Sparks Endure a Rough Night All Around in Loss to Monarchs
The Sparks got off to another slow start Friday night--not necessarily a negative, since they’d won six in a row despite stumbling out of the blocks.
This time, it cost them their winning streak.
Rapidly improving Sacramento, with Yolanda Griffith playing a powerful game in the low post, staved off a Spark rally for a 77-72 victory at the Great Western Forum.
And that wasn’t the only bad news for Los Angeles’ WNBA franchise. On a night when the club was hoping for a crowd of 8,000, attendance was a season-low 5,436.
Attendance for the Sparks is going down, not up.
If this continues, crowd counts might rival those of the dearly departed ABL Long Beach StingRays, for whom a four-digit crowd was a big one.
Spark owner Johnny Buss says if the Sparks don’t average 10,000 a game this season, he and his father, Jerry Buss, might decide not to renew their three-year operating agreement with the NBA.
Friday’s loss, despite a Sparks’ comeback in the final 14 minutes, came against a team that had beaten league-leader Houston Thursday night in Sacramento. The Monarchs went a little rubber-legged in the stretch, but the Sparks simply had no answer to the ex-StingRay, Griffith.
She finished with 24 points and 11 rebounds and scored eight points in the first three minutes of the second half.
Sacramento (10-4) played only eight players and all of its starters went 31 or more minutes--24 hours after beating Houston. The Sparks (9-5) used all 10 players.
“This is a game I’d just as soon forget about,” Spark Coach Orlando Woolridge said. “We hung around, we played hard, but once again we put ourselves in a position of having to win after another slow start.
“I’ve got to find a starting lineup that can jump-start us.”
As the season approaches the halfway mark, Spark-Monarch games begin to assume great importance.
The new playoff format has three teams in each conference qualifying, with the No. 2 and No. 3 teams in each conference meeting in a one-game playoff, the winner playing the conference champion.
If Houston (12-2) is to be conceded the Western Conference title, then Sacramento and the Sparks, if the race were to end today, would meet in that one-game playoff.
The season series winner would be the home team. The Sparks lead, 2-1, on the season with one more game remaining.
For the Sparks, La’Keshia Frett registered a strong effort for the second consecutive game. She had a season-high 15 points in 25 minutes.
In the last 8 1/2 minutes of the first half, she scored 11 of the Sparks’ 16 points.
Allison Feaster, who had 11 points and seven rebounds in 25 minutes, had no answer about the slow starts.
“It’s something intangible, it’s not physical,” she said.
“We know we have to come out with the highest-possible intensity level, yet we don’t seem able to do that. If we could do it, our talent would just flow.”
Other Games
Houston 71, Phoenix 70--Sheryl Swoopes’ 10-foot jump shot with 18.7 seconds left gave the Comets (12-2) the victory at Phoenix. The Mercury’s last chance went awry when Jennifer Gillom launched an 18-foot shot that missed with four seconds left.
Phoenix (3-9) staged a 17-8 run that started with the ejection of hobbled Mercury Coach Cheryl Miller, who is nursing an Achilles’ tendon tear. The Mercury trailed, 61-53, when Miller argued with official Lamont Simpson and picked up her second technical of the game.
Orlando 66, Charlotte 61--The expansion Miracle (6-5) moved into second place in the Eastern Conference as Shannon Johnson scored 10 of her 15 points in the second half at Charlotte, N.C. It was the third consecutive road victory for Orlando, which lost by 17 points at home to the Sting six days earlier. Charlotte Smith had 12 points to lead Charlotte (5-6).
Nykesha Sales added 16 points for Orlando.
Charlotte lost Tracy Reid, the 1998 WNBA Rookie of the Year, because of a twisted right ankle with 7:42 remaining. Reid had to be helped to the locker room after the injury, which occurred less than a week after she came off the injured list because of a sore right knee. X-rays on her ankle were negative, but she was unable to return.
Orlando took a five-point halftime lead after Charlotte closed the half by missing 13 of 18 field-goal attempts, but the Sting opened the second half with an 11-0 run.