Sparks Forced to Rally Late to Beat Short-Handed Starzz
It figured.
The Utah Starzz, arguably the worst team in the WNBA, came to the Forum Friday night without their best player, Natalie Williams, and, because of a trade Thursday night, only eight players in uniform.
For the Sparks, looking for a fifth straight win and their 12th in their last 14 games, it looked like a lock.
And it was--with just under four minutes left in the game.
The Sparks won, 87-77, but needed a major late-game effort. The score was tied, 58-58, with about eight minutes left when Los Angeles embarked on a 13-0 run.
Guard Gordana Grubin hit back-to-back three-pointers during the run--the second time in the game she had made consecutive threes--and finished four for six from beyond the arc.
The second-place Sparks (15-6) pulled to within 2 1/2 games of idle Houston in the Western Conference race. The Starzz (7-14) are last in the West.
The Sparks won before another small crowd, 5,576. In their last four home games, the largest crowd has been 6,896.
Utah’s Williams, the league’s No. 3 scorer and rebounder, missed her second straight game because of a tendon injury in her left foot.
Late Thursday, Utah traded veterans Wendy Palmer and Olympia Scott-Richardson to Detroit for forward Cindy Brown and guard Korie Hlede, but both were taking their physicals Friday in Salt Lake City and didn’t travel to Los Angeles.
Starzz Coach Fred Williams saluted his team, which jumped to a 6-0 lead and had a 39-37 halftime advantage. Their were eight second-half lead changes before Grubin’s three-point display put the Sparks out of danger.
“I’m proud of my players,” Williams said.
“We came in here with one player [Williams] hurt, two others who haven’t joined us, and I felt we got a really focused effort,” he said.
“These players can walk out of this locker room with their heads up and feel proud.”
Spark Coach Orlando Woolridge said his team was lulled by the situation.
“Utah gave us a major effort, and I kind of saw it coming,” he said.
“When I was a player, I remember when you played a team missing a bunch of people, then you let down.
“But when it got to crunch time, I saw our players looking at each other and kind of saying: ‘Hey, we’ve gotta play.’ ”
Around the WNBA
The Sparks may be moving to Staples Center sooner than expected, team President Johnny Buss indicated Thursday night. The team was to remain at the Forum through the 2000 season, since the Democratic Party has the Staples Center for more than three weeks next summer for its convention. Staples Center President Philip Anschutz has told his staff he wants the Sparks in Staples next summer. . . .
In another WNBA game, Dawn Staley had 13 points and seven assists and the surging Charlotte Sting passed New York atop the Eastern Conference standings with a 62-58 victory over the Liberty before 6,537 at Charlotte, N.C. Andrea Stinson added nine of her 11 points in the second half to help Charlotte (12-10) run its season-high winning streak to four games. New York fell to 11-10. The Sting also got 14 points and 10 rebounds from Rhonda Mapp in a game that featured the kind of tight play expected of teams battling for the conference lead late in the season. There were 18 ties and 16 lead changes, with neither team leading by more than five points. New York forced 19 turnovers and converted them into 24 points. But the Liberty didn’t score in the final three minutes and was held to 14 rebounds--the lowest total in the WNBA this season--on the way to its seventh loss in 10 road games.
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The Associated Press contributed to this story.