Lynx overcome Fever, take game two of the WNBA Finals 83-71. Coach Reeve talks about the emotions of the game.
| By the numbers Points in the Paint Fever 32, Lynx 36 Second Chance Points Fastbreak Points Biggest Lead Lead Changes Times Tied Technicals Fever: Lin Dunn |
The Minnesota Lynx recovered from a 12-point deficit in the second quarter to defeat the Indiana Fever 83-71 in game two of the WNBA Finals in front of a sellout crowd in Minneapolis. The best-of-five series is tied at 1-1 and heads to Indianapolis on Friday for game three.
In a physical game with three technicals called and an intense atmosphere, Seimone Augustus scored 23 points in the second half to propel her team over the Fever. The key to the game was second-chance points as the Lynx had 24 to the Fever’s three. The Lynx also outrebounded the Fever 32-20 and scored four more points in the paint at 36.
“Obviously we owned them on the glass,” said Lynx head coach Reeve, “and that’s who the Minnesota Lynx is, and we were excited to get that part of the game done. But a hard game.”
Fever head coach Lin Dunn was not happy with her team’s performance on the boards.
“The thing that sticks out is the rebounding, the second-chance points that they got based on the fact that they outrebounded us with their physicality,” said Dunn, “and I was real disappointed that we did not match their…aggressiveness and their rebounding.”
One of the most dramatic moments of the game came late in the third quarter when Lynx point guard Lindsey Whalen went up for a layup and encountered physical contact from Fever point guard Brian January who blocked her shot and recovered the ball for Indiana. The officials did not call a foul and Reeve went ballistic, yelling and throwing off her jacket. Her staff and players had to push her off the court and hold her back from any other action.
I’m sitting 15 rows up and… I gotta be honest. Angry Cheryl Reeve really scared me.
— Tee Wolves (@TeeWolvesMerch) October 18, 2012
“I threw my shoulder out in the meantime,” said Reeve of the moment. “I need to see a trainer this evening. You know, I don’t know. I don’t know — you know, we’ve got a lot of league people here. It’s the WNBA Finals. So we are going to have to be really, really careful in the things that we have to say. Clearly I wasn’t happy in that moment. I’m not happy about how the game was officiated, period. But that’s all I’m going to say about it.”
Reeve was happy with the passion and intensity shown by both teams.
“This is what the WNBA Finals should be about,” she said. “I think if we can clean some things up all around, both teams, officiating, everything, you’re going to get an even better series. These are two teams that, No.1, have a lot of respect for each other, and No. 2, that are playing it all out there on the line, and our fans laid it out there on the line. I mean, they were amazing tonight. And we are going to go down to Indy and it’s going to be the same way, their fans are going to be passionate.”
Coach Dunn commented on the physicality of the Finals and how it has taken a toll on her players.
“Well, I’ve been coaching for 42 years now and that’s probably the most physical game I’ve ever been a part of,” said Dunn. “It was just a war out there, bodies flying everybody, and unfortunately it seems like we’ve lost another player to an injury and we’ll just have to adapt to that.”
“I did not think we responded to how physical they were playing,” she continued. “It was just bodies flying, hitting, chucking, slamming, shoving and we didn’t respond to that, and if that’s the way the game is going to be played we have to match that.”
Augustus also grabbed six rebounds. Maya Moore helped her team with 23 points, four rebounds and four assists. Lindsay Whalen scored 14 points, pulled down five rebounds and dished out four assists.
Tamika Catchings led the Fever with 27 points plus eight rebounds. Shavonte Zellous had 16 points, Brian January finished with 12 and Erin Phillips scored 10. Fever guard Jeanette Pohlen left the game in the first half after injury her left ankle and did not return.
Coach Reeve
On Indiana’s play in the Target Center
“Obviously Indiana came in here two times with great crowd, great environment, and you know, just competed really hard with us, but we were fortunate to turn them over 24 times. We were able to get them on the glass, so I don’t have to hear you guys talk about Erlana Larkins anymore, until the next game, so that will be a nice change.”
On the Lynx bench
“I thought our bench changed the game, and they only scored four points. But I told them, their value in this game was just tremendous. Monica Wright changed the game for us, changed the game. And Wiggins, somehow, over 6?5 Jessica Davenport gets a huge, huge steal.”
Taj McWilliams Franklin
On the physicality of the game
“[W]ith Coach Reeve, I know her personally as a friend, not also as a coach. The same fire that Seimone talked about she has, it’s always burning. She’s a Philly girl, product, Philly people, they don’t die, never give up, never say die.  So for me, it was all of that was what she wanted. She wanted to light a fire under us. She wanted to light a fire under the refs and everything else and the fans and energize us, which is what she did. She’s very calculating in everything she does.”
“You all think she’s out of control but she’s not, by far. It takes a lot of control to take your jacket off that nicely and hand it to your assistant.”
Indiana Fever
Coach Dunn
On the technicals in the game
“She got a technical, I got a technical. I got the first warning trying to communicate to the official the type of time?out I wanted, whether I wanted a 20 or a full, and I got a warning for talking to him.”
“I think both of our teams kind of fed off the energy there. You know, you just have to adapt to the way the game is going to be played. You have to match that. And we knew they with come out with a hard punch and I thought we would match that early on.”
Tamika Catchings
On the atmosphere of the arena
“Well, I think the atmosphere tonight was great again. I wouldn’t say that it went against us tonight. I think more than anything, just on the court, Seimone Augustus went against us; that’s what happened. But Seimone had a great game tonight and her teammates fed off of that.”
