Trade Talk Comes With Loss

This one, played out in a swirl of rumors that the Sparks are close to a trade, hurt the team more than any other.

Los Angeles got the full-court pressure defense it wanted in the first half but it evaporated like so much steam after halftime, and the Sparks lost to Charlotte, 75-64, in the midway game of the season before an announced crowd of 6,336.

When the media was admitted to the Sparks’ locker room, players sat, heads down, some whispering, most seemingly in pain.

Coach Julie Rousseau got some of the best defense of the season from her players, five times forcing Charlotte to run the shot clock close to zero and forcing the Sting to take a bad, missed shot each time.

But it happened only once in the second half.

All this, amid rumors the Sparks may be able to bring former USC All-American Pam McGee to Los Angeles in a trade with the Sacramento Monarchs.

“Jim Thomas [Sacramento’s managing general partner] called me this afternoon and said they wanted to deal McGee, but I told him I didn’t want to seriously consider it until after this game,” Spark President Johnny Buss said before the game.

Sacramento is said to want the Sparks’ 6-foot-5 Heidi Burge, 27, who has started five of 10 games, including Monday night’s when she had six points in 17 minutes.

McGee, one half of the Pam and Paula McGee twins who helped lead USC to back-to-back national titles in the early 1980s, did not go to practice in Sacramento Sunday and on Monday morning cleaned out her locker, sources said.

The 6-4 McGee was the WNBA’s second draft pick in April behind Tina Thompson of USC. But McGee, 34, is said to be unhappy with Sacramento Coach Mary Murphy, and in recent days the feeling is said to be mutual.

As a result her playing time has plummeted.

And so have Spark wins.

The team is 0-2 since routing Houston last week and 1-5 since beating Utah five games back. The Sparks are a woeful 5-9 at the halfway point and need to go 9-5 to reach .500.

Playoffs? Not likely, and Rousseau addressed that prospect.

“We know time is running out, we know we need to be one unit out there and we’re just not getting it done,” she said.

“The desire is there but the execution isn’t. We had good first-half defense but we had several communication breakdowns in our transition defense and that has to be fixed.”

Not to mention marksmanship. Los Angeles shot 36% from the floor, Charlotte 46%. The Sparks made their first 14 free throws but tailed off badly late, finishing 19 for 27.

But if the Sparks are hard to figure, how about Charlotte? The Sting is 6-0 at home, 0-6 on the road.

The Sparks made a late run at the Sting, after Charlotte took 50 seconds off the clock on two smart possessions and getting a 66-55 lead with 3:25 left.

Los Angeles’ Katrina Colleton made a great play on a steal and breakaway layup at 1:30, but the Sparks were outscored, 7-1, in the stretch.

Stinson had a game-high 23 points and Bullett added 17. Lisa Leslie had 18 points to lead Los Angeles.