Los Angeles Sparks Coach Curt Miller, Rickea Jackson, Dearica Hamby post-game vs. Connecticut

all questions you guys know I've been here been talking about the same thing but for 30 plus minutes tonight um just really did a ton of things that we wanted to try to accomplish defensively and offensively um against a um a a championship Contender and uh um was really proud and that fourth quarter um you know struggled to score which at times affects our offense uh or affects our defense but you know we talk for the people that were here pregame um 40% or nearly 40% of points for Connecticut come off of either offensive rebounds or off turnovers and they jump started their fourth quarter uh with six quick points off of offensive rebounds um then sprinkled in throughout the quarter um some Breakaway layups off of the turnovers and so all a sudden they have their best quarter 24 points um our goal tonight was 75 or under I thought if we kept it to 75 or under we had a chance to beat them and we were on track to do that um Ria really led us offensively had a phenomenal game and hunting and our players were really hunting for their shot um tough to get post players um looks tonight with the way they defended us uh with the way they defended us it was going to be more of a guard shooting night um and uh you know Ria was one of those recipients and played really well and that's against uh a lot of attention and and you know a real real Pro in in Dan Bon are guarding her a lot of the night so again doesn't feel good you know to not be able to find ways to the finish line but um again I thought I thought we outplayed that team for over 30 minutes but we have to have a better close questions for players Mel Ria two questions for you just what were you able to learn today playing against you know boner there who's a veteran in this league playing for a team competing win a championship and how do you turn those fast starts in the first half where you end up with you know mid 20s to even bigger second half to where you can possibly make those games 30 uh point games uh yeah um danana is one of my favorite players I look up to her you know watch her growing up you know just being a tall player but she's a guard and her being versatile so that's just something I always looked up to I always you know she's always encouraging me texting me and it just means a lot so the go up against her today was pretty cool and I know she talks so I'm going talk to so it is pretty fun to you know go against one of my favorite players in the league um um the second question oh um I just continue to um you know trust in my teammates and I feel like they find me um they were getting me the ball in my spots and you know just credit to them um I feel like I was being more aggressive as well I know Connecticut isn't going to just let me do what I want so I know I had to like you know hit them first go at them first um but we just got to put together four quarters hey D this one's for you um I know you said you don't really do the halftime speeches but there's a lot of learning that happens in the game how are you helping the younger players learn in the game and for you personally how are you making sure that you stay locked in and can play all four quarters um just talking about the little things um didn't do that in the fourth quarter um and I think I got in my head a little bit uh just for frustration and I have to get better leader than that and not allow that to dictate you know being able to continue to be vocal rck sorry Ricky you played 40 minutes today and I think last game was 37 how do you keep your Fu up how do you stay consistent throughout the whole game um I feel like our nutritionists our trainers um chosy Chris Tay everybody you know they're just hands on with me um coach Kurt is always talking about the food that I eat so I try to you know have breakfast what the french toast not talk about her diet tell them tell them please tell us taking but it's getting better I feel like sometimes I get a little salad or a little sub or something um but I feel like um you know just fueling properly and them just being there for me even our Sports Psy you know mentally you know just going through ups and downs and stuff it could be hard especially being a rookie um so I feel like everyone around just helps me they're always there for me they keep my spirit high and things like that the coaching staff my my teammates so it's just you know takes a village and I feel like they just really have just been helping me three DJ from INF inanity TV question for either of you um how was it battling D carington today with her having five seals how was she throwing off the mix today oh um I don't know she got that one still on me but that was on me cuz I should have like did something else um I mean there nothing we never seen before honestly um she hit me in my lip like really bad it's still bleeding um but you know she's a great defender she's a elite defend she's pesky she plays hard you know she plays like she 65 like I like she play like she's hard for real but I respect her game a lot you know she go hard on both ends of the court and you know she just got that dog in her just picky back up answer earlier about uh Thomas I saw you guys how was that um no that was a funny moment I'm pretty sure people on Twitter are probably taking it serious but Dan that's my girl but basically I'm not going to lie she did not follow me on one of the pl that they called her F on but then I didn't follow her either but they called it and I was like I did not touch her and then she was like I ain't touched you down there either and I whisper and I said you sure didn't and then she tried to snitch on me to the ref and then I told the ref I was like N I did I didn't touch her and she touched me of course I'm going to lie like come um but um no that was pretty amazing again to have that moment with my favorite player like it just it was just surreal you know I literally look up to her growing up so just to see that is just that's fine got but um yeah that was that was an amazing moment I remember it forever uh Ria coach Miller's um praised your defensive progress over this season you had three seals today which I think was a career high um just what are some things you're seeing now that are maybe different from earlier in the season um defense keeps showing the floor um I feel like you know he's been harping on me I remember I think it was our first game after our first game coach C just came up to me he was just like you know I'm going to make you a good defensive player and I took that to heart and um he just told me like as long as you give effort on the defensive end like you know I can keep you out there longer and longer stretches and things like that I can't be a liability on defense and I didn't want to be that I didn't want to be the weak link I didn't want to be the one the rookie that you know every team just goes at because they can so I really took it personal and all the little things that my coaches watch film with me you know I try to learn you know Camille was a great defensive player so she tells me like the angles to go at Nola watch this film with me so she just tell me like you know Flo he's yelling in my ear Flo a million times so you know you just you just want to do it question Bia um you know coach mentioned um this week that you know you started to become the focus of of opposing team scouting reports you know um just kind of you went against two two Defenders tonight you know danana and D you know who among tops in this league just how what what have you been seeing differently in terms of how teams are guarding you and you know what kind of adjustments have you made you know from the beginning of season yeah I feel like um they they're physical you know as they should be no one wants to you know get like beat by Ricky no wants to I would take it personal as well um so I've definitely been seeing that a lot um one thing about me I don't try to like force a lot on the offensive end even sometimes where I need to be more aggressive sometimes I'm like let me you know move it just to get the offense and flowing then next thing you know the game is over um so I just learned this game like you know be aggressive um for both halves you know sometimes I just have a aggressive first half and then the second half like I don't be as aggressive um trying to you know get the offense and stuff mov moving but I feel like um I'm just learning to just continue to keep my foot on the gas pedal be aggressive um you know my teammates space the four for me as well and I try to open up the floor for them when the attention is at me to you know get my teammates open looks and things like that so um it's just again learnning curve um you know I'm up for the challenge I wouldn't want it any other way so I feel like it's just going to make me a better player than thank you ladies thank you you hi am hi you have anything to say am no who's best dressed huh who's best dressed beside your mouth what do you mean best dress who be dressing the best all right um is it Kurt she told me to everybody questions so coach um you know with a lot of those players on the uh the sun players that you know you coach and saw them young and you know become veteran players like they are today just seeing your team what are some things that you think that they was able to learn from matching up with these players who you know you've seen for so long yeah for their starters um you know I uh um had the opportunity and uh fortunate to be able to coach for those years in connetic get drafted both Bri and DJ um you know they're they're just a really really talented group what makes them special is they're really smart exes and always wives um you know danana at Bri Jones and and DJ are really really smart actually nose wise I have a long relationship with Ty Harris recruited her when I was in Collegiate level and became very close to the family so that started I have connection with but um you know as you said breezy it took a while and then all a sudden she became most improved player and now a multiple time Allstar it didn't happen immediately um D you know had defined her footing in the league and now you're seeing her contention also um you know I think to me there's a lot of deserving candidates but you know I think di' really really deserves um the player of the year the most improved player of the year but DJ uh with with her defensive ability this year and her downhill offense will be in contention for that so um you know it takes a while so just really pleased with where rakia is at and she's just such a willing learner she it is um prideful of where she is right now but knows there's more growth and I love coaching players you know um Breezy was like that and D was like that they they wanted to get better um they were you know confident in what their skill sets were but they wanted to get better and I see a lot of that in Ria um and again our young players you know Ray second game in a starting lineup she's just going to continue to get better and better um so you know there's Lee's only 25 had a good game tonight Lee matches up with Bri Jones uh a little bit better and we needed her physicality and toughness around Bri Jones tonight so again lot you know lot of good things but you know there's no moral victories in this league hey coach um kind of want to piggyback on something Ria said which is's like you know we need sometimes people to step in and talk to us emotionally obviously when you get a kind of losing streak especially when you're playing so hard and then you have to go back out there and do it again have you been able to really kind of help them through that emotionally and mentally that yes this is a growing phase and and help them see what the future could look like yeah and again it's you know you try to push buttons as a coach different ways sometimes I'm harder and and more intense other times um you know it's just it's just uh teaching um you know then you ask them to you know talk at times and you know Kia nurse is a real leader for us in the locker room with her without being in the starting lineup and you know she talked to me after the game already on you know things that as a leader she could have even done more with that group um again this team wants to win so badly uh but we've got to handle hard in fourth quarters we've got to handle um you know you knew that team was going to turn it up and find another level um they're too talented and um were we going to be able to respond and we just couldn't and then we let some of our offensive inefficiency in that fourth quarter affect our defense and we can't let that but again the biggest disappointment for me was jump starting that fourth quarter for them getting offensive rebounds coach you talked about your struggles in the paint today you guys playing living good on Tuesday how do you adjust going into the next game um against their real good defense and stuff yeah I I mean they really really congest the paint um you know we shot 50% from The Arc but probably needed to take more um they really did a nice job taking away our post players so the points in the paint is crazy discrepancy right it jump jumps off the statue for their their points in the paint compared to ours so you know we'll take a look at the film and and and show where we can find some success but even if we get the ball to the paint then we can play out we had trouble getting the ball to the paint so we'll make some adjustments this for us um you know I know that Connecticut is in the playoffs but with us not in the playoffs we're treating this back to back like a playoff series it's an opportunity for us to treat it that way prepare that way make adjustments on the short uh turnaround and so for us to me I'm I'm preaching this is this is as good an opportunity late in the season to prepare for playoff games as we have U playing them back to back and then we're going to get the same with Seattle so this is this is our playoff stretch and you know I'm excited to get in there and make adjustments with them and practice like this would be our playoffs coach you guys did a really good job in the first half of getting to the free throw line and you guys were 12 to 14 in the first half but the second half you guys only shot about sixs of away what kind of changed on the stretch for you guys yeah I mean I thought they made the adjustment I thought that had to be a topic of conversation for them at half time that we were getting the foul line and but we were aggressive we were getting through the paint we were aggressive off the bounds uh we were getting post ups and playing out of it aggressively um you know again it it's going to even out a little bit but we've got to continue to put pressure on them and try to get to the foul line with how aggressive they play defense how aggressive they go after shot blocks even their guards some of their best shot blockers are DJ and and danana at the wings hey um you talked about the X's and O's and it seemed like the fourth quarter um the sun really went to their uh double drags um at the top with ma as the ball screen and she was able to really extend the traps and create a lot of fouron Threes can you kind of just talk about that defensive execution um in the fourth quarter and kind of what went wrong what went wrong there yeah you know I thought we did a pretty good job of getting the ball out of a Marina's hands tonight uh tried to make her inefficient two for seven from The Arc so we gave her attention in some ball screens the coverage that you're talking about out was not a trap that's not a an action that we were trapping um and again we we have some slippage and and what we're trying to do execute defensively uh we did some good things against Marina and I thought there was a lot of good chess matches between behind the scenes um they knew how we guarded one of their plays last time and the first time they ran it they executed because they knew what kind of coverage we played in Boston and you know those are the kind of things things that I just love because I wanted to look down at Steph going you got me you know and then we got some things like that tonight against them so it was those there was more chess match than you ever realized um that are going on and I you know I can look at you know look at myself and go yeah Steph got me on that and then you know we got them so you know some of that we'll take a look at again and get back to work and again we're going to treat it like our playoff game and prepare um and um step back up and play against a really talented team that's you know fighting for that number two seed thanks C thank you