Sparks Fly, but Mercury Rises to Occasion

It had everything Spark players, coaches and management could have asked for.

It had a big crowd, announced at 10,494, an dramatic finish with the Forum fans on their feet, cheering the most exciting basketball Los Angeles has played yet.

It even had 39-year-old Nancy Lieberman-Cline of the Phoenix Mercury grabbing Los Angeles’ Jamila Wideman by the throat at halftime.

But the Sparks had one problem. They lost, 57-56.

In the game’s last tenth of a second, with the Sparks leading, 56-55, the Mercury’s Toni Foster picked up a loose ball after Lisa Leslie blocked a driving Bridget Pettis and threw in a 10-footer.

Cheryl Miller came off the Phoenix bench and began hugging everyone in sight, amid a shower of confetti, which a confused member of the Sparks’ staff fired into the air, apparently thinking Los Angeles had won.

Instead, the Sparks dropped to 4-6 in the WNBA’s Western Conference while Miller’s Mercury reached 6-3 with a stunning comeback.

The Sparks sizzled for much of the way. They went on a 13-2 run in the first half and opened a 34-26 halftime lead.

Oh, about halftime.

As the players walked off the court, Lieberman-Cline suddenly had Wideman by the throat. And she held on to it, for perhaps five seconds, or until Wideman wiggled free.

Lieberman-Cline’s version: “Jamila came up to me and forearmed me in the throat, and I didn’t even have the ball. So yes, I grabbed her by the throat. I told her never to do that again--not to this player, anyway.”

Wideman’s version: “She didn’t show much self-control. I think she was just frustrated.”

The Sparks had a 50-43 lead with 4:30 to play, and were ahead most of the game.

But consecutive Michelle Timms three-pointers, the second with 2:24 to play, cut the Sparks’ lead to 52-49.

Los Angeles’ Linda Burgess made two free throws to make it 54-49, but Foster then made a free throw and Pettis made a three-pointer with 1:02 remaining to make it 54-53.

Timms made two free throws to give Phoenix a 55-54 lead, but the Sparks’ Heidi Burge made two free throws with 10 seconds left for a 56-55 lead.

Then came the killer. Pettis drove the lane, Leslie blocked the shot, and the ball bounced loose. Foster, a 6-foot-1 player from Iowa, threw in an eight-footer at the buzzer.

Many wondered if Foster’s shot beat the clock. Phoenix TV broadcasters said it did, by a tenth.

WNBA Notes

No one, not even New York, will run away with a conference championship, Los Angeles coach Linda Sharp said before Sunday’s game. “The key is who best will handle the travel, using their bench and staying healthy, using a lot of sets so you don’t get predictable,” she said. “But the biggest factor is the travel. Women athletes have never done this. In Europe, they play maybe twice a week and the trips aren’t anything like this.”

Sharp said the Sparks were effectively down to eight players when the club lost at home to Cleveland last week. In addition to guard Tamecka Dixon having an ankle sprain, guard Mwadi Mabika was under medication after having three teeth extracted, she said.

The emergence of 6-5 Heidi Burge as an effective low-post player is a godsend for Lisa Leslie, Sharp added. “Lisa was taking a physical pounding in the low post so now we can get her on the high post, and get the ball down low to Heidi.”