Although the Lynx were able to fight back last night against the Chicago Sky, this loss was still an embarrassment. As I have stated before, one of the most important things a team like the Lynx need to accomplish is to learn how to defend their home court. It wasn’t until after the half and after the two straight turnovers, resulting in two straight layups for the Sky, that the Lynx decided that they were not going to continue with their half-assed effort.
Certainly on this night, Seimone Augustus yet again should receive a majority of the credit for the comeback, as well as rookie Lindsey Harding showing a few glimpses of solid play. However, it was another rookie, Noelle Quinn, who actually began the solid play in the third quarter that allowed for the team to give their fans a little something to cheer about the rest of the game.
After a relatively ineffective first half in which Quinn went 0/1 from the floor, with 2 rebounds and one turnover, Quinn was given the point in the third. Although that was certainly a surprising move by Coach Don Zierden, it was one that paid off for the most part. In the third quarter alone, Quinn grabbed 2 rebounds and dished out 4 assists, which set the tone the rest of the way. It is through glimpses like this that fans can see what the Lynx brass saw from Quinn at UCLA that made them take her with the fourth overall pick in the 2007 WNBA Draft.
After Friday’s game, I sat down with Noelle Quinn in the locker room to discuss the game she had just completed...
SL: It seemed as if Coach Zierden had a short leash on you in the first half, subbing you in and out numerous times. What was he telling you was his reasoning behind that?
NQ: We had talked before the game and he had told me that he wanted me to play backup point, so he was going to sub me out early. That way, I could get some rest, come back in and run the point.
SL: When you were on the bench during the first half, waiting to go in to run the point, what were you looking at specifically to attack once your opportunity came around?
NQ: Just everything that transpires. Time management, how much time is on the clock, how many fouls we have, what players are doing what offensively and defensively. As a point guard, you have to know all of that stuff, so I was just trying to observe what Lindsey was doing and tried to go with what worked.
SL: In the third quarter, you played a majority of that time at the point. You seemed to be more confident then you were in the first half, so what happened there to give you that confidence?
NQ: In the third quarter, I did play the point more. When I have the ball in my hands, it changes my demeanor because I have to run the team. They’re looking for me to call plays. Just having the ball brings more responsibility and, like you said, confidence, so you can’t be shy because they’re looking to me.
SL: So, right now, you are more comfortable with the responsibility of running the team at the point, rather then off the ball?
NQ: Yeah. I played it my senior year of college. I wasn’t really that comfortable, but a lot of people said I was good at it. I was still uncomfortable coming into the league with it, but I’ve just been practicing during training camp and into the season and I’ve become more comfortable. I’ve just got to keep working on my ball handling and keeping everything tight and I’ll be even more comfortable.
SL: You’ve certainly had to take in quite a lot of information since arriving in Minnesota. What have you been doing to relax and to get your mind off of basketball?
NQ: I’ve been watching a lot of TV and going out to eat. I’m pretty much a chill person, so I just lay back and relax.
SL: This game against Chicago was, obviously, a rough game for the Lynx as a whole, but what does it say about this young team that you continued to fight and nearly came all the way back?
NQ: It was good to know that with how far we fell back that we were able to fight back, but at the same time, we can’t keep digging ourselves a hole like that. We shouldn’t rely on that. We should just jump out on them in the beginning. It does show a lot about our team that we don’t give up and that we have each other’s backs. I mean, we have the fight. It’s just a matter of having it for 40 minutes.
SL: What did you specifically take away from this game and will be able to utilize moving forward?
NQ: I think that it’s just the intensity from the start. Now, we’ve got to figure out why we didn’t have it. This is a totally different league. Sometimes in college, you could get by with kind of just going through the motions. This is the pros and you can’t do that. You can’t take a play off, you have to be ready every second and we just have to have that focus and that fire from the beginning.
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At Coach Zierden’s press conference after the game, I had the opportunity to ask him the same question I asked Quinn about his “short leash” on her during the first half. His answer was more general, then specific to Quinn, but was still a great indication of his thoughts on areas where this team needs improvement.
“A couple of things,” said Coach Z. “I think we need to come out and be ready to play ball. I think that these young players--and we are young and we’re going to get better every game--but we need to understand that when that ball is thrown up, it doesn’t matter who you’re going against that you better be ready to play.”
When I asked Coach my follow up question, wondering when he would have to think about altering lineups and rotations in an attempt to start winning, he expressed the team’s commitment to the young players.
“The one thing that I will say is when talking to Tony Dungy, who I really respect, when he took over at Tampa Bay, they started off either 1-7 or 1-8.” He continued with “Tony said everybody wanted to change this, that and the other thing, but the thing that we want to do right now is just stay the course. We’re not happy with being 0-4, we’re definitely not happy with the way we played tonight, but we have 30 more games to get better. We’ve got some young players that we made a commitment to our fans and to our front office that we were going to develop, so we’ll continue to do that.”
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