Additional Quotes >> TEO Vilnius 79, USA Select Team 76

USA head coach Anne Donovan, Seattle Storm
On today's game:
We didn't start the game with very much intensity at all and we had to play catch up to come back. We thought we did that at one point, then we gave up four straight threes. Our intensity ebbed and flowed throughout the whole game and that certainly caught up with us.

This was a very disappointing game for us, that's for sure. We didn't play with a lot of intensity tonight and I give Vilnius a lot of credit, they played very well.

On the team's poor shooting:
We missed a lot of easy shots. We didn't shoot the ball well at all. But we also let them shoot the ball very well. When you're not shooting the ball well you'd better get stops defensively and we didn't do a good enough job defensively on them.

TEO Vilnius looked like a completely different team than in their first game against CSKA Moscow. What are your thoughts on that?
I think CSKA is a really good team. They took Vilnius' confidence away early and we just didn't do that today. We needed to take their confidence away early, but we let Nykesha (Sales) get off to an early start. She had 17 first-half points, she got them rolling and got them confident. I think also, we have a target on our backs and we know it. There's not one team that's not going to come with their A game against us, so tomorrow we're going to have to come out with a better effort.

What can you take away from this loss?
You hope you don't have these kinds of reminders of how important every game is and that you always have to play with intensity. It doesn't matter who you're playing or where you're playing. Because of that target on our backs we have to come with our best effort all the time and bring our focus and intensity. I thought we really had a lot of that in Chile, but we've let down a little bit here.

On the competition in the FIBA World League Tournament:
It's a very competitive tournament. These are the best club teams from Europe. We knew coming over here that this was going to be a great tournament, a great test for us. Once again we were shown that there is some strong competition here.

Seimone Augustus, Minnesota Lynx
On today's game:
We started off kind of sluggish. The Lithuanian team came out and played good, solid basketball for four quarters. We were kind of in a scramble mode. I think the fourth quarter was probably our best quarter out of the whole game. It was something we should have been doing from the start, getting out and playing better defense and trying to make it tougher on them.

On the team's poor shooting:
It was one of those days where the shots just aren't falling. On the flip side, if we're not hitting anything we need to come out and do what we can to keep them from making shots. That's something we didn't do. Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day shooting-wise and on the defensive end.
You're meeting up with a very strong team tomorrow, CSKA Moscow, and will probably need to win it to advance.
Yeah, we're just going to have to go out and play tough for four quarters. They have a solid team with great players. We have to get our chemistry together, come back and hope that we have a better shooting day and play team basketball.

I was impressed with the way you fought back in the fourth quarter after TEO Vilnius opened with the four 3-pointers. How hard was it to not let that dampen your spirits?
That would kill anybody's spirits. It might have been four threes in less than a minute, definitely less than two minutes. That's tough on any team, especially when you've fought so hard to get back and tie the game. To come down to have some possessions where you don't hit shots and they hit four consecutive threes. That's a blow for any team.

Sue Bird, Seattle Storm
How difficult was today's loss for you?
Anytime you put on the USA Basketball uniform and you go up against some pretty good teams you know they're going to try and beat you. You know they're going to play their best game against you. Along the same lines, it's hard when you're wearing that jersey to lose. So this is definitely a difficult one.

Can you talk about Nykesha Sales' game?
She was pretty much unconscious in the first half. Almost everything she threw up there, the fade aways, the 3-pointer that banked in, were going in. She played really well in the first half and continued into the second half a little bit as well.

On the team's shooting woes:
There seemed to be a lid on the basket, in the first half especially. That's basketball. Sometimes they go in, sometimes they don't. It's all about finding a way to win regardless of that. The one thing we didn't do, you always have to have that mindset that if you're not scoring you can't let the other team score. We continued to give up a lot of easy buckets.

You're going up against CSKA Moscow tomorrow, a rival for you on your Spartak Moscow squad and the team is also filled with Russian National Team players. What's that going to be like?
We have to be ready, we're going to be going up against a very good team. A team has a lot of the Russian National Team players, but beyond that it's almost like an all-star team, an all-star team that's been playing together for a long time. Of course they have some new additions, but they're very, very good. I've played against them a lot in the last couple years and you have to play almost a perfect game to beat them, to be perfectly honest. So we all have to be very focused, we all have to be ready to go and do the things that we're good at. Hopefully that'll be enough.

What kind of things will you expect to see from CSKA?
Their inside game � obviously we're very short handed in the post. We only have three on this trip, which forces Katie (Smith), Dee (Taurasi) and even Seimone (Augustus) at times to play the four spot, which obviously isn't their natural position. Going against CSKA, they have two of the best post players in the world in their front court. That right there is their strength. Don't get me wrong, their guard play is tremendous also, but that's where rebounding, their ability to score down there, that's what gets them started. We're going to have to really do a good job on the boards. You can't necessarily stop those two, you just have to make it hard for them and not let anyone else go off.

Janel McCarville, New York Liberty
On today's game:
I think we didn't come out as intense as we could have and that put us in a little hole. They obviously made some big shots early and went up on us. We were able to catch up and tie the game, take the lead a couple times, but we weren't able to sustain it. They hit some big shots down the stretch.

What did you take away from this loss?
We need to focus and not take anyone for granted. Anyone here can come out and beat you on any given day. We're the USA and everybody's going to come and bring their best against us every game. We have to learn to keep our composure when it gets going tough, fight back and pull off ball games.

Tomorrow's game is going to be tough against CSKA Moscow. What do you need to do in that game?
Definitely come out more intense. They're a great team, they have a lot of great players and it's going to be a good game for us to challenge us both mentally and physically. We're going to have to bring our all.

Cappie Pondexter, Phoenix Mercury
What was the difference on the team between yesterday's game and today?
Our intensity level dropped a lot in this game as compared to yesterday. We couldn't hit shots. It happens, that's the way basketball is. I think the important thing is to put this game behind us, get better and move on for tomorrow.

Why was the intensity level so much lower today?
I think it was partly because we weren't making shots so our focus was a little different. We had a lot of turnovers. We just didn't do it, we didn't get the job done. But we can't focus and dwell on it. We have to move on.

What do you need to do tomorrow against CSKA Moscow?
It's now or never. I don't think we've played our best game yet. I think if we come out focused and defend, our offense will come. We just have to focus. We're talented enough to win every game. But if we have moments where we're lapsing defensively and with our intensity, you'll see a game like you did today. I expect nothing but a great game tomorrow.

It seems that a lot of teams come out against the USA with a totally different focus and play their best games against you. Do you think that was the case today?
Perhaps. But they also just came off a loss, I think they lost by about 40 so I'm quite sure they wanted to come out and play well for themselves. We do have a target on our backs and it's been that way for years. It's just something that happens. We can't really focus on that, we just have to worry about us and how we're playing.

Katie Smith, Detroit Shock
On today's game:
Obviously that's a very good team. We didn't come out really strong, we didn't make shots but on top of not making shots we didn't get back and guard them. They came out playing well, we dug ourselves into a little hole. We fought out of it in the third quarter and tied the ball game up. Then in a minute, minute and a half they hit four threes and put themselves back up by double digits. Against good teams like this you can't do that. I can't say we didn't play hard, but we didn't play the smartest. We weren't able to score. We had a hard time putting the ball in the hole today. When you have days like that you have to find ways to get more stops.

Was it frustrating seeing a lot of easy shots bounce out?
Yeah, we missed a lot of shots, a lot of buckets that were open shots, layups � it's not like we did not have the looks. That's what's frustrating. We knew we had the looks that we usually knock down or we're capable of knocking down. So yeah, it's frustrating. But even more frustrating than that is that we didn't get the job done on the other end. We allowed them to go off a little bit. It was an eye-opener and it wasn't anyone's fault but our own.

Did you perhaps overlook them after watching their performance yesterday against CSKA Moscow?
I don't know about that, we just came out a little bit complacent in a sense. We were in the mindset of, 'oh, it's just another game.' I think we lost that sense of urgency, the sense of what we're playing for in the tournament and whatnot. So I think in general we were like, 'oh we can do this. We'll be able to turn it on or whatever.' We all know that's not the case. That's not how you win ball games, that's how you get beat and today that was a perfect example of that. We did have some moments where we really were lackadaisical in a way. We played really well in spurts, but you can't go back and forth like that. We have to be a little bit more together with our effort.

How do you, as one of the veteran leaders, get the team to rally back for tomorrow's game?
There's not a whole lot that needs to be said because we're all aware of what we need to do. It starts individually, not just set a pick here or do something there. All it is is effort and finding a way to get it done. It's boxing out, it's the little things, concentrating a little more on shots, playing defense better and playing hard. If you get beat, you get beat. But you don't want to ever feel like you got beat and didn't give it your all. This is something everybody is aware of it, everyone knows we all have to bring it and collectively it'll work. If we bring the energy then everything else will fall into place.