. You know, the effort was there. It was better. You know, they still jumped on us a little bit early, but then we kind of withstood that and really knocked it down defensively and rebounding-wise, we attacked the glass. We were able to limit them, but we were also able to knock down some shots to put ourselves in a position to get back in the ballgame. Q. What the heck happened in that fourth quarter at the start, drink some magic water there in the huddle or what got into you, just desperation? DEANNA NOLAN: Just desperation, like you said. Just having the mindset that, you know, you need to score, at least pull ourselves away to get a comfortable lead, especially going down the stretch. That's basically it. Q. Katie, you're down at the half, you had not scored a point, what's going through your mind at that point and then you come out and score 16 in the second half? KATIE SMITH: The first half was just weird for me because there just wasn't much of a flow for myself personally. I thought we had good looks. Tweety was getting bumped a little bit. I didn't feel like we were in a flow per se. We have to take a little pressure off everybody and myself included, have to take pressure off of Tweety, have to take pressure off of Cheryl, knowing that I can jump up and knock down some shots. I just have to find my niche and be out there and be aggressive. We have a lot of threats and if we use them all, we can cause some problems. Obviously if any one of us gets hot, I think we'll ride them. And for a spurt there, we got a couple buckets and we made the best of it, obviously on the defensive end, too, by getting stops and scores on the other end? Q. Last two trips to Sacramento, Katie you were not there the previous year, blowout losses in that arena, how are you going about trying to correct that this time? DEANNA NOLAN: We're just going to go out and play hard from the start. We know what kind of defense they are going to be in, they are going to be pressure, pressure, pressure. Hopefully we are used to that by now. Basically just try not to turn it over on their home court because that's what they thrive off of and score off of. Really we just have to lock down and limit their second shots and make sure they don't get to shooters. Q. They missed 20 of their theirs 24 shots in the second half and they had ten turnovers in that stretch, how good was your defense playing in that first 15 minutes of the second half? KATIE SMITH: I think it was individually well but I think our tendency is understanding how to guard individuals, but also helping on who we needed to help on, not helping off of Powell and Lawson and playing smart. We played hard and we played hard -- at times in the first half of the game we played hard but maybe not making the best decisions and playing the smartest. In that third quarter we really put it together in that sense, understanding how we need to guard individuals and understand how the flow of the game is and who we need to help and who we don't need to help off of. Q. That shot you hit right at end of the third quarter was reminiscent of that first Connecticut game, did you feel at that point that you've got a chance to really grab this thing. KATIE SMITH: Not necessarily. We were still down six at that stretch but obviously put us in a little closer range. You know what, we have confidence. We're not going to give up. Obviously we have confidence and I know personally and I think everybody included, you might not get back to this position. I haven't been here before, and who knows if I'll ever get back, but I'm sure going to leave it all out there and try my darnedest to help out this team. Yeah, that was a nice little spurt to end the quarter. As the statsheet shows, we came out and just tied that ballgame back up.
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