Sparks Are Flying Now
It was Dec. 11, 1996, when 6-foot-5 Lisa Leslie strode confidently down a Los Angeles hotel hallway in a custom-made, lavender pants suit that seemed to rise clear to the ceiling.
She was bound for a news conference that would signal where her life was headed for the next decade or so.
It was announced that day that Leslie, fresh from a 60-0 stint at center for the 1996 U.S. Olympic women’s basketball team, had signed on with the WNBA and would play for the Los Angeles franchise.
In an instant, she became the Sparks’ first player, although the team didn’t yet have a nickname.
In a sense, she still is.
Only three players remain from the first (1997) Spark team, and Leslie is the only remaining starter.
And because the Sparks’ third head coach, Orlando Woolridge, conducted arguably the best draft of the WNBA’s 12 teams on May 4, the club was able to announce Tuesday that Spark playoff tickets were now on sale.
The Sparks will play the Sacramento Monarchs on Aug. 24 in a one-game playoff, the winner advancing to a best-of-three series against the Western Conference champion Houston Comets beginning Aug. 26.
Finally, Leslie has teammates sufficient to put her team into the postseason.
Mix in some luck--the Sparks’ only major injury was Ukari Figgs’ sprained ankle that kept her out three weeks--and you have a team most WNBA followers agree is second only to Houston in talent.
For one night, at least, the Sparks looked as if they had passed even the Comets. On July 18 at the Great Western Forum, the Sparks defeated the Comets, 78-65, to start a six-game win streak.
The Sparks seemed to run out of fuel the first week of August, winning only two of their next seven, until they beat Charlotte on Monday.
But the fact is, Leslie has driven this team to a level far above the Sparks’ first two scraggly teams, which went 14-14 and 12-18.
Leslie has become a high-post offensive player much of the time, or plays down low with 6-1 DeLisha Milton up high. Leslie is stronger, faster, more aggressive and shows more leadership than she did in her first two seasons.
When the Sparks were blown out in Houston last week, 83-61, and Woolridge had had his say in the locker room, Leslie asked the coaches to leave so the players could have a meeting among themselves.
Leslie, according to a teammate, asked each player to remember in detail what she had brought to the team’s two six-game win streaks earlier in the summer and to bring it back.
The Sparks began the season 3-4 before the players Woolridge tabbed in the draft kicked in. Milton, the team’s first draft pick, quickly became one of the best defenders in the league.
Then, when Figgs, the third-round pick from Purdue, went out because of the sprained ankle, Yugoslav Gordana Grubin filled in and still has Figgs’ job.
Leslie’s productive backups are Clarisse Machanguana, the second-round draft pick from the ABL, and another Yugoslav, Nina Bjedov.
The fourth draftee, ABL forward La’Keshia Frett, spent the first half of the season at the end of the Sparks’ bench. She’s now a starter and one of the league’s best defenders.
The fifth starter, Mwadi Mabika from Congo, is one of the league’s most dangerous players.
Says Woolridge: “If we need a basket to win a game and Mwadi’s 0 for 10, she gets the shot.”
The Sparks are still looking for some help before the playoffs to keep from having to play at Sacramento.
The Sparks want Sacramento to go no better than 1-1 in its last two games, and for themselves to go at least 2-1. That would leave both teams at 20-12, and the Sparks would win the tiebreaker. The first tiebreaker is head-to-head competition. The teams split, 2-2, this season, but the Sparks would win the second tiebreaker because they have a better record in the Western Conference and would therefore play Aug. 24 at home.
Right now 1-1 looks like a tall order for the Monarchs.
The best player in the league, Yolanda Griffith, had an arthroscopic knee procedure Monday for torn cartilage and is probably out for the season.
Griffith went out with 93 more rebounds than anyone else in the league and was averaging 18.8 points.
If the Monarchs gain home-court advantage for Aug. 24, the game will be at nearby UC Davis’ 7,800-seat gym because Arco Arena has been booked since 1995 for the U.S. gymnastics championships.
In the Eastern Conference playoff race, leader New York (16-13) and second-place Charlotte (15-16) are in, with Detroit (13-16) and Orlando (13-16) locked in a battle for the third spot.
Detroit has a better conference record than Orlando, but the two play each other twice over the next four days. Detroit plays at Charlotte on Friday.
The best-of-three championship series begins Sept. 2, in the city whose team has the lesser won-loss record. The team with the better season mark has Games 2 and 3, on Sept. 4 and 5, at home.