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WNBA FINALS: FEVER v LYNXOctober 21, 2012Maya MooreLindsay WhalenINDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA: Game Four Indiana – 85 Q. Can you guys talk about what they did defensively, the defensive job that they did tonight? LINDSAY WHALEN: They played good defense. They contested shots, and they made it tough for us to get in the lane a little bit. I think that was the theme of the whole series. They just were tough, and give them credit for the way they played. Q. Was there any one moment in tonight's game or anything where you felt like you couldn't‑‑ was there a hump you couldn't get over, anything like that? MAYA MOORE: We never stopped playing. We tried to win the game from start to finish. Q. Just describe the frustration of not being able to go back to Minnesota to keep playing. MAYA MOORE: It's not the way we wanted to finish. Give Indiana credit; they played hard, had a phenomenal series. We didn't respond enough to‑‑ not first of all taking care of our first home game, and they played very well here at home for the last two games. Five‑game series, that's how it goes. Q. Lindsay, was it frustrating to play from behind almost from the start again, not be able to maybe get out and get a bit of a lead? LINDSAY WHALEN: I think that was the way it was for the most part throughout the whole series. We put ourselves in some holes there in the first quarter and you're playing against a team like Indiana in The Finals, and it just becomes hard to overcome that. You're playing against players who had a lot of confidence and were making shots, and you can't put yourself in that many‑‑ four games in a row basically, we came back in Game 2 and won, but it's just hard because the teams are so good you can't do that to yourself. I thought we did that too many times in the series, and we ended up paying for it. Q. Can you talk about now that your season is over what this season has been like having the target on your back the whole way? MAYA MOORE: It's been fun. It's made every game a battle, something that we enjoyed because we started to get a taste of it last season once we got off to a good start and were leading everybody all last year, so we kind of feel like it's a continuation of once everybody kind of knew we were playing well last year, just kind of a continuation of that. We're really proud of what we've accomplished, and it doesn't take anything away from how special this group is. It's just for the last few games, couldn't find it. Couldn't find it, couldn't hit enough shots and made one too many mistakes. Q. Two‑part question for Lindsay. You were in a mode where you were trying to will yourself and your club to a victory. Were you doing that in hopes that your teammates would catch fire, as well? And then second part, aside from the end result, what was different about this playoff run compared to last year's? LINDSAY WHALEN: Well, I think just tonight, I think we all just wanted to come out and be aggressive and just stay on attack mode. I thought the last‑‑ Game 3 I kind of got away from doing what I've kind of done well my whole career, and that's get in the lane and create either for myself or for others, and I stopped doing that in Game 3, so I made that kind of a point of emphasis tonight to get in there as much as I could. This playoff run, I mean, I thought we had a really tough series with Seattle, ended up battling that out, and then I think we played really well against LA. We had a really‑‑ won that series out in LA in a tough place to play, and came up against an Indiana team who really deserved to win. You know, it's just been such a great group all season that it's hard to have that be the finish because you feel like you put so much work in, but congrats to them. They played a tremendous season and a tremendous series. Q. Lindsay, it's been a whole decade since a team has been able to repeat. I know it's really disappointing now, but can you put in perspective how tough it is? There have been a lot of great teams that have had the chance, but it is very tough. And also, I know this is tough, but you're obviously friends and Olympic teammates with Tamika Catchings. Can you relate to, you won your first championship last year, what this is like for her? LINDSAY WHALEN: Well, I think‑‑ yeah, no one has had a back‑to‑back in however many years you said, I think 10 years, and I think it's just‑‑ it is tough. If it was easy, everybody would be doing it. But we accepted the challenge, we fought hard, we put ourselves in about as best of a possible situation you could put yourself in with home‑court advantage and came up against an Indiana team who played better and won. As far as for Catch, I've gotten to know her‑‑ me and Maya have gotten to know her over the past two plus years‑‑ I've known her for a while, but the last two plus years on the Olympic team and then the World Championships team. Yeah, it's an unbelievable feeling. I'm sure they're just thrilled right now, and of course it's hard for us, but Tamika is just one of the best people you can know. Congrats to her and congrats to the whole team. Q. Maya, what do you think the difference was in this series between the two teams? MAYA MOORE: Players making plays. You know, they had some people go down, and I think their whole team collectively had a mindset of I've got to step up and find a way to do what I'm good at, and that's exactly what they did. I can think of so many big shots that so many players hit, very poorly‑timed threes for us but great shots for them, Erin Phillips stepping up and playing the best basketball I've ever seen her play, and just different players, different days doing what they're really good at and making it really hard for us. Knowing we have a lot of talent, but just couldn't find our group for long enough stretches there. We went too long without responding or overcoming our mistakes in Game 1 and in Game 3. It doesn't feel good to have it happen that way, but I'd rather go down to a team that played like Indiana did than to go down to a team that doesn't deserve it. They played the way a championship‑‑ in a championship series the way you need to to win. So hats off to them, again. Q. Lindsay, when you have time to look back at this whole series, you talked about home‑court advantage. Is Game 1 going to stick in your craw a little bit because you were playing at home? LINDSAY WHALEN: Yeah, I think that you want to protect your home court, and they came out and really set the tone with the whole series with that Game 1. We needed to play a lot better that first game and I think play with a lot more energy. I think that they just came in and really‑‑ they deserved to win that game. They came out and took the game from us, and that ended up‑‑ all the games they won, they deserved to win. But any time you go in in a Finals situation and win on a team's home floor, that's big, and that's what they did. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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