WNBA FINALS: MONARCHS v SUN

September 19, 2005

Yolanda Griffith

YOLANDA GRIFFITH: I'm not complaining about anything. I hope tomorrow night everything works out. Like I say, we're not complaining. We're in the Finals, we only need one game to get the championship. If it doesn't happen tomorrow, we just got to stay focused and get the one in Connecticut. But tomorrow, we want that one.

YOLANDA GRIFFITH: Of course. Of course. I talked to them before the game yesterday, I talked to them at halftime, I talked to them after the game. I think I talked too much. I lost my voice one day. But you just got to keep everybody on their toes. Nothing for us will be easy tomorrow. Today we need to work on a lot of mistakes that we made last night. I just feel that as a complete team we have not played a complete 40 minutes of basketball. And I hope everybody is waiting for tomorrow, because in order for us to get tomorrow's victory, we got to play 40 minutes. We can't have a 14-point lead and the momentum of the game changes. We got to close the door. Tomorrow's a game that we must win.

YOLANDA GRIFFITH: Yesterday in the game I felt that we lost our concentration. It tends to happen with a team once you feel relaxed because you're up 14, 12 points. But Connecticut is here for a reason. They went to the championship last year, they're there again this year, they're not going to quit. They're just going to keep fighting. And we just can't allow them any opportunities. Got to control -- we had them maybe like seven, eight rebounds ahead and they crawled back in the game by hitting some open shots, hitting some contested shots. They got on the offensive boards. Like I said, we just haven't played a complete 40 minutes of basketball. So we can't lose our concentration, we got to stay focused and no matter how many points there are, we just got to close the door. We worked hard on different defensive things, worked on some offensive things, the same things that we have been doing from the beginning to where we are right now. We're not going to change our game plan. We feel confident playing in Sacramento. But tomorrow's going to be a dogfight and we just got to be mentally and physically prepared for anything.

YOLANDA GRIFFITH: I feel like we're walking a tightrope. I feel tomorrow it's going to be the game that we got to play perfect basketball. It's possible. You just got to come in as all the individuals on this team got to come in focused. Do the little things. Our bench has always been our X factor. I don't feel we have been a complete team this whole series. So tomorrow all the individuals that haven't been performing I feel are going to do an outstanding job tomorrow. And I think tomorrow is going to be the game that the whole Sacramento Monarchs teams shows up to play. Because, who wants to go back to Connecticut? I don't. So that's what we keep stressing. We definitely keep saying it. But if it just so happens that we do lose that game, we just got to stay focused and go into Connecticut and get that one. We're not going to settle, we want the championship.