Sparks Need Stand at Home

Handicapping the WNBA’s Western Conference finals between the Sparks and Houston Comets can take you all over the basketball map, but the sum of it all really comes down to one simple equation.

And it has nothing to do with matchups, the season series or injuries.

The essential truth is that the Comets (26-6) are almost impossible to beat in their arena.

Compaq Center crowds are deafening, openly hostile to visiting teams. And by an amazing coincidence, the loudest of the Comet partisans sit about three feet behind the visiting bench.

Only America West Arena in Phoenix is as tough to play in for WNBA teams.

That’s why the Sparks (21-12), to have any chance to win this best-of-three series, need to beat the Comets tonight at the Great Western Forum in the series opener.

If they can do that, they will get two chances at beating the Comets in Houston Sunday and, if necessary, Monday, to advance to the championship series.

But in the last two seasons, Houston is 32-2 at home, counting 5-0 in the playoffs. In three seasons, the Sparks have yet to win there.

At the Forum it’s an entirely different story.

In fact, the Sparks have won two of the last three at the Forum against the Comets, 78-65 on July 18 and 68-64 on Friday.

But in the last one the Comets had learned 24 hours earlier that their former teammate, Kim Perrot, had died of cancer. League most valuable player Cynthia Cooper--who’d been at Perrot’s side when she died--didn’t play.

Now, Houston Coach Van Chancellor says, his players may have let their grief go and converted the entire experience into fuel.

“I think we now have a ‘Let’s not let Kim down’ attitude,” he said. “I know that’s my attitude. I think we see her loss now as a recognition of how fragile life is, how much we should appreciate being able to play this game and play it as a team.”

Chancellor said all the right things in his Wednesday conference call, when asked about the Sparks’ depth.

“The Sparks are not only deeper than we are, but it’s the fact that those players coming off the bench--[Penny] Toler, [Nina] Bjedov, [Ukari] Figgs--all are contrasts to the starters they replace,” he said.

To those subs he could have added Allison Feaster, Tamecka Dixon and Clarisse Machanguana.

“We have enough problems matching up with their starters. L.A.’s the deepest team in the league. They’ve got two Olympians [Lisa Leslie and DeLisha Milton] and a world-class point guard [Gordana Grubin],” he said.

“In a short series, where there’s maybe back-to-back games, that kind of depth can be a factor.”

Spark Coach Orlando Woolridge was still basking Wednesday in the aftermath of the 50-26 second half Tuesday that lifted his club to a 71-58 single-game, first-round playoff victory over Sacramento.

Chancellor wasn’t stretching it Wednesday when he called Grubin, the Yugoslav point guard, “world class.”

In the space of 1 minute 20 seconds, she made two three-point shots and in between stole the ball at midcourt and made a great assist pass to Mwadi Mabika for a breakaway basket.

She had a career-high nine assists and three steals to go with her 13 points.

Leslie led everyone with 22 points and 12 rebounds, showing clearly that the Sparks’ greatest strength is Houston’s greatest weakness--the center position.

Houston’s Bulgarian center, 6-foot-4 Polina Tzekova, is an average scorer (6.1 points a game), a decent rebounder (5.1), but lacks speed in transition plays and is a weak defender. As in the past, expect the far quicker Leslie (15.6 points, 7.8 rebounds) to be the Sparks’ go-to player tonight.

Then there’s Coop.

Cynthia Cooper’s uncanny ability to slash, knife and slither through traffic for her signature layups earned her a third consecutive scoring championship (22.1). She also finished fourth in assists (5.2), which means on the rare occasions when someone stops her drive to the basket, she can find the open scorer.

Cooper and Sheryl Swoopes average 40 points a game, which means hard duty tonight for Woolridge’s two top defenders, La’Keshia Frett and Mabika.