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WNBA FINALS: FEVER v MERCURY

October 4, 2009

Corey Gaines

INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA: Game Three

Phoenix Mercury 85
Indiana Fever 86

THE MODERATOR: We'll start with an opening statement followed by questions and answers. Whenever you're ready, Coach.
COACH COREY GAINES: Good game to watch on TV. Haven't seen a tape yet on our technical, which I will watch. I don't how we got it, why it was called. Haven't seen the tape yet, so I can't really answer that. I would comment on it but I haven't seen it, so I don't know what happened. All I know is that Diana went to the hole, went for the layup, she was on the ground, I'm screaming, "get back on defense," she gets up and sprints, technical was called. One point is a big thing in this game. One point is a big thing. We missed some shots down the stretch, they hit one, we missed ours. That's the game.
THE MODERATOR: Questions?

Q. Coach, seems like from the start you guys wanted to give them more aggressive points in the paint and more rebounds, was that the game plan going in?
COACH COREY GAINES: It's been the game plan the whole time.

Q. Coach, talk about the 13-2 at the end of the third quarter. You're up by seven with a couple minutes to go.
COACH COREY GAINES: Did not finish the quarter strong, went to the hole, didn't go hard enough. Got to get to that free-throw line; 12 times is not enough. Can't make free-throws if I'm not on the free-throw line.

Q. Coach, January had another great game against you guys. Second great game in a row now. Why is she giving you guys problems?
COACH COREY GAINES: She is getting open shots, she's driving to the basket, she's hitting some shots and getting to the free-throw line.

Q. Corey, what do you think you need to do to get Diana Taurasi on track?
COACH COREY GAINES: Oh, trying to get her more open shots and try to get her to the free-throw line.

Q. Can you talk about what was drawn up there on the final play.
COACH COREY GAINES: The play was for Penny Taylor to get a down pick from Tangela, Cappie takes the ball out-of-bounds, Kelly Mazzante is in the corner, D is in the corner to draw the defense. As Penny is coming up to get the ball she is mysteriously bumped off her line to get the ball. She goes up to get the ball, she can't get it. The ball by the grace of God falls into Tangela's hands, and the play was set for Penny to get the ball, turn and face and go to the basket.
Haven't seen a tape on that yet either. So I can't really -- I'm going on memory.

Q. Coach, Coach Dunn talked about the crowd, how it affected her players. How does it affect the visiting team with the roar of 15,000-plus people?
COACH COREY GAINES: They've been playing with that their whole life, shouldn't affect them at all. It's just a crowd. I'm pretty sure they've played before bigger crowds before. They played in the Olympics, the WNBA Championship, they've played in college championships, so it shouldn't affect them at all.

Q. Coach, apart from getting to the free-throw line, do you have any thoughts of what it is you need to do in Game 4 in order to take that game?
COACH COREY GAINES: We've got to make open shots. We've got to make open shots. If we have open shots, we've got to make them, and it's my job to get them open even more to take those shots. So I take responsibility for that. I'll have them in a better position to get them more open shots.

Q. So you feel like they're getting open shots but they're not falling?
COACH COREY GAINES: No, I have to get them more open shots. I'll take the blame for that.

Q. You have Game 4 on Wednesday, how do you get prepared for that game and put this one past you? Obviously a tough loss.
COACH COREY GAINES: I stood there for about three minutes, didn't say a word. Then I said to them, "It's one game, and I need to get back home. We need to get back home." And I said, "In order for us to get back home, we need to win one game." I said, "You get us back home, that's all we need. Get us back home. You get that one game for me, for us, we'll will be all right. Get me that one game. Get us that one game. We'll be fine." I have a short memory. Game's over, you can't change it now.
THE MODERATOR: Thanks, Coach.

End of FastScripts

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