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WNBA FINALS: MONARCHS v SHOCK

September 3, 2006

Bill Laimbeer

SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA: Game Three

COACH BILL LAIMBEER: Okay. Just played Game 1 again. I think, you know, our team, this was not a good game for us in all ways. It was clear before the game started, I told our assistants that we were going to be in trouble from an energy and a concentration -- I don't think we were ready to play as hard as we had to to win a game in their building. And I was proven right.
Our team is very easy to read at times, and I was able to, you know -- it was clear. Our turnovers, obviously it's a major factor for us in this series. Our 23 turnovers that we had today, a lot of them were just old shots of past years, just stupid, dumb, throw the ball away, no aggression turnovers. Just bad, bad plays. We had to take better care of the basketball, there's no question about that. That's just concentration, that's being quicker, that's wanting it more, and that wasn't there for us today.
Our frustration is starting to build. We're tired of being a double standard on the whistle. We're tired of it and it's showing. Players are becoming frustrated, and we expect -- no, we demand, that we get the same calls as the other team. Did the referees lose the game for us? Absolutely not. We lost it for ourselves by our frustration creeping in, and we lost our brain at times. That's part of who we are. We have to be bigger and better players and play through that. No question about it. But we demand that we get the same handchecks, that we get the same cheap calls that go against us. Am I whining? No. I'm stating a fact.
Now, we're going to bring our best game in the next game. We're going to come and we're going to hoop and we're going to put forth the energy, the effort, the determination and the physically necessary to win a basketball game. Will we win it? I think so. But we're going to give it our best shot.

Q. Could you talk about your front line, especially the lack of production from Ruth Riley?
COACH BILL LAIMBEER: Well, there's no question, Ruth is overmatched right now. She's not playing up to what she should be doing for us. To have zero rebounds between her and Kara in the first half is unacceptable. And she's getting her butt kicked out there, no question about it, and she has to play bigger.

Q. So you were sort of talking before the game that the fouls, it's been a trend that the home team has gotten most of the calls in the series, you don't feel that way any longer?
COACH BILL LAIMBEER: Handchecks right in front -- I said my piece, that's enough.

Q. Their bench was really productive tonight. How do you counteract that in the next game?
COACH BILL LAIMBEER: That's who they are. They are going to play their bench a lot more minutes than we play our bench.
Doesn't mean their players are better than ours, it just means they play more. That's their style. That's what they do.
We choose not to do that. We go a different direction. We choose to play our top seven or eight, minutes -- if you want a battle of the benches by stat sheets, we're going to lose damn near every time, but that's okay. But our starters have to come and play more together. It was very disappointing in the middle of this game, we stopped playing. We just stopped. You saw three of our players just stop playing. They went five on two; that's unacceptable behavior for not only a professional athlete, but also for our basketball players on our team.

Q. Can you talk about Deanna Nolan's performance. Looked she's basically the only one keeping you in the game.
COACH BILL LAIMBEER: She's a very talented athlete. Her six turnovers, three or four of them were just losing the ball for no reason, which sometimes happens to her. Even she played on the stat sheet with 22 points and didn't have any assists, which is unusual for her, I thought she floated. She has another gear that she can put out. We all know that. We've watched her play all the time. She has to bring that gear.
Did she dominate the game? No. Did she have a good stat line? Yes. Should could she have dominated the game the game at any time? Sure. We need that.

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