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WNBA FINALS: DREAM v LYNX

October 2, 2011

Marynell Meadors

MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA: Game One

DREAM Â– 74
LYNX - 88

THE MODERATOR: Coach, if you would please begin with an opening remark and then we'll open the floor to questions.
COACH MEADORS: Okay. I thought it was a hard-fought game by both teams. It was tied up going into the fourth quarter. We couldn't find the rim for about four minutes. And everything we did resulted in points for Minnesota, which they did a great job.
And I think that the difference in the game was definitely rebounding. They outrebounded us 40-28 and I thought that was a huge, huge gap that we haven't faced in a long, long time.

Q. With Rebekkah Brunson having such a standout game in the post, how much did it hurt you not to have Erika de Souza with you, and my understanding is their tournament is finished you have word how soon she can rejoin the team?
COACH MEADORS: Erika has averaged about 12 to 15 points per game and right around 12 rebounds. So that tells you what we miss in her. Her physicality. We don't have anybody that can match that physicality inside. But we will have her for Game 2.

Q. Tonight the Lynx had 22 more points in the paint than the Dream. What do you have to do to even that out on Wednesday night?
COACH MEADORS: I think we've got to get Erika de Souza scoring when she gets here. And I think Sancho Lyttle will score more. She didn't score tonight. And that's very uncharacteristic of her.

Q. First half, you're up 12 and even though Angel hasn't gotten going were you feeling good at that point? And also what kind of changed for her from the first half into that third quarter to get her going?
COACH MEADORS: I personally think we didn't play a very good game tonight. I thought we got ahead and we maintained that lead for a long time. But when we failed to go to the boards, I thought that was the difference in the momentum.
As soon as they started rebounding, started scoring inside we lost the momentum. And I just think that we've got to come out and we've got to do a better job as far as defending and not letting them get to the rim. They outscored us in the paint, like you said, and we can't allow that to happen. But a lot of those were on drives. They were not just post players making those kinds of points and things. It was on drives. A lot of drives. Lindsay Whalen hurt us penetrating and scoring inside.
Seimone is just one of the best players there is. She's got a great shot and you have to do a great job defending her. We kept her in front of us all night long. But it didn't matter, she just shot and made shots.

Q. You seemed to have lost the battle of the forwards tonight. What are you going to do next time to prepare those guys the next game?
COACH MEADORS: Battle of the forwards, Erika de Souza will help us in that situation. I think what that does, if Erika comes in here and plays her physical game like she does and she gets rebounds, but it also loosens up Sancho Lyttle a little bit to fly to the rim.

Q. You described that four-minute drought late in the game when things just didn't seem to drop. Was it just things not dropping or were they doing something defensively that was bothering you then?
COACH MEADORS: They played good defense against us. There's no question about it. They were very aggressive. They were very physical. And we didn't hit our shots. And maybe that will change on Wednesday night.
Normally we hit our shots. But I just thought that we could have done a better job as far as running our offenses and taking a little more time off the clock. A lot of times we went with quick shots and missed them and they rebounded. They went and scored. And I think that was a huge part of the game where we lost the lead.

Q. Is there a transition that you have to make to get Erika back into the flow? Because you have -- things have kept going without her and you've played well and you've gone small. Is there sort of a relearning or an adjustment that has to be made for her and for the rest of your players?
COACH MEADORS: The transition is she's on an airline headed this direction, okay? I mean, I think she's going to be in the flow. She's played every day since she left us. They won the championship. They qualified for the Olympics. So thank goodness that's out of the way, we get her back and she can help us win a few games here.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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