Cooper, Comets Smother Sparks : WNBA: Two-time MVP has 22 points and nine assists as Houston gets must-win, 83-55. Woolridge ejected.
When championship-caliber performances are required, Cynthia Cooper will provide them.
That’s what the WNBA’s two-time most valuable player did Sunday afternoon, leading an 83-55 demolition of the Sparks that evened the best-of-three Western Conference finals at one victory apiece and potentially reduced Los Angeles’ season to one game.
Of course, tonight’s Game 3 ends the season for whichever team loses, so it could be Houston’s final game too.
But no one here is expecting that result, not after the Comets again showed 14,883 why they remain the WNBA’s most formidable team at home. They notched their 13th consecutive home victory, moved up to 16-1 this season at Compaq Center and 33-2 over the past two seasons.
And the Sparks, 72 hours after opening the series with a 75-60 victory at the Great Western Forum, provided not a hint that things will be different in Game 3.
Nor did they provide any indication beforehand that they were about to be handed their heads.
The 10-minute bus ride from the hotel to arena was uncommonly quiet. Good sign, thought Coach Orlando Woolridge.
“That’s good, that quiet bus,” he said in the Spark locker room before the game.
“When I played for those Detroit and L.A. Laker teams, that’s when you were ready to play well--when the bus was scary quiet.”
So much for scary quiet. Better they should learn how to defend Cooper.
She had a game-high 22 points--including four for seven from beyond the three-point arc--and nine assists in her 33 minutes. Then some reporter in the postgame interview had the temerity to ask if she considered herself the Comets’ leader.
“Sir, I’m the two-time MVP of this league,” she said.
“They’d better follow me. Hey, I’m kidding.”
No, she wasn’t kidding. Follow her the Comets did, and Cooper indicated she and her teammates believed that from somewhere, their late point guard, Kim Perrot, was watching and smiling.
“I think we showed the kind of defensive intensity Kim would have wanted us to have,” she said.
And how. Inside and outside.
Houston posts Polina Tzekova (11 points, eight rebounds) and backup Tammy Jackson (11 points, 10 rebounds) were far more aggressive inside than was the case at the Forum Thursday.
Same for the Comets on the perimeter, where Cooper, Sheryl Swoopes and Sonja Henning established a battle line on the three-point line and kept L.A. on its heels.
There were plenty of precedents for this.
The Sparks have one prominent weaknesses--they often falter against teams that play them with attacking, aggressive defenses. What happened Sunday has happened at New York, Houston twice before, Phoenix and Sacramento.
Cooper indicated her team has “recharged” since the Aug. 19 death of Perrot.
“We needed those two days off since L.A. to get together emotionally,” she said.
“It will take me more time than that [she was at Perrot’s bedside when she died of cancer], but we did recharge our batteries a bit.”
Now, it’s the Sparks who need recharging.
Sunday, their coach was over-charged.
Woolridge was ejected with 10:37 left and Houston ahead, 51-35, for going onto the court to protest a flagrant foul call on DeLisha Milton. At first, he was tagged with a technical foul. Seconds later, he got the thumb.
“Yes, I did use profanity,” he said later. “I said: ‘Why the hell aren’t you calling the little stuff on Houston?’ In the NBA, you can say all kinds of things to the officials. They let you calm down, and that’s it. Here, I see I don’t have that option.’ ”
Houston Coach Van Chancellor called the game a defensive sea change.
“Today we played aggressive Comet defense,” he said. “In L.A., we played neighborhood defense.”
WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS
Sparks vs. Houston
GAME 3
Tonight at Houston
Time: 7
TV: ESPN
SERIES AT A GLANCE
Game 1
Sparks 75, Houston 60
Game 2
Houston 83, Sparks 55
EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS
Charlotte vs. New York
Teresa Weatherspoon scored 19 points to help the Liberty even the best-of-three series.
Page 10
GAME 3
Tonight at New York
5, ESPN
SERIES AT A GLANCE
Game 1
Charlotte 78, New York 67
Game 2
New York 74, Charlotte 70