October 7, 2009 - 1:17am
The Phoenix Mercury know exactly what they have to do to tie up their WNBA Finals series with the Indiana Fever tonight: "We've got to get defensive stops and ... we've got to knock down shots," summed up Cappie Pondexter. The same refrain was echoed by several of her teammates.
Interestingly enough, the Indiana Fever also know exactly what they have to do to pull out their first-ever WNBA Championship and it sounds pretty much the same: "Be better than before," said Ebony Hoffman. "We have had good offensive games; we've had semi-good defensive games, but everything has to click right now."
Sounds pretty much like what any team has to do to win, whether the sport be basketball, football, soccer or badminton: Hold 'em on defense and put some points on the board.
It's the third straight day of post-game/pre-game/practice/shoot-around media availability since the Fever took their 2-1 lead in the Championship series with an 86-85 win over the favored Mercury, and the clichs flying through the air are thicker than the cow paddies in an Indiana pasture.
"This series (game, title) will go to the team that wants it the most." Can't tell you how many players I've heard that one from; you can pretty much run through both rosters, and not just here in the Finals. It's been trotted out almost nightly by one player or another since mid-September.
But really? I've got a sign-up list for those who'd like to break the news to Tamika Catchings, should the Fever lose their next two games, that the reason she still doesn't have a ring is that she just didn't "want it" enough. Or try telling Taurasi, if it's Phoenix that falters, that she's the one who just didn't want a championship quite badly enough this year.
Both teams need to "stay focused." Both teams need to "bring it" for the full 40 minutes without "breakdowns" or "lapses." Both need to come out with "energy" and "intensity." Neither team feels like they've played their best game yet.
On offense, the Fever want to "keep trying to attack" the basket in the words of Indiana GM Gary Kloppenburg. "We feel we can get some really easy baskets. Keep trying to attack them, be patient when we don't have it. Not turn it over. Knock down our inside shots."
"We just wanted to make an effort to look into the post a little bit more," said the Mercury's Le'coe Willingham. "It definitely helps us ... when we're not knocking down the shots from outside to get in the paint and get some easy buckets."
On defense, it's more of same. Both teams say they need to step up their offensive rebounding and work on boxing out. Everyone wants to get a hand in someone else's face.
Phoenix knows they have to get "more into the flow of [the Mercury] style of offense," said Coach Corey Gaines.
"I think we just need to stick to what we know we need to do. Playing Fever defense," said Indiana's Tammy Sutton-Brown.
