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WNBA FINALS: MONARCHS v SHOCK


September 3, 2006


Erin Buescher

Yolanda Griffith


SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA: Game Three

Q. How are you feeling about the game?
YOLANDA GRIFFITH: We feel pretty pleased about tonight's victory. We knew coming home the fans was going to be supporting us. We knew it was going to be kind of like a sellout.
You know, we did a lot of things on the offensive end. Defensively, we're still making some mistakes. Doesn't matter what the score is, we're still making the mistakes that Coach has been talking to us through the whole series. We're happy but we're not going to celebrate. We know the fourth game is going to be the toughest game ever played from all of our players. So we're going to practice tomorrow, work on some things that caused us some problems tonight and get ready for the next game.

Q. Erin, could you talk about that crazy shot that you hit late in the third?
ERIN BUESCHER: Yeah, I've been practicing that a lot and just came, my practice paid off. (Laughter)
No, I saw the clock ticking down on the other side of the court and just turned around and did some ice skating moves. Throw them up and they go in.

Q. With a couple of the starting five getting up there in years, and with you already having won the Most Improved Player of the Year award, are you excited about the future as far as possibly being a starter here?
ERIN BUESCHER: Yeah, I think you always look -- you're excited looking ahead, and what the future may have to offer. I mean, I love playing in Sacramento. I'm from California, so I would not want to be anywhere but here. So I'm really happy where I'm at.
And, yeah, with what the future possibly holds.

Q. Could you talk a little bit about the play with Kara Braxton when she sort of wound up on the ground. Just physical play as usual?
ERIN BUESCHER: Yeah, she was coming down. She was guarding DeMya and we were both post and we both said screen -- people underestimate my screen. She didn't see me and we clocked heads, her head and my chin, I felt it. I felt a little bit like I was on a boat for a little while after that, a little shaken up, but okay.

Q. You talked about the Game 4 being the toughest game possibly ever for you guys, what is it that makes a close-out game so tough or different from any other game in the series?
YOLANDA GRIFFITH: Because you're already anticipating a victory. I think it's going to be tough because the pressure is on us. If we lose that game, we go back to Detroit. We might be a little tight. I was tight tonight. I have no idea why, but I started a little slow tonight. That game, the closure is always the most important game, and it's a lot of pressure. So we've just got to relax and realize exactly with the situation we were in last year with Connecticut, even though Detroit is totally different from Connecticut, we played tight and stuck around, I just think if we execute offensively, you know, do the defensive things that's been causing us some problems, we'll be okay.
Just got to realize, it's only basketball, and just come out relaxed and do the little things that Coach has been talking to us about and we'll be okay.

Q. The crowd noise in this series, in Detroit it's been like a pop gun, here it's been like a cannon. Do you think that's a big help here to have the home crowd really pushing behind you?
YOLANDA GRIFFITH: It's always important. We're in The Finals. Think of where we started at the beginning of the season and look where we are now. So we know our fans are going to support us, even when we started bad, our fans were still here. Actually, I know we had about 14,000, 15,000. In Detroit, you know, the fans need to come out and support the team is the bottom line. We knew our fans was going to come out and support us, and we have the best fans in the WNBA. We had them last year and we have them again this year.
We know it's going to be another sellout in Game 4, and if it happens to go to a Game 5, we know it's going to be a sellout in Detroit. We're trying to finish it out here. It's always good to finish a championship game, the final game, with your home crowd.

Q. With everything that you guys went through this year with Coach Whisenant to yourself and your knee and DeMya and the pregnancy, was there any point you would --
YOLANDA GRIFFITH: There was a lot of doubt when we started training camp with my knee. We knew Coach was not the same after the death of his mother and going for the Kings job. DeMya with Little Z and K-Law being sick. Once everything started coming together and Coach coming back and saying, "You play my defense. You don't play my defense, you don't play," we knew Coach was back. Once K-Law came back to practice and start hitting those shots and start wagging her finger, we just knew. We knew once everybody got back what kind of team we were going to be. We just had to come together as a team, and everybody had to work hard to get us to where we are now, and you know, it was a difficult start.
But we always knew we had the talent, we just had to work hard and get to where we needed to be. We're here, we're happy. It's not guaranteed we're going to win Game 4. We're going to fight and we're going to put forth the effort. That's what I ask of my teammates that we do that, and everything else will take its place.

End of FastScripts...

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