"It's Special." | Cheryl Reeve Postgame Sound | 09.13.24

hey coach congrats on the win thanks um we talked a little bit over the road trip about this team's ability to make adjustments and that you know it would be great you know to not always have to make adjustments but still being able to do it uh tonight in the third quarter I would score this Sky 249 another great third quarter for the links I believe that's the lowest uh amount points allowed on the season of the third quarter um just again what what was the the halftime like and you know how did you assess the team's performance coming out and taking control of things in the third it actually started in the second quarter for you know um after coming off a 22-point first quarter um you know the the 13 points in the second quarter I thought gave was momentum to talk about at halftime um and usually what what changes for us is uh our aggression our energy on the ball you know sort of dictating what an offense is getting where they're running their stuff from first quarter you know just which is not good just wasn't good um and just slowly we found our footing uh defensively and obviously at Le leads to a little bit easier offense for us and all season we've talked about the difficulty in assignments that Lan gets a lot uh cardoso is is is one of those difficult assignments but Lan had a you know links high of 12 rebounds tonight and out rebounded Chicago overall just what did you think of her performance and also just the post performance overall well like you said we needed that um we needed to you know kind of buck up as they say and and battle and and make it difficult and you know l was ready for it we know we spent a fair amount of time talking about um you know what we were trying to get done and you know wasn't you know was wasn't uh didn't always work out exactly like we hope sometimes you can do everything right and you know player still scores and I think that happened a few times that we just said keep you know just move on on to the next one control what we can control you can get a body on for for defensive rebounds um we can get a little more ball pressure to just try to disrupt you know cardoso's catches and um but Lan I thought L roasted occasion for us today and last one for me but uh not the biggest scoring night for kmac but coming off a game where she was just tremendous defensively it felt like uh when she was on Carter tonight uh it was really hard for them to get anything going just how how uh impressive and just how important was her performance on the defense really impactful um you know I thought they did good they did they did a good job on our on our wings both uh bcn came back you know they each only got four shots off um but I think overall just understanding you know like you you can win a game help win a game in other ways I mean Kack has that maturity to know that um like you said a tough assignment she's very difficult to stay in front of and uh you know it's always a team concept and and not that overall you know she still got to some spots but but overall you know as the game wore on we got a little more comfortable with it and Kack was a big part of that you you were saying before the game about how if your defense is at a certain level you can have stretches where the offense isn't doing what it needs to do and so you can come out on top but I'm just talking about kind of like putting it like breaking a team's spirit it's it's it's more effective to do that defensively than to try to outscore somebody right I mean can be I mean depends on how good your offense is you know um because you can win a lot of games with great offense um but I do think the the CH like if you look at the stretch that we had where we were getting stops and running in transition uh and you could feel it you could feel a team breaking you could feel you know you could you could see the fatigue you know or maybe you know not the same effort uh that was happening um when we weren't uh defending and and not able to play with that pace and try to get some easy ones I think there was a stretch from about that three-pointer with about six something left in the second into the third where they had like three field goals made in like 13 minutes or something I don't know exact but I mean you just it just doesn't get much better than that right yeah I look at Carter started I think what was she four or4 to start and I had to hear this fan that was you know two rows away about how good she was and then she from there was three of 18 um so I think that was you know probably a part of that stretch last one for me you know obviously a longer season but you have now matched the franchise record for wins in a season with three games left to go um people always want to compare this team to that team and the dynasty team to this team and you've talked about some similarities yeah in terms of the way this team kind of approaches things but I mean just this team putting itself in a position to do something that no links team has ever done is got to be kind of neat uh and what is that that they uh oh okay yeah what is our record right now 28 and so you're saying 29 would be a record gotcha okay well hopefully we get that since we have three games left yeah I mean that would be nice otherwise that's a tough stretch to go into playoffs not having getting that last win um no that's great like you said we're playing more games and so some of these stats you know a little bit longer Seasons but you know it's still it's still great um you know there's a lot of people that didn't necessarily have us you know being able to win this many games and so um not that that matters at this point I think what's special is that this group is winning that many games and we win ugly um you know we're hard to play against you know we're winning at home so a lot of a lot of great things that have come from the season so far uh both Lan and Courtney both spoke on kind of being further down in the preseason rankings I know you just said that you don't think about it a ton but it must feel kind of nice to be proving the the people the power ranking people wrong um I don't I don't necessarily get anything from that uh because I think just think they're so they're wrong all the time they are I mean it's just hard because uh we have resources available to us analytically um our model showed us that if we if if the players you know performed the way they have over the Last 5 Years lamb was an outlier because this was only her second year um LS wins above replacement player number is really really good and so if you look at that addition to the group look at where kmac is and wins above replacement player but prior to the season obviously we didn't have this information of where they would be during the season but you project you Project A team's ability based on past performance and you know the models had us you know 25 26 wins that's not ninth right and so but again I I don't expect um you know the ones that are doing it it's it's uh more of an opinion it's not necessarily rooted in uh analytics most times and so um but it is nice to be able to kind of go you know yeah that's you know um you were really wrong you know I think it like it bothers fee you know I think she feels like it maybe it's that's how they feel about her uh and I told her no it's me it's how they feel about me they feel like their coach isn't going to be able to get him there and Hines Allen I mean another really good game tonight yeah scoring was up a little bit more than usual for her just how important has that addition been bringing size in huge um just because she's different right she's not she doesn't have the height but she's got the strength you know to battle she's quick off her feet for rebounding um she positions herself well uh and then at the at the offensive end she's she's still learning you know there were a number of moments tonight that were like okay write that down we got to we got to get to her about that we got to you know we got to help her with that um but she just she just plays on Instinct coach Courtney going six for six after starting one for four yeah um asked her about it she's been on a great stretch and seems like teams are just continuing to give her space and she takes it and hits it is that just is what she does from that range Gable with how dangerous everyone else is um I mean sure it's Gable everything's Gable but you have to make choices and so when you you know if you give that much energy which they did they started bringing to to court um Courtney's terrific in that space too involving her teammates and so you get the best of both worlds and um I didn't think you know I offensively I didn't have us we we were ready in terms of uh some of the coverage we saw before uh but they were trending towards different coverages and and um when we started seeing those um I didn't put position us very well I needed to play call Courtney a lot more because when she's playmaking we're we're really good and um once we got to that you know we got some more Rhythm and and people were getting a little more open easier opportunities Sher you look at the plus minus tonight I think link starters like a plus 117 Chicago like a minus 50 what does that say to you I wish I was more into plus minus uh doesn't really say a lot to me um I'm just not a big plus minus person but I mean I don't know I think it's good what you're saying is is good yeah yeah I think it's a good thing sorry we'll try a different one how nice to have some this momentum to continues to roll when you get this tough trip to New York and Connecticut coming up we all know how huge those games are going to be yeah um with no prep time like you go to New York and you know we play an afternoon game we travel tomorrow um you know it's one of those games just go hooping it's two good teams that are are good uh defensively we both in the in the top three um their offense is better than ours in terms of their their overall rating so we are going to have to find our way because that's going to Define our ability to win in playoffs is if our offense um we can't just be average offensively because the teams are going to be playing against are not average right and so your defense it gets harder and harder the teams that you're playing against right so it's going to be hard to keep a defensive rating of 94 once you hit playoffs and so if we're hovering an average in an offensive rating of a 100 you you're you know you're putting yourself maybe in a hornet's nest now tonight's offensive rating as much as you know I was complaining throughout the game um you want it to look prettier you want it to be a little smoother you know a little sharper we were still a 107 offensive rating so that's usually what I find is I complain complain and I'm critical and then they go coach we were 107 and they were an 88 defensive rating so that was a a good night and we'll we'll celebrate that but we had to be better we had to be better um you know obviously the um the next game is is a really really good team how do you guys celebrate after these wins I don't know what they do um but I I have my uh postgame snacks and drink and I go home and I'm probably going to play uh W 2K 24 with Oliver he's got a really good character and I've not yet found one so he just obliterates me um but I'll do that with him for a little bit before we hit the road tomorrow you asked I don't know what they do but that's what I'm doing and then could you just talk about kmac making history becoming the first links player to make a 100 plus three points made in a season yeah so she's obviously the first link she's the eighth uh in league history right so which is a really good one um that's obviously a lot more players um just happy for right I know it wasn't a lot of Threes tonight but that one was a big one right to to reach this Milestone and um it just for her I just love the accolades to you know or the the superlatives to keep coming because she's just she's just had a great year I wanted to just circle back to uh Courtney one more time okay just you know from pre- Olympic break to post Olympic break it just seems like she's shooting at a higher level assisting at a higher level less turnovers is there something kind of specific that she did over that break that you know of or was there some homework or how she made this big change I think um I just think from commissioner's cup to to the end of The Break um you have to ask Courtney um but I just didn't see the same level of you know kind of uh grab the bull by the horns playmake aggressive I thought she got passive um she didn't make a lot of shots she did obviously get in the gym um and the work she put in there and and we've just've had conversations with her about you know shot locations and and and and um efficiency um you know but Courtney she's never going to think too much with that and and I just think she you know I mean I just think the stakes are a little higher like like you get to the other side of the break and you start kind of going okay now it's a downhill rather than you know we felt like we were going uphill getting into the break and I think Courtney felt that um so I think on the other side of the break she was a little fresher and and and did get in the gym and is finding success you're welcome atanta said after the game that she thought like the the best the coolest play of the game the one that she said she thought embodied this team the most most was when chy had that wide open three then she saw hin Allen underneath the basket gave it to her lay the scor I mean in a way can you see what she's saying in terms of that's kind of emblematic of what the way this team has played this year absolutely yeah um you know they they don't they just they don't care who scores or who gets the credit and you know that that's kind of been their way and the fact that they talk about that that they notice that um and they take pride in that and and uh you know it it has been uh something that's defined us and it has been at the core of our success there's there's just no escaping that um eventually you have to you know make plays defensively offensively but that's your base and the level of trust that you have in each other um trust in you know game plans and and and trusting each other to even when you make mistakes and you know it's special it's special and so I'm I'm glad that they're talking about it you know because they certainly feel it it's very authentic any final questions yeah yeah you're prompting it for someone so we're since 2011 we're 163 and eight on the season we're 13 and one yeah 13 and one on the season that'll never get old for me