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WNBA FINALS: FEVER v LYNXOctober 19, 2012Lin DunnINDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA: Game Three INDIANA 76 COACH DUNN: Well, I thought we started out with an enormous amount of energy on the defensive end. I mean, we were locked into the things that we wanted to do, the way we wanted to disrupt them, and then we turned some of that disruption into transition buckets down on the other end. I thought we did a really good job offensively of attacking in transition, running right into our sets, not setting up if we didn't have. And I think it just‑‑ I think it just set the tone from the get go. The big, big, big thing is we won the boards and I thought early on, we gave up a couple early offensive rebounds, and I'm thinking, oh, no, what's going to happen and all of the sudden we tightened it up and just did the things that we had to do to win at home. I thought for three quarters, we probably played as well as any Fever team I've ever seen. Then we kind of duked around there in the fourth quarter and let up a little bit. But sometimes that happens when you get into a lot of substituting and having people play out of position, yada, yada. But we are just pleased to come in here and take a 2‑1 lead in this series, and I can't say enough about the fans. The fans were super, screaming, hollering, all that red, I was getting dizzy. I loved it. It was wonderful. I hope everybody that was here tonight will comeback and if you are not, you need to see if you can get a standing‑room only ticket, because it's going to be a real war on Sunday. This team will not‑‑ this Minnesota team, will not give up. Q. You just mentioned that the Minnesota team will not give up. What is it going to take for the Indiana Fever to bring a championship home here to Indianapolis? COACH DUNN: What we need to do is start the game like we started the game tonight, with the effort, the intensity, the energy. It all starts on the defensive end and that's what we have to do. We have to be prepared for them to pick it up another notch or two. They have got three Olympians, Maya Moore, Seimone Augustus and Lindsay Whalen, tremendous leadership, so they are not going to let this team give up. We have to enjoy this for the moment. When it strikes midnight tonight, let it go and refocus on Sunday. Q. This is a team like you said, with three Olympians, but at one point you were up by 37, Cheryl pulled the entire starting lineup. Could you have imagined a scenario where you guys are sitting in that spot? COACH DUNN: Never in my lifetime. Could you? Q. So play that way without Katie Douglas and Jeanette Pohlen, that was impressive. COACH DUNN: You talk about when someone falls, another one steps up. You've heard all of the clichés, all of the‑‑ during adversity, character comes out, blah, blah, blah, and all that stuff. But we actually have shown unbelievable tenacity when it comes to adjusting to something going haywire. We lose Katie; Pohlen steps up. We lose pole en, Karima Christmas steps up. Other people pick up the slack. It's just an example of team, of a team, and everybody else being ready to do what needs to be done. Q. That segues pretty well into Shavonte Zellous. She's been a starter and willing to come off the bench and seems really indifferent to minutes and that kind of thing, and I don't know if you've ever seen her play like this before. But if you can elaborate what she brings to the team not just tonight but all the time? COACH DUNN: One thing she brings to the team is the toughness. She thrives in that tough, physical environment. I think tonight they were remiss in giving her some open looks early and she got into a rhythm. Then it was too late. A lot of times, teams will back off of her and not give her her shot. Tonight, she stepped up and hit them and got on the boards and defended at a high level. She'd probably be my MVP, along with Larkins' 15 rebounds. That was huge, for her to come back from the game the other day and have 15 rebounds was really big for us; Z and E, E and Z. Q. If you can elaborate on Larkins, because she had a rough game in Game2 or didn't hit the boards as much as you wanted but tonight she looked exactly like she did in Game1? COACH DUNN: Exactly, I think she was a little embarrassed that she got shoved around a bit in the second game in Minneapolis. We just challenged her to use her strength and to use her power and just to get on those boards. If she scored, great. If she didn't, that was fine, too. But just get those rebounds for us, and she did a super job, and she defended at a high level, too. Q. How do you keep the team focused? You've been in this situation three years ago and I know you want a different ending this time around. COACH DUNN: What we have to understand is that nothing matters except that we have a chance on Sunday. You know, we haven't won a championship. We've put ourselves in a position to win a championship. Now, we have to do the work that it takes to get that championship. And it's not going to be easy. I know what a great coach Cheryl is. I know what great players she has, I know those Olympians, I know the leadership; she will come out here and fight us to the bitter end. We have to be prepared for an unbelievable game with them. We do not want to go back to Minnesota; do not. Q. How do you think they will attempt slowing down your team? COACH DUNN: We got running tonight and it was hard to slow us down. I think they will look at the tape and think that they need to defend a little bit better and that they need to get on the boards a bit better, that's a great question. Q. With Game 4 and chance for a championship, will Katie be able to be back? I'm sure she'd love to be out there. COACH DUNN: Well, the window gets a little more open every day. As I said all along, the therapy is working. The swelling is going down. But we are not going to put her out there unless she can play at that highest level; as intense as this game is, it just wouldn't be in her best interests. We will work her out tomorrow and see how she does. Q. Could you elaborate what it was you were doing on defense, because only one of the Lynx ended up in double figures; you have three Olympians as you've noted and you don't have enough players to double‑team everybody. COACH DUNN: Well, you know, we all know each other's sets by now. They know our sets. We know their sets, and you know, every day we go over their sets. And I thought we just did a really good job today of jamming their cutters and over‑playing their sets and denying some of their passes, and I thought we frustrated them a little bit early. I just thought we have worked at it and we did a better job on Seimone Augustus than we did in Game 2 she went crazy on us so we have been talking about how to limit her touches and one of the things we did was we put Briann January on her and we put Erin Phillips on Whalen. She did a great job on Whalen and I thought Briann did a great job on Augustus. So, we made some defensive adjustments. That's not a secret, you'll see that on the tape. Q. Did you tell your players going into the game to kind of brace themselves for contact, because it looked like your players were going in strong and looking almost as if they expected to get hit or get pushed around a little bit when they went to the hole? COACH DUNN: No, we didn't talk about that. You know, we are a physical team; they are a physical team. We attacked; they attacked. We knew right from the get‑go that the officials were probably going to call some early fouls and let everybody know it's not going to get out of control. But we didn't talk about that. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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