One Game, Two Sparks’ Losses
Nancy Lieberman-Cline, coach and general manager of the Detroit Shock, approached the Sparks’ General Manager Rhonda Windham in a Great Western Forum hallway minutes after a 77-76 victory over the Sparks Sunday night . . . and hugged her.
It was a gesture that was more of an apology than of friendship.
“We’re lucky, and we know it,” Lieberman said.
Windham looked at her and said: “I figure we get no more injuries the next five years.”
The Sparks (12-17), playing their final home game, watched their fourth regular, Mwadi Mabika, go down because of an injury. Then they immediately began another late-summer swoon . . . but staged a dramatic second-half comeback that fell one point and seconds short, before an announced 9,609.
Mabika tumbled to the floor with a sprained left ankle (pending X-rays today) and had to be carried off, joining three other sidelined Spark regulars, Haixia Zheng, Tamecka Dixon and Allison Feaster.
This happened with 11:44 left in the first half, less than a minute after she’d wowed the crowd with a one-pump layup.
The basket gave her team a 15-11 lead, but Detroit (16-13) then registered a 10-0 run and went from a 30-18 lead to a 42-23 advantage at halftime.
Interim Coach Orlando Woolridge, players later confirmed, then went into the first tirade of his nine-game tenure.
“You couldn’t print what I told them,” he said later.
“In so many words, I told them they just weren’t competing, that it wasn’t fair to themselves and all those fans who stuck with this team all season. I told them if they were going down, not to do it without a fight.
“Physically, they were just throwing us around in the first half.”
The Sparks were outrebounded, 16-10, in the first half and had only one offensive rebound.
It all turned around with a 10-0 Spark run to start the second half, on fastbreak plays by point Penny Toler and center Lisa Leslie, who had 30 points and 14 rebounds. Toler had 15 points and nine assists.
The Sparks never had a second-half lead but four times closed to within one point in the last 4:52.
Sandy Brondello, the WNBA’s best free-throw shooter who entered the game shooting 91%, sank four of four free throws in the final 13 seconds to seal the victory.
Detroit’s 6-foot-8 Razija Mujanovic hurt the Sparks early, with 14 points and seven rebounds in the first half. She had 25 points when she fouled out with 2:30 left.
The Sparks finish the season at Houston on Wednesday.
WNBA Notes
Jennifer Gillom scored 25 points as the Phoenix Mercury beat the Sacramento Monarchs, 85-69, before 6,788 to move closer to a playoff berth. Sacramento fell to 8-21. Phoenix (17-11) has two games left and a half-game lead over Charlotte for the fourth and final playoff berth.