Sparks Keep Dreams Alive
The Sparks won their fourth game in a row Monday night and took another look at their playoff math.
The conclusion was the same--a longshot.
The 86-72 victory over the Washington Mystics, before 8,224 at the Great Western Forum, put Los Angeles at 10-13 with seven games left. The Mystics, who lost their ninth in a row, are 2-20.
As Coach Orlando Woolridge put it: “As long as there’s a mathematical chance, there’s a chance. . . . That’s why people win the lottery once in a while.”
The WNBA playoffs match four teams, two conference champions plus two wild-card teams, regardless of conference. Six teams have more wins than the Sparks, so two of them would have to completely collapse while the Sparks would almost have to win out.
The Sparks leave early this morning on their toughest trip of the season, four Eastern games in eight days.
Actually, winning four in a row is remarkable enough, with three starters sitting Monday night because of injuries--Haixia Zheng, Allison Feaster and No. 2 scorer Tamecka Dixon, injured Saturday in Utah.
Her offensive absence was made up by a major defensive effort by her replacement, Katrina Colleton.
The Mystics’ Nikki McCray is the WNBA’s No. 4 scorer (17.8) and had 18--many on breakaways--in the Sparks’ 77-68 victory at Washington last week.
Monday, McCray--maybe the fastest player in the league--had six points with six minutes to go and finished with 14.
“It was just a matter of getting back on the transition, cutting her off,” Colleton said.
New team, new attitude, she added.
“The first thing we had to do to turn this around was to believe we can win the games,” she said, “and that’s where we are right now.”
Woolridge was generally happy with his club’s defensive effort, but not with how the Sparks finished. They had a 70-46 lead with 7:04 to go.
“I wasn’t happy at losing that big lead, and I let ‘em know about it,” he said. “That was a slip and we just can’t allow it.”
Lisa Leslie scored 21 points to lead the Sparks. Mwadi Mabika had her first WNBA double-double (10 points and 10 rebounds) and Penny Toler’s six steals were a club record.
Notes
Tamecka Dixon is having an MRI on her knee today. . . . The Sparks made only one basket over the final 10:05 but made 22 of 30 free throws. They were 40 of 51 from the line overall.