Curt Miller, Rickea Jackson and Li Yueru on Sparks LOSING to Tina Charles' Dream [POSTGAME]

hi Le this questions for you uh how was it going against Tina Charles one of the alltime GRS uh I I met her in China before so we know each other uh she's a really good player I know I know her and but today she's still uh know tonight I thought uh I thought it was an opportunity as I shared with the team after the game that uh was a good a really good teach game for us and and game where we can learn and um you know variety of ways I thought uh the Lana scheme defensively uh was to really challenge us and uh um almost dare us to make some perimeter shots because of the way they were defending us tonight um and again we've talked about some of the ways throughout the game and timeouts end of quarters and then halftime um what we do to counter those the the type of defense that they were playing on us and just didn't think that consistently that we executed uh that um what we were trying to get accomplished against their defense and then you know count compounded wasn't a really tough shooting night from The Ark uh we shot nearly 50% on nonre Shots tonight um a lot of knights you know when you supplement that with some of your three-point shooting you know those kns you probably feel pretty good that you shot uh 50% on on non threes but and we've been shot over 50% a couple games in a row so um you know just disappointing the way we shot it because I felt like they were almost daring us at times defensively got off to a tough start took that um paym maker early they really established Ryan and Tina early we tried to make adjustments um and and tried to find um uh a rhythm and again just wasn't happy with our offensive our defensive rebounding to be able to complete plays their offens of rebounding percentage for us tonight is just unacceptable and we gave up 17 Second Chance points but it's more the offens of rebounding percentage that they had tonight on their misses we got 38 misses um you know they were trending towards the night where they were going to miss 40 plus shots but we couldn't get out in transition because we couldn't defensive rebound consistent ly enough and those offensive 17 points off offensive rebounds really is the flating uh when you get a first shot missed and you can't finish the play so um I just I think again I know that's a long opening statement um but I really think there was a lot of good teaching points tonight for our young team and it's tough to lose at home it's tough to lose in that fashion to learn things but if we do if we walk out of here tonight and and learn from it um you know then I think we'll be better in the long run um shout out to these two um you know I I extended Ria didn't take her out for the first 30 minutes um she didn't complain she didn't grab her shirt she just kept playing through it and played her in multiple different actions and different positions asked her to guard different people and just really proud of Ria that way uh she went over 400 career points um as a rookie she joins uh in exclusive list of Sparks of Candace Parker Neco gum and Lisa Leslie as the only rookies that have done that so I just want to continue to shout out Ria Jackson is very special and has a bright bright future and then Lee um a night where uh azire was under the weather um and not feeling well and uh while she'll never use as an excuse and I certainly probably she probably could have gutted through long I liked what Lee was doing and her physicality was a different look on Tina was a different look for us to have a presence inside and Lee stepped up to it when you know we just we were three for 12 from our starting post I appreciated that Lee was ready when her number was called and and uh and again had a good night for us jaie hey Jackie with Jackie R TV Lee this question is for you um we talked before and you said one of the things you really wanted to do more of was finish your shots when your teammates really got you involved in the game how do you feel like you've evolved thus far this win this loss regardless how do you feel like you've evolved this season you know I still try to learn any more I game I have a you know I me every a lot problem for every game and I learn for every game try to figure out it and the next game I it's another problem and I still learning um for today I feel uh I try to be stronger with uh Tina together play because she's you know super superstar I try to learning in her and I try to show me for her and I try to um Place stronger um I you know I learning lot in practice in coach and I learning a lot from another team so uh I try to be more better to help our team and um try to be better myself yeah than Ria um you're known for getting your team off to a strong start today you had a little bit more of a slower start how did you work through that mentally and just by your with your game um I feel like just focusing on my defense um trying to get my teammates involved um staying aggressive my shots not going to fall every night like I want them to but got to continue to play um I feel like my defense have has come along ways um still got some things to work out but um I feel like I just focused on the defensive end more hi Le this question is for you uh how was it going against Tina Charles one of the alltime GRS uh I'm I'm met I met her in China before so we know each other uh she's a really good player I know I know her and but today she still uh get a lot you know uh she show her and I try to learn more how to defense her and how to like her don't get rebound she gets a lot of rebound and some U good offense so uh I still need to uh learn to how to defense her and try to um have a more off different shots to uh play with her thank Youk you Hey DJ from infinity TV Ria um there was a lot of different things happening in the paint but a new move that we've been seeing from you a lot is that like pivot step back jumper can you talk about like how you work with the coaching staff to develop new ways to get you space to score uh yeah I feel like that's just something that I've kind of always did especially like if I can't get to the room all the way um have a counter but you know no and I work with work on that move literally every single day before the game um you know them staying confident telling me you know I can score against anybody so them instilling that just you know makes me want to go at people more and continue to do that um I feel like it just helps me get my shot off because you know people think I'm about to do a layup and then I just fade away so yeah last question uh Ria coach Miller said pregame that you're becoming a superstar player a future star player do you think you're a star player already um and how you think your game has improved and also coach um you know these going two players and double figures tonight how do you get more offense um I feel like if coach Kurt says that then that mean I am because he doesn't say that about anybody so um but I do feel like I'm a star I feel like I'm a growing star um I feel like I'm never content and I feel like that's what makes me um a star I feel like I want to continue to get better um you know when they tell me you know I need you to be better at this I literally try to fix it in the next game um and I feel like just being a sponge and wanting to get better each and every game each and every practice I feel like that is what is going to take me over top um I'm not 100% where I want to be um but I feel like I'm a growing star I don't feel like I'm 100% there yet but um just continuing to stay within it listen to my coaches and my teammates I feel like one day I am going to get there and I feel like I improveed most again on my defense just having defensive mind and mentality um especially with the guards in this league like I'm you know I don't I don't like when they squir on me it honestly bothers me me um and I feel like I just been more intentive just you know guarding them trying to chase them off screens more not dying on screens and things like that so I I got the best up questions Fort do want me to answer that one oh yeah yeah you know offensively it was a tough night for us and again um you know inside the ark I didn't think we shot it too badly I thought we tried to established I thought at times we were getting pieces of paint and spraying ball around and we actually uh were executing from our penetration to open threes you know and and again it's a make or Miss League we've got to step up and make some threes uh I thought we had a lot of of our 21 attempts I thought we had a lot of open thre so in and were capable of making those so you know that that was the difficult part um obviously their scheme was to DARE us into it and force us to see if we would take some of those with the way they were playing the ball screens and and um again it was just one of those nights shooting uh but again the other way was we couldn't get enough stops to get out and transition a big goal for us was uh to be in double figure fast break points tonight was uh to really play early and get them cross matched with our commitment to run and it was just really difficult to run against them tonight they missed 38 shots but it was difficult to get to run tonight against Atlanta because we just couldn't secure enough defensive rebounds consistently throughout the night hey coach think talk about Le tonight I saw a lot of players feed her inside tonight was that was that part of the game plan for her you know be forc inside yeah you know certainly when she's on the floor She cars out space and can demand the ball and so um at times um that's you know when we were starting to struggle at the ark there was a commitment to get her touches and she's good at drawing fouls and so accumulating fouls so maybe it's not always her but maybe the foul count goes up earlier in quarters and we can get ourselves to the foul line but uh um you know I I appreciated the the willingness for our guards to share it with her that way um again you know she just she's 25 this is only her second year uh in the league um not you know just a little over you know three quarters of the way into her second year so she's just going to get better and better she is really humble uh she's a really hard worker she's really open-minded she thinks that you know there's so much growth all the time and I just you know appreciate our our players love her um our coaching staffs love her she's just a blessing to have here and uh I look forward to her growth name scarl La Cel um I didn't notice in the fourth quarter you guys outscored the Atlantic dream and that was also an attribute you had in your win against the New York Liberty if you could just talk to me about the energy that the SP G quter yeah I mean I thought I I never doubted I wanted a tough Ness I wanted a compete level I think we could have competed higher but as I shared with them I I didn't think we were lazy I didn't think that we weren't trying um you know we talked about before the game that uh there there's a lot out there saying that this was a must win for Atlanta there's you know there is a dog fight for the eighth and final spot uh on on this on this playoff picture and situation and you knew how hard they were going to play so you know I appreciated that wasn't one of those nights you know wasn't one of those nights and uh that we kept fighting and some players um asaiah cook that hasn't always gotten consistent minutes here got an opportunity and she played hard and so you know I I appreciate that's the culture we're trying to create doesn't matter what the score is on the scoreboard um that we're going to play hard now I will tell you to not have one quarter of 20 or more points tonight is disappointing you know disappointing that this level especially with what we've done lately scoring the basketball to not have one quarter and 20 or more disappointing but um again you know uh was much better defensively in the second half but still couldn't get our offense going to make them really feel us right we got it down to teams I don't think we broke it back in the single digits but um you know just they never I wanted them to really feel us at some point in the pressure when you have a big lead coach you know you've talked a lot this year about how this is a bill you know and how the process and and how you get there you know is what's what's something that's really important you know you had two players up here with you that have made tremendous strides from from the beginning of the year to now um regardless of how the rest of this season turns out um what what would you need to see from from some of these young players in order to to kind of consider it success yeah and you know again I I just I want an attitude a culture um of growth I want a culture that um doesn't separate when it gets tough um a resilient team that uh can take a a poor stretch or a run and respond to it um you know I I don't like these 90 ten0 starts against us but you know what what's really important to me is how we're responding to runs in the game um and do we step back up um it just wasn't a good enough first quarter on both sides of the ball uh but we had trouble stopping runs tonight because we couldn't score consistently but um you know again just a mindset to come to work um you know you always fight yourself as a coach you should we have given him two days off after New York but we know we're on the road for these next two games and and then the Cadence really um picks up with our games and so you know um I don't know if that extra day off contributed to being a little sluggish I don't you know like that's where you start to second guess yourself as a coach but I I want a work a professionalism about this group down the stretch regardless of how many wins we end up with um you know I just want a compete level that's that's higher you know I ask dick and azire to really lead us um you know they're two Champions they're two WNBA champions in our locker room and uh it's really important that they continue to keep leading what the passion energy compete level has to be like to be forming a championship team in the long run hey coach DJ from infinity TV um this is your first time going up against Tenisha right after you guys spent so much time together with that gold medal team what was it like tonight coaching against one of your colleagues yeah we become we've become you know she's my sister from another mother you um we' become in Incredibly Close and um you know just really respect uh when you spend that that much time it's like summer camp right it just spends so much time together and you're pulling for the same thing and you're trying to support Cheryl which you know like we you could keep me here for days to talk about the pressure that the US Olympic coach feels so we're going to be bonded for life that staff will be bonded for life um it's been a pleasure to get to know her uh she's really really close with Karen Bryant who hired me here to the Sparks and so I you know always heard about Tanisha wght I was brought into the league by Brian agler who isn't afraid or shy to say that Tanisha wri was the favorite player he ever coached and he's coached a million great ones and so I'm like you know like what's so special everyone talks about how special Tenisha is but I got to see it um so she's she's my sister from another mother we're we're bonded for life and and I you know I'm a rooter for her um I didn't want to root for her tonight but I you know you know when I'm not you know now I I root for her uh she was a special player um in this league that played with passion and was a really really good Defender and carved out a niche for herself for a long time and hung around a long time so I think she's doing great things there um you know I wish them well in their compete for the last playoff spot and uh again she's a special one hey coach uh we talked about Raa playing the first 30 minutes um was it a matter of getting her going after a still start offensively or just more like experience yeah again um I just I have so much confidence in her that um she's going to find stretches in a game where um she's going to bring good things at both sides of the ball I I love her growth defensively she still got a ways to go um and schemes to learn and and how people try to attack her but the compete level has from May to now you just have to pop in a film it's crazy um you know she she knows now the new thing I'm on is you know her rebounding numbers go up but um you know again we ran a bunch of things out of timeouts for her we ran some things to start the game for her the ball just didn't go in uh but you know like she still you know scored 13 points um and and I you know and that's an off night and that's what I think you're going to see Ria moving forward is Ria is going to be a team scorer even on off nights and you're going to see her in 20s consistently um you know as we go up but the one thing she's earned is more attention and she got more attention tonight in some of the actions that we've been using she got more attention from Atlanta that's a credit to her that there there's now Scouting Report attention to her um and that's then now her next step is she's you know an aster and and you know onea um on talking about opponent scouting and what what they want to do and and players that have earned that right then learn from that and so you know this is a great opportunity she had she had more attention to her tonight and how can you still be successful even when you know those scatter reports and attention from opponents are on you and I think she's going to handle it with um incredible Grace and and I think she's just going to thrive through it and I look forward to these last eight games with her getting that type of attention because that will only help her going into year two thank you