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WNBA FINALS: DREAM v LYNXOctober 2, 2011Lindsey HardingAngel McCoughtryMINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA: Game One DREAM – 74 THE MODERATOR: We will open the floor to questions. Q. Angel, your performance tonight reflected your first visit up here as a collegiate player with Louisville, where you scored a lot of points but came up short. What does Atlanta look to do to get more distribution going? ANGEL McCOUGHTRY: That's the thing, I feel if we got them more involved, they'd score their normal 10 points, then that's the game right there. So we're going to figure out a way the next game to get them more involved. We've got to. They definitely are a big part of our team and we need them. So I take that responsibility as the leader of this team to look for them more and get them involved, especially Sancho in the post. Q. Lindsey, you started your career here at Target Center. How did it feel for you first game of the WNBA Finals to step on to Target Center court again in this kind of atmosphere? LINDSEY HARDING: It's always great coming back to Minneapolis. Like you said, this is where I started. This is where I was drafted. The fans are huge now. It wasn't like this when I was here. So it's great to see how much support this team has and it's great to play here. Q. Lindsey, things started out well. You're up 12 in the middle of the second quarter. Did you feel good about where you were as a team at that point. And what kind of changed there as the momentum shifted and things slipped away especially in the fourth quarter? LINDSEY HARDING: I mean, we felt good but we knew this team is good enough to come back and make runs. We made a run. We knew they were going to make a run. The biggest thing look at this box score, it's rebounding. They killed us on the boards, all the second chance shots. That's something that we need to address and get everyone involved in and get those. You get rebounds, you win championships. Q. Angel, obviously third quarter was huge for you. Were they doing anything different in the fourth quarter that allowed them to sort of take over the game? And then, Lindsey, if you could follow up on the rebounding thing of obviously how much different it will be for you guys when you have your starting center back? ANGEL McCOUGHTRY: I think it was -- we had a little stretch where we just kind of fumbled the ball a lot and we gave them some easy points back to back to back. And then the crowd energizing them, it just weighs you down. But I think if we can play for 40 minutes and be immensely tough for 40 minutes, next game, then we're going to be in a great position because I feel good about where we're at still now. It's good to know that we were the ones that kind of messed ourselves up. So that's a good thing for us because we can adjust that. LINDSEY HARDING: And having Erika, that's my huge comfort level down low in the post. We've been playing -- especially Angel has been playing out of position at the 4, a little challenging for her, but I think she's done a great job, especially with the plays and everything. But it's going to be great to have her back. She's great on the boards. She's great scoring inside, and we're definitely going to look to her for that, look at the rebounds. We needed her and everyone else to step up. Q. Angel, can you talk about that, because especially against a team as big as the Lynx are and as good as rebounders they are, that's sort of stretching out of your comfort zone and how that will help Sancho with Erika back? ANGEL McCOUGHTRY: I've been drinking a lot of protein shakes, eating a lot of meat, trying to build myself up a little bit to bang down there. But my metabolism is too high. As many times as I use the bathroom before a game, it ain't going to work. But it's just a mental thing. I don't want to say I'm playing out of position. I don't want to think that way, but it is tough banging down there with them big bodies. To my vantage I have to try to use my quickness. I mean, tonight I wish I would have done better on the boards boxing out Brunson and Taj, a couple others. But having Erika is going to help. And I don't want to use that as an excuse, but I'm just going to say on my part to help the team that I gotta do a better job boxing out defensively. Q. Lindsey, throughout your career, you've slowly improved as a field goal shooter. You're up to 45 percent in the regular season. 9 of 19 tonight. How would you describe your evolution and how is that going to help Atlanta down the stretch in the Finals as they look at a 1-0 deficit? LINDSEY HARDING: Well, as a point guard in this league, you have to be a scorer. You can't just be a great passer. And that's something that I've focused on through the years here starting off when I was a rookie and young and didn't really know much and then going to DC helped because I needed to score and then here kind of taking what they give me. But I've definitely been working on that in my offseason and I have a lot of confidence right now. Q. Angel, you guys had a little bit of a rough start in the Eastern Conference Finals against Atlanta but came back, played really well. Do you guys think you'll look at the tape and see some things where you talked about you had the lapses and be able to play differently in Game 2? ANGEL McCOUGHTRY: Have you ever heard the expression "This ain't football"? We're going to come back. We got another game. We don't have to wait a week. We're going to adjust, we're going to watch film, we're going to get better. We don't have to be down right now. It's just one game. If you watched the NBA Finals this happens all the time and teams come back. It's a long series. We're not going to get down over one loss, but we're going to build ourselves up. It's over with now. It's erased out of our minds, we're moving on. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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