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WNBA FINALS MEDIA CONFERENCESeptember 25, 2013Lin DunnRuss PennellRON HOWARD: Coach Dunn, I know you're already in Atlanta to prepare for tomorrow night. We'll get right to it with questions. Q. You and the Fever have faced each other three years straight in the playoffs now and twice in the season Conference Finals. What do you think most distinguishes this meeting from the past two years in terms of how these two teams match‑up? COACH DUNN: Well, one thing that immediately comes into my mind is they're without Sancho Lyttle and we're without Katie Douglas. I believe the last times we've played both of those two key players have been available, so it makes it a little different match‑up. We're without a great scorer, and they're without a great scorer and a great player. Other people have to step up for them. Other people have to step up for us. Other than that, we're pretty much the same. We're a year older, year wiser. They're a year older and year wiser. Q. Just a follow‑up, I believe you were 1‑3 against the Dream this season, but obviously you had players missing. So what, if anything, do you think we can take from the outcomes of those games to help understand this match‑up? COACH DUNN: Well, I don't think can you take a lot from them. Neither one of us when we played those four times we played were at full strength. It was always somebody missing from somebody's team. I think both now settled into the fact that Sancho's not going to play and Katie Douglas is not going to play. We're going with what we've got. It's a second season. It's a new season. What you did in the regular season is fine and dandy, but it doesn't really matter. It's a whole new ballgame. Q. You were able to contain the best team in the league in the Chicago Sky last series. What sort of different sounds do you think de Souza presents in this series for Atlanta. COACH DUNN: I think the keyword you said was young team. Chicago was a young playoff inexperience, different team, very talented. Probably one of the most talented teams in our league but inexperienced and young. The Atlanta Dream is very experienced. They're not young. De Souza is an olympian, and she presents great challenges for us because she's so good. Then you have Angel who is a legitimate MVP candidate and who is an olympian. They're very different teams, Chicago and Atlanta. Q. I was wondering if you could maybe address how the Dream is a little different now with Jasmine Thomas as opposed to Lindsay Harding? Also, you've had a lot of opportunity to strategize against Angel McCoughtry. I know you're not going to tell us your game plan, but what do you do to try to neutralize her as much as possible? COACH DUNN: First of all, I think losing Harding is a tough loss for Atlanta. She's an elite point guard. But I think they did a great job of replacing her with Jasmine Thomas. I think Jazz this year has played as well as I've ever seen her play. She's bigger, and she's taller than Harding, and she's just as quick or maybe quicker. So that's kind of a wash. Then when it comes to Angel, we've talked about six or seven different concepts of how to slow her down. We can't stop her. She's too good. Can we limit her touches? Can we force her one way or the other? Can we rotate different players on her to slow her down? We're going to talk about all those different type things. But at the end of the day, she's going to score and be a factor. We can't let her go crazy and score 30 points. Q. You talk a lot after Game 2 of the first round about Larkins and how much she brought to the team. I guess if you could maybe talk about her and de Souza, because I think in some ways both these players at times get overlooked. But both have had good seasons and could be a big factor in this series. COACH DUNN: I think you're exactly right. De Souza is one of the premier centers in the world. She's a tremendous basketball player. She's a veteran. She's got playoff experience. She's been in the final. She's an olympian. She's big, strong, and physical. In a lot of ways, she's like Fowles but she's a little more mature in her body and just in the experiences she's had. She presents a real challenge for us. We'll think about her just like we did Fowles. She can go off and single‑handedly beat you. I think Larkins is a unique player. She's not like the Fowles or the de Souza. She's blue‑collar, undersized, would rather pass, rebound and defend than score, whereas those other two love to score. They're trying to get the ball. They want the ball. Larkins is trying to find her teammate. That's a little different style for Larkins. But she's a warrior. She's big, she's strong, she's physical. She's not tall, but she plays tall, and she's going to have to battle de Souza. If de Souza is in there, Larkins will be in there. If Larkins gets a break, it's only because de Souza is taking one. So if they want Larkins to play 40 minutes, then play de Souza 40 minutes. Q. Coach Dunn, first of all, congratulations on being there again in the Eastern Conference finals. After the two games against Chicago, one of the key factors that you cited was experience, playoff experience and those wins. That's not going to be as much an issue for Atlanta who has certainly not been to the playoffs as often as Indiana, but has been there plenty. What do you think you're going to be, if you could name, perhaps, the three key elements that will prove decisive in this series? COACH DUNN: Well, I think whoever controls the boards has a real good chance of winning. I think the other thing is defense. Everything with us starts with defense. If we defend at a high level or we rebound, we've got a chance to win. If we don't do those two things, we're going to get our breeches blown out of the building. The other thing we have to do is take care of the basketball. That's going to be a real key for us. Atlanta feeds off of team turnovers. You have ten turnovers, and they've got 20 points off of them. So we must take care of the basketball. We must defend, and we must rebound. Q. Can I put the same question to Coach Pennell with respect to your series against Minnesota? I mean, they pulled together the best record in the league this year. But their ability with the team in the postseason as you were for much of the regular season? COACH PENNELL: Yeah, I think Minnesota gives you a lot of problems because they're so multi‑dimensional. They can hurt you inside, outside they compete well, run well. They're a complete team. We know prior to me being here, I have not seen Minnesota personally. I've seen them on film, of course. But teams didn't have real good luck with Minnesota this year. We realize we're going to have to play pretty well in order to do well in this series. I think it starts with us on the defensive end, as we stated a second ago and certainly with us rebounding. We just haven't rebounded the ball well in the last week or so. If we don't defend and rebound this series, it's going to be a tough go for us. Q. Both teams, the Fever and the Mercury are going to into this season were favorites to not only go to the WNBA finals but to win the championships. Along the way there were setbacks. Can you talk about how you've been able to keep your teams motivated and to make it to this position in the Conference Finals? COACH DUNN: Well, first of all, we dealt with adversity last year. We got hurt in the playoffs and lost Katie Douglas, in the next round we lost Jeanette Pohlen. So we've learned to deal with adversity and injury. So when it happened to us this year, we just clawed through it. We have great leadership in Tamika Catchings. COACH PENNELL: I think for us, obviously, with the coaching change, just about 14, 15 games ago, it was maybe a fresh start. You know, Corey Gaines was a wonderful coach and part of two championships in Phoenix. And I think sometimes I've been in these situations myself where sometimes maybe the voice gets old. I don't know. Corey and I talked a little bit right after I took the job, and I think that hopefully what we've done is just come in and bought maybe a little fresh air and tried to defend a little bit more. I think that's kind of where I started from is the past is the past. Let's move on with the future. Our ladies did a great job of embracing that and they have taken it and ran with it so far. Q. Can you talk about Brittney's adjustments this season and why she's played better down the stretch, and what that game winning shot has done for her confidence? COACH PENNELL: Someone like Brittney Griner, the pressure of the world is on their shoulders, which I don't think she minds that. But we forget that she's just fresh out of college. This is her first go around of playing basically year around. I know the women of the WNBA, they play ‑‑ our team as I'm sure same as Indiana, they're going to be leaving in the next two weeks to head over to Europe to play a whole other season. I think just playing at Baylor, that whole season and coming to Phoenix, you're on your own for the first time. You're quote‑unquote the face of the league. They've got you before every media outlet possible. I think a lot of that took its toll on Brittney. I know with me, I've told her to relax, have fun and play. I don't think she's as polished as she will be. She certainly needs a year in the weight room. She's not strong enough yet to play in this league on a consistent basis and hold her positioning. What I've really tried to do is take pressure off of her instead of putting more on her. I think she's maybe found a little bit of a niche. I know hitting that shot the other night meant as much to her as anything to be one of our two options. We were trying to get the ball to Diana, and if we couldn't, we were going to Brittney. So hopefully that will give her some confidence as we move into this series with Minnesota. Q. As the number one pick and one of the most hyped players ever to enter the league, is that demand reasonable and do you expect her to pretty soon, maybe next season, be able to take over and dominate the post every night the way you said she hasn't been able to this year? COACH PENNELL: Well, I think first of all to say she's going to dominate the post would be a disrespect to the other centers in this league. The centers in the WNBA are very, very good. I think this is something that Brittney needs to grow into. Most of the time players will live up to the expectations you put on them, and I think she's learned a lot. Just talking with her, she understands what it takes to get better. Her skill level is really, really good. Her skill level is better than her physical strength right now which is sometimes unusual. Sometimes your skill level comes a little bit later. You've kind of relied on just your physical presence, and certainly her size has been good, but she's got great touch around the goal and all that. But I think she has the total package to be that player. Whether that happens next year or not, I think, will determine a lot of what she can do in between when she plays in China and plays in the WNBA next year. Can she get three, four good months in the weight room and add some strength to her frame? Q. Coach, can you talk about Shavonte Zellous and her play and how important she's been with Katie being injured and stuff and she always seems to step up her play in the postseason? COACH DUNN: We've been thrilled with the way she's played this year, Shavonte Zellous. She stepped into the vacancy immediately when Katie Douglas went down the second game of the season. What we really loved about her is she's a gamer. She wants the ball in her hands in crunch time. She's ready to drive to the rim and pull up and shoot a 15‑footer and show that she's a three now. She plays with so much energy, so much intensity that it's contagious. It's been a huge plus for us. We lose one and somebody else steps up. Doesn't surprise me she's been named the most improved player. It's well deserved. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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