It Will Take Longer to Arrive at Same WNBA Destination

As the expanded WNBA playoffs begin today, it looks as if a simple question gets a simple answer.

Can anyone stop the Houston Comets?

No.

Probably not the Charlotte Sting (18-12), which drew the Comets (27-3) in the first of two best-of-three semifinals beginning today at Charlotte, N.C. The Eastern Conference winners, the Cleveland Rockers (20-10), play the Mercury (19-11) today at Phoenix.

Last season, the postseason consisted of one-game semifinals and a title game, Houston beating New York for the championship, 65-51.

The Sting, which needed Detroit to beat New York in the regular-season finale to reach the final four, hasn’t presented any evidence it’s up to this challenge.

The Comets traveled twice to Charlotte, winning first by 14 points, then by seven. In the last meeting, Aug. 10 in Houston, the Comets won, 70-67.

It is Houston’s athletic, slashing perimeter players, Cynthia Cooper and Sheryl Swoopes, against Charlotte’s big inside game, featuring Rhonda Mapp, Tracy Reid and Vicky Bullett. The principal offensive producer is guard Andrea Stinson, who averages 15 points.

Houston got a big lift Thursday when point guard Kim Perrot was listed as probable for the game. She suffered a sprained ankle Wednesday against the Sparks.

Perrot triggers Houston’s transition game, getting teams on their heels as they try to defend the Comets’ open-court offense.

Cooper, one of three former USC players on the Comets (with Tina Thompson and Monica Lamb), led the WNBA in scoring at 22.7 points a game and made 40% of her league-high 160 three-point shots.

She also shot 69 more free throws than anyone, and finished fourth in accuracy (85.4%).

Cooper, Swoopes and Thompson are ranked fourth, seventh and eighth in the league in three-point shooting.

“I like Houston to win it all, but first they better bring their outside shooting games and go over the top of those big inside people Charlotte has,” Spark point guard Penny Toler said.

Cleveland, like Charlotte, plays muscle ball, but that hasn’t worked yet against Phoenix, which is 3-0 against the Rockers.

Eva Nemcova, Isabelle Fijalkowski and Janice Braxton are big, strong and run the court well.

Fijalkowski finished sixth in rebounds and Nemcova--the league’s best pure shooter--won the three-point title at 45.2%.

Phoenix’s counterpoint to Fijalkowski is Jennifer Gillom, like Houston’s Cooper a league MVP candidate. Strong and smart, she’s a prodigious mid-range scorer on fadeaway jumpers and also baseline drives.

Perhaps the most compelling matchup is at point guard, where Cleveland’s Suzie McConnell Serio and Phoenix’s Michele Timms square off.

McConnell Serio, 32, has four children and hadn’t picked up a basketball in five years--since the 1992 Olympics--before launching her comeback a year ago.

She finished second in assists, eighth in steals and third in three-point shooting and ran her offense with an up-tempo style that could be compared only to Timms’.

A 33-year-old Australian, Timms isn’t among statistical leaders but is an excellent transition player. When the Mercury needs big plays in the final minutes, the players look to Timms.

WNBA Notes

New York Liberty guard Teresa Weatherspoon who led the league in steals with 3.33 per game, repeated as the WNBA’s Defensive Player of the Year. Weatherspoon drew 28 of a possible 45 votes from a panel of sports writers and broadcasters. Houston’s Kim Perrot finished second with eight votes, while Utah’s Margo Dydek had seven.

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WNBA Playoffs

Semifinals, best-of-three:

Comets-Sting

* Today: Houston at Charlotte, 1 p.m., Channel 4

* Game 2: Charlotte at Houston, Monday, 7 p.m., ESPN

* Game 3: Charlotte at Houston, Tuesday, TBA, ESPN*

Rockers-Mercury

* Today: Cleveland at Phoenix, 5 p.m., Lifetime

* Game 2: Phoenix at Cleveland, Monday, 5 p.m., ESPN

* Game 3: Phoenix at Cleveland, Tuesday, TBA, ESPN*

*--If necessary