Burgess Makes the Shots When It Counts
Linda Burgess made two free throws with one-tenth of a second left Wednesday, giving the Sparks a crucial 78-76 WNBA victory before the biggest Forum crowd of the season, 14,457.
Burgess, who until asked to perform the heroine’s roll, had an off-night. Arguably the team’s best mid-range shooter, she made two of eight shots and finished with six points.
But she was two for two on free throws.
Burgess, a 6-1 forward, said afterward she had never been asked to win a game at the finish with a free throw.
“I can’t ever recall being in a situation like that,” said Burgess, a 70% free-throw shooter.
“It was a foul, it was a good call by the ref. I just tried to stay calm.”
And so Los Angeles’ hot finish (five wins in six starts) in its drive to a hoped-for semifinal playoff game next Thursday continues. Burgess’ free throws were crucial after Phoenix’s 69-54 victory at Sacramento was posted.
And so the numbers become downsized again.
With two games to go, Phoenix is 14-12, the Sparks 13-13. Los Angeles plays Sacramento on Friday night at the Forum, then finishes the season at Phoenix on Sunday.
The Mercury plays Charlotte at Phoenix on Friday.
Two more wins--no matter what Phoenix does--and the Sparks are the Western Conference champions, since they would have a 3-1 edge in games with the Mercury.
New York (16-10), with a two-game losing streak coming in, came up with a major effort Wednesday that fell an inch short.
The game-turning play came on a broken play by Spark guard Tamecka Dixon, who forced a drive with seconds left, lost the ball . . . and the Liberty’s Rebecca Lobo was whistled for a foul on Burgess in the mad scramble.
The Sparks’ Lisa Leslie (13 points, seven rebounds) had given L.A. a 76-74 lead with 19 seconds left, but New York’s Sophia Witherspoon got the tie with a driving layup over Leslie with 7.2 seconds left. That gave Witherspoon 27 points.
WNBA Notes
Penny Toler led the Sparks with 17 points. . . . Leslie has a commanding league rebounding lead, 240 (9. average) to 207 by Utah’s Wendy Palmer. She’s third in scoring (16.4), second in blocks (2.27). . . . Haixia Zheng has the league’s best shooting percentage, 59%. . . . Tamecka Dixon is averaging 18.8 points for her last six games.
Bridget Pettis scored 18 points to lead the Phoenix Mercury to a 69-54 victory over the Sacramento Monarchs and a sweep of their four-game season series. Jennifer Gillom added 15 points for Phoenix, which outscored Sacramento, 19-6, to start the second half for a 50-30 lead with 12:05 left in the game. Sacramento’s Ruthie Bolton-Holifield, the league’s second-leading scorer at 20.6 points a game, was only five for 18 from the field and fouled out with 1:28 to play with 12 points. The Monarchs (9-17) ended their home campaign before an announced crowd of 10,484, the second largest of the season at Arco Arena.