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WNBA FINALS: DREAM v LYNX

October 7, 2011

Marynell Meadors

ATLANTA, GEORGIA: Game Three

Minnesota: 73
Atlanta: 67

THE MODERATOR: We will open it to questions.

Q. Coach, what did you tell your team in the locker room?
COACH MEADORS: You know, we -- we fought hard. We fought hard all year long. We went through so much adversity from the beginning of the season till the end. You know, we just -- I appreciate their effort, I appreciated everything that they have given to this Atlanta organization. They played as hard as they could, I think we just ran out.
We were not supposed to even get into the playoffs, the way we started and then we were not supposed to win the playoffs, but we did, and then we got to this moment and we went up against an outstanding basketball team. Minnesota Lynx, congratulations to them, they have an awesome team, they have great depth and they're big and physical and I think it takes a lot out of a smaller team like we are.

Q. Coach, in the first two games it seemed like you were in control of the game for most of the three quarters, then there came a rally in the fourth quarter and the wheels sort of fell off the bus. This game was much tighter all the way through. Can you talk about your pride in the team and the way they held it together down the stretch to come back within 1?
COACH MEADORS: That's the value of this team. That's who we are, we never give up. Whatever the score is we never, ever, ever give up and I thought that everybody could see the fight that we had. Especially coming down the stretch, we had the momentum and we had them back pedaling, so I think that, you know, it wasn't in the cards for us to win it. Maybe third time is the charm. But we're not supposed to be this good this early in our franchise history, and we have just -- we've put all those things behind us, whatever it is, people were not believing in us, we were on a roll, once we were rolling we were pretty good. When we played Connecticut in the first round of the Eastern Conference we were not supposed to win, we beat them there, came home and closed 'em out and swept 'em.
Then we went to Indiana, lost the first game and came back and won the next two. We were not supposed to win that either. The Championship round we've got to give credit to Minnesota, they are a great basketball team, they've got great depth, and great shooters and they've got great rebounders and they're big and physical and they run the floor pretty well and they have got everything they need to win something like this.

Q. Coach, you've been in the Finals two years in a row and you lost both times. Sometimes it takes time for a team to break through, is that what you're hoping the story is?
COACH MEADORS: There is a lot of fight in this team, I can tell you that, and they know what it's all about to be in Championship games and to me I thought Minnesota did what they needed to do. We didn't hit our free-throws and our easy shots, had we done that we might have been sitting here as winners, but we did not do it. We have to figure out what we have to work on between now and next year and we only have a couple of days because the players are taking off to Europe, so we try to close out the season as fast as we can, so they get a little rest before they have to report to the European countries.

Q. The Dream won three out of four quarters, but the third quarter was the problem. Can you talk about that?
COACH MEADORS: I thought we came out real sluggish, if we'd have kept playing, we would have probably been better off but sometimes when you're physically tired and you're running on adrenaline and momentum and all those things.
Once you stop it lets the air out of your tires and I thought we came out very flat in the third quarter. We knew what we had to do, we just couldn't get it done.
We missed a lot of easy shots, had we hit some of those it might have been a little different.
THE MODERATOR: Coach, thank you very much.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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