|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
WNBA FINALS: FEVER v MERCURYOctober 7, 2009Tamika CatchingsEbony HoffmanINDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA: Game Four Phoenix Mercury 90 Q. Just in listening to the Phoenix players talk, they were talking about the enthusiasm, the built-in confidence, attacking. Your thoughts of how the game started here this evening? TAMIKA CATCHINGS: I think they definitely came out and one of the things that I know they've been talking about is how they began the game in Games 2 and 3. And how we jumped on them right from the beginning and it seemed like tonight that was their mentality, definitely jumping on us quick. Temeka Johnson hit those quick shots early, but when you look at the people out there, the people that you can help off of, you can't help off of Diana Taurasi, you can't help off of Cappie Pondexter, and she was hitting her shots tonight. And as far as attacking, that was definitely something you could tell their game plan was attacking the basket and getting easy layups. We have to do a better job defensively with our rotation and stepping up and taking charges. Q. What did you guys think about the turnout tonight and the fans reaction to what you guys have been doing? EBONY HOFFMAN: I thought the fans were amazing. They have come out to support us these last two games, and they've shown and rallied behind us to a point where we couldn't imagine seeing 18,000 fans at Conseco Fieldhouse, you know, especially at a women's basketball, WNBA game. There has been so much talk about us that we've got people coming and showing their support and buying tickets. Those weren't free tickets, those were bought tickets. We're all extremely appreciative and we thank them a lot. And we just can't explain how grateful we are for them. Q. In the fourth quarter it seemed like you guys were hesitant to shoot the ball. Everybody had a poor night shooting the ball except for you two. How can you as a team overcome this in just 48 hours and go back at it again? TAMIKA CATCHINGS: We got one more game, Game 5, final. This is what you play for. If you can't figure out what it is that you need to do -- if you're a shooter, you need to shoot. If you're a penetrator, you need to penetrate. We penetrate and kick, you need to shoot that shot. As a team we've been playing like that all year, nothing changed. Tonight it was different because people started missing shots and then it was a lot of hesitancy, like, "Okay, I don't want to shoot because I missed the last one or the last three." But we can't afford to have that. I think that's a great thing about catching great players like Cappie or Diana, you never see them hesitate to shoot their shots no matter how much they shoot, how many they miss. We shot 2-for-18, and that's uncharacteristic of how we've been shooting. Hopefully that's out of our system and we'll get to Phoenix Friday and we'll be ready. Q. Shooting was an issue but what about foul trouble? Ebony, they had you with four fouls late in the third quarter and Jessica Moore fouled out. Were they doing something to get the bigs of this Fever team in foul trouble? EBONY HOFFMAN: No, it's another intangible of the game. You've got to realize how the refs are going to call it and adjust to that. I didn't adjust well at certain points of the game. I think Le'coe Willingham got me in a bad spot and I took the foul, and hopefully my team would rebound from me taking the foul, but I've got to do better with me getting in foul trouble. I can't do the things I would usually do. So we've got to regroup, get back together and be as aggressive as we can. And we wasn't worry about fouls or fouling out. We have to be aggressive and however that plays out, it plays out. Q. You had your shoulder late in the game, you were packing your nose there. Injuries, how are you? Did it affect your game tonight? Second question is, how big of a let-down is this for your locker room and how do you get people regrouped? EBONY HOFFMAN: I'm fine, it's the finals. I feel like I'm a newborn baby. I just came out of the womb. I'm okay. I can play right now. For the last question we're confident. We know Briann can hit those shots. We know Katie can hit those shots. It's an intangible of the game. We're going to Phoenix and we've won there, we're okay. It's not like we haven't won there all year long. We can do it and we're confident in each other. I am, she is, Coach is, we're good. Q. Tamika, college career, successful, Olympics, you've been to all of those. What would it mean to you to be coming home Friday evening, Saturday morning with a WNBA Championship? TAMIKA CATCHINGS: I mean, this is what you dream about. Yeah, being successful on the other levels is great and as you experience each individual thing, of course you're kind of like in awe as far as the things you're able to accomplish. I think being able to win and be a WNBA champion, I mean, it's up there. It's definitely a step up there. The biggest reason is because I've been with these -- I mean, my teammates I've been with them all summer, some of them beyond this year. We played together. It's just awesome. I mean, it's an awesome feeling to think about winning a championship and it's kinda like I don't want to get too excited because I want to make sure it happens first. That's how I was today, because getting ready for the game I couldn't take a nap because I was so excited about the game. And it's like you come out and put all your energy out there and we'll talk about it after Friday. Q. Tamika, you had your best game of the series tonight, what was working for you and why? TAMIKA CATCHINGS: What was working? Attacking the basket, getting closer to the basket. I think overall just my teammates, everybody was moving around early on. But for me I think just about being aggressive, trying to get to the basket, trying to create for my teammates open opportunities and just hope that everybody knocks down their shots. We had a bad shooting night tonight but I don't expect a bad shooting night on Friday. THE MODERATOR: Thanks, ladies. End of FastScripts |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|