Woolridge Loses Sense of Humor as Sparks Lose Game to Liberty
Until Friday night, at 9:15 East Coast time, the Sparks had seen only Orlando Woolridge’s good side.
That’s the side that laughs a lot, tells wonderful stories about his boyhood on a Louisiana farm, his NBA years and caps them all off with a Bill Russell-like laugh.
But in the Sparks’ Madison Square Garden locker room after an 84-72 loss to the New York Liberty, no one was laughing, least of all the coach.
The Sparks never led and repeatedly gave up uncontested three-point shots to a team that rarely missed.
The Liberty made 10 of 17 three-points shots, with Vickie Johnson going five for six. The New York starters were nine for 10.
Johnson had a game-high 26 points.
Rookie Ukari Figgs led the Sparks with 13 points. Lisa Leslie had only 12 (she was averaging 24.0) and 10 rebounds.
The Sparks made only six of 25 three-point shots.
The game drew 13,587, which was impressive in that the Knicks were playing San Antonio in the NBA finals on TV Friday night.
Whatever Woolridge had to say to his team afterward, he said it quickly. The locker-room door was opened to media two or three minutes after it was closed. Woolridge stared at the reporters who came in, his players sat quietly, slumped over, staring at their feet.
“I have players on this team who are competing very well and I have players who are not competing,” he said, in words loud enough for his players to hear.
“There are going to be some changes made. Someone has to step up and play perimeter defense. We’re going to find out soon who wants to play.”
Johnson, a 5-foot-9, 26-year-old former Louisiana Tech player, made four of her three-point shots in the first half and the last one with 10:30 left, giving New York (3-1) a 45-40 lead.
But she made perhaps her most effective single play to cap a fast break, just after Los Angeles tied the score, 45-45, on a Tamecka Dixon layup.
After Sue Wicks scored inside for New York, Kym Hampton blocked a Leslie jump shot, launched a breakaway that Johnson scored on and was fouled. When she made her free throw for a 50-45 Liberty lead, Woolridge called time out.
Allison Feaster made a three-point shot to cut the margin to two, but that was as close as the Sparks (2-2) could come in the stretch.
Unlike their first three games, the Sparks could muster no rallies. The best surge was a 7-0 run that closed the gap from 76-63 to 76-70 with 3:36 to go, but the Liberty’s Sophia Witherspoon ended that with a put-back at 2:33.
Spark assistant coach Michael Cooper said, “Part of playing smart defense is recognizing at the outset who can hurt you. Johnson was the one we needed to pick up on, and we didn’t do it.”
New York got a strong game from sub Tamika Whitmore, a 6-2 rookie post from Memphis who scored 12 points and had seven rebounds against the Sparks’ taller inside players.
New York Coach Richie Adubato said, “We’re shooting the basketball very well right now, but we all know, too, that there will be nights when those shots won’t fall.”
Around the WNBA
In a game featuring two second-year teams, Jennifer Azzi scored 18 points and had two key three-point plays down the stretch to lead the Detroit Shock (3-1) to a 76-69 victory over the Washington Mystic (1-3) before before 13,423 at Washington. Nikki McCray and Chamique Holdsclaw led Washington with 19 and 18 points.