With Dixon Still Out, Sparks Fall to Shock

Without Lisa Leslie less than two weeks ago, the Sparks nearly beat Detroit, but they couldn’t come close Wednesday without Tamecka Dixon and saw their four-game win streak expire in a 73-61 loss to the Shock at Auburn Hills, Mich.

The loss made Los Angeles’ dim playoff hopes all but invisible with six games to go. The Sparks (10-14) need to catch teams like Cleveland (14-9), New York (14-10), Detroit (13-11) and Phoenix (13-9) to capture one of two wild-card berths.

Leslie responded to the absence of Dixon with 30 points, 11 rebounds, three blocks and three steals. Point guard Penny Toler added 16 points in 39 minutes, but no other Spark had more than seven. It was too big a lack of scoring punch for the Sparks, who got 26 points from Dixon in a 69-67 loss at Detroit on July 25.

Also, Los Angeles has seldom missed 6-foot-8 center Haixia Zheng more than it did Wednesday, when the Shock’s 6-8 Razija Mujanovic had 15 points and six rebounds in a half-court game in which Zheng might have shined.

The Sparks hope Dixon, who has missed two games because of a knee injury, can rejoin the team in New York for Saturday’s game with the Liberty. Zheng, also out with a knee injury, may return soon thereafter.

In front of 9,872, the Sparks fell behind early Wednesday, managed to get ahead, 14-12, and then were outscored, 23-9, the rest of the first half. Los Angeles shot 28% in the opening 20 minutes and trailed, 35-23, at halftime and fell further behind, 53-29, with 12:34 to go in the game.

The Sparks didn’t get their fourth field goal of the second half until a Toler jumper made it 57-35 with eight minutes left. They then put together a 19-5 run in the final minutes.

WNBA rookie-of-the-year-candidate Korie Hlede, the Shock’s point guard, had 20 points.

For the game, L.A. made 31.3% of its shots and was trounced on the boards, 45-35. Detroit’s 6-8 Cindy Brown had 12 points and 10 rebounds.

Notes

The Eastern Conference-leading Charlotte Sting rallied for a 69-61 victory over the New York Liberty at Charlotte, N.C.

Tora Suber sank a three-pointer with 3:33 left to cap a 10-2 Charlotte second-half run, and the Sting made 10 of 10 free in the final minutes to seal the victory. The Sting (17-8) was led by Andrea Stinson’s 19 points and Vicky Bullett’s 17 points and nine rebounds. Vickie Johnson led the Liberty with 21 points, and Rebecca Lobo had 12 points and 11 rebounds.

Off the court, a majority of WNBA players have agreed to form a union, with the National Basketball Players Assn. serving as their collective bargaining representative. “So far, we’ve received signed union cards from close to 100 of the 120 WNBA players since our organizing drive began about four weeks ago,” said Billy Hunter, director of the NBPA. Hunter said the NBPA wants to begin negotiating with the WNBA immediately.

“We are very pleased that the WNBA is as successful as it has been, and we feel that the time has come to ensure that the players receive their fair share of the benefits that derive from that success,” said Bruce Levy, whose agency represents more than 30 WNBA players. The WNBA, which surpassed 1 million in attendance this season on July 28, is averaging over 10,000 per game, an 8% increase from last season.