Aug. 13, 2008 • Beijing, China

USA head coach Anne Donovan
On the game:
We are pleased to have another win and to work on some things … we were able to work on several things defensively that we haven’t had a chance to in our first two games.  We continue to stress our defense and really working hard on that end of the floor.  Once again, forcing the number of turnovers that we do makes us happy as a team.  So good win for us and we’re thinking about Spain from this point forward.

On Seimone Augustus: 
Seimone has always been just a tremendous scorer, ever since I first saw her as a freshman in college.  She came with us to the World Championships in ’06 and was not happy with her role, and a lot of that needed to change, her role would change with her defense and she’s been so focused on it.  She, to me, is one of our better defensive players on the perimeter.  When we go to her coming off the bench, we get instant offense.  That’s always Seimone’s game, but defensively, we don’t lose a step.  She has really improved at that end of the floor.

On the fact that tournament is appearing to be a two-horse race with USA and Australia:
We are not thinking about Australia and that’s an honest answer.  We’ve not been here together long enough to think ahead.  That’s the best part of this team and they’ve really stayed in the moment, everyday whether it’s practice or a game, we’re focused on getting better so it when it comes to the gold medal game, comes to the quarterfinals, comes to the semifinals, we’re getting better and we are today.  There is no script that says Australian and the United States will be in that gold medal game.  There is a lot of work to do for us and we’re not looking ahead.

On looking towards Spain: 
Spain, they got off to a really slow start here which surprised me.  Their first game against China, they lost pretty handily.  Valdemorra, their best player, has not been in the starting lineup and we’re not exactly sure why, but we know she has gotten better every game; played very well today.  So, they’re getting much better every game.  What you can expect from Spain is they’re just athletic, they don’t take a play off, they play with a lot of passion and energy and feed off of that.  We’ve played them quite a bit through the years; we’re familiar with this team.  And, we know that we’ll have to play well to move on to the next game.

Seimone Augustus (Minnesota Lynx)
You’ve made some adjustments on your game, can you talk a little bit about it?
Coach Donovan talked to me the last time we played, right before we went to Chile, and she just said that it was going to be defense, we didn’t know if Candace was going to be here or not so she said she needed a bigger guard to help defend the European guards, so I took it into consideration and just went on and tried to work on my defense and try to do the things se asked, bring energy whenever I stepped on the court and if I do have a shot, take a shot, but most importantly try to get everyone open.

What do you expect from Spain?
They are a very tough team. Great shooters, a great team altogether. Nuria Martinez, I play withe her in Russia and she is a great point guard. I expect a verry competitive game.

Sue Bird (Seattle Storm)
This was kind of an unusual game for you guys to be playing tonight wasn't it?
What, to play at 10:15pm? No, I know. But to play at 10:15pm is definitely not the norm. I think we adjusted pretty well and Mali is a very good team.

We knew coming in that the score might not be one of the closest we have ever been in, so we wanted to work on some things for ourselves, but no matter who our opponent is we always want to do that. That was kind of the mindset going in.

Is it safe to assume that when the score was 8-7 that Anne (Donovan) had a pretty strong opinion to share on that situation?
Yeah. You know it's funny, we just couldn't get the ball to go in the bucket early on. Normally we come out firing away and we didn't get that to happen. And, yes, she had some select words for us, but nothing to harsh and it did turn things around for us. Whether we are playing Mali or in the Gold Medal game, I have a feeling you are going to see a lot of subbing, because we are that talented and that deep. Keep everyone fresh and when that happens we are all able to play at a really high level.

Realizing you are on a mission, are you able to get out and enjoy the Olympics?
Absolutely. The hardest part is that we are one of the few sports that goes the entire length of the Games. We are playing every other day. So on those off days, you kind of have to choose when to rest and when to go experience the culture or go to different events. I think there's a good balance for us.

What about your next opponent, Spain?
They beat Czech Republic today by 20. I know they lost their first game against China and they are in a situation where they need wins. They want to advance to the next round, they want to also be ina good spot, so they need a win. I expect them to come out and be really energetic. They play with a lot of passion, that's what they always do. And whether they are up or down by 5 or by 20, they play the same and we have to be ready for that.

Kara Lawson (Sacramento Monarchs)
On the game: 
We’re excited about winning the game.  We really wanted to come in and keep improving as a team.  That’s kind of our theme as we go through this tournament, to get better and better with each game.  I feel like we accomplished that tonight and we’re excited to move on and get ready to play Spain.

Lisa Leslie (Los Angeles Sparks)
On tonight’s game:
We weren’t looking past Mali for Spain.  I thought playing against Mali would be tough because they offensive board so well.  We really wanted to try and put a lot of pressure on them and we got a chance to work on a lot of different defenses and that really helped us.  We’re looking forward to (playing) Spain, you just never know what defense you’re going to need so we got a good chance to review them all.

On Spain:
It’s going to be a fun game.  Spain is very talented, they have really good guards and big post players that like to bang inside but hopefully our pressure on them will slow them down a little bit and hopefully us getting up and down the floor and running them will get them tired.

On her record and the team’s performance:
Records are made to be broken. It was good.  We just wanted to get the win.  We wanted to come out and perform well and not have a drop off.  It was a little tough for us but I thought we really pulled together and again, hung our hats on our defense. Defense and rebounding is key and that’s what really I try to focus on.

Candace Parker (Los Angeles Sparks)
How do you stay focused in a game like this?
Mostly I just think it’s about playing our basketball, USA Basketball, focusing on ourselves and not worrying about the opponent; setting goals that we want to achieve, that’s how you stay focused.  Our vets did a good job of making sure everybody was in the game and not somewhere else.

You guys didn’t have a lot of time to train together, do you use this as another opportunity to practice?
I think it did, obviously every day we play together we get better and every game we can use as our practice to reach the gold medal. 

Next up is Spain, do you know anything about them?
I haven’t really seen them play since their first game against China but I know they’re a great team and every team brings their best shot.

Katie Smith (Detroit Shock)
Is it hard to get worked up for a game like this?
Obviously your juices aren’t flowing in the sense that you obviously know we’re going to come out, and you’re going to win.  But honestly we’re here for something bigger than just tonight, and that’s where to try to keep focused on executing, attention to details. We worked on a couple of things we haven’t done in the past as a team. So just trying to build on what we’ve done and keep our focus and be disciplined because we are going to have to be disciplined when times are tough too, and that’s what we did tonight. We had moments, but give them credit. They came out hard, knocked down some shots. They are not just going to roll over. They really worked hard, hit a long of long threes, so give them credit.

What can you say about Spain?
They are talented, and they have good guards. They are going to push the ball, and they have some post players who are versatile and can shoot. They are going to compete, and as I said, they are skilled. So, we have to be on our toes, but I am looking forward to getting on the floor with this group. It’s fun. I think we all enjoy playing with each other and seeing little improvements here and there.

Diana Taurasi (Phoenix Mercury)
On tonight's game:
I give it to Mali. They played hard he whole game, no matter what the score was.In the game, that's what you want. Just play hard and whatever happens, happens. And after the game, if they want pictures, we'll smile. I like to smile.

What about Spain in two days?
Spain is a tough team. They beat Czech today, a very tough team. They are a good team. They have great guard play, I think that's what separates them.
Aguilar, Palau and Valderamo--that's a nice trio. Then you add some nice post players and they are tough

Tina Thompson (Houston Comets)
On tonight’s game:
We're building for the medal round, so we definitely want to stay on top of our game. Mali is a very athletic team, but kind of inexperienced with competition of this magnitude. We wanted to come out and just be ourselves.

We got a slow start but we continued to get better as time passed.

Is there anything the team needs to improve upon?
Defense and rebounding. I think our defense tonight was pretty good. Mali made some good shots early on, but for the most part our defense was a big deterent in them making shots.

What do you know about Spain, what do you expect?
They're athletic. One of their players Amaya Valdemoro played in the WNBA, so I'm pretty familiar with her. They're a good shooting team, they like to run as well and they put shots up so we have to defend well. If we allow them to stay in their comfort zone, it could be a long night.

You mentioned the slow start. Coach called a timeout when Mali went up 8-7, what was the theme of that timeout?
She just said we weren't on top of our game, we weren't being ourselves. We were kind of caught up in the moment so told us that we had a very short period of time to fix it or else we would be watching. So we fixed it.

Is she stern in moments like that?
She's not really a yeller, but she's very adamant about what she says. We knew if we didn't turn it up at that moment that we'd probably be sitting.

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