Sparks Find a Defense to Snap Out of Slump
In the basketball gospel according to Spark Coach Orlando Woolridge, good things happen to those who play 40 minutes of hard, jaw-to-jaw defense.
And so it was that the Sparks regained their balance Saturday night at Arco Arena, playing a grinding, knock-’em-down, no-holds-barred defense in the stretch to beat the Sacramento Monarchs for the second time, 76-73.
The Sparks improved to .500 (4-4) with only their second win in six games. Sacramento is 5-3.
Appropriately, the final horn blew just after Spark defenders Tamecka Dixon and DeLisha Milton blocked two Sacramento shots in the final five seconds, Dixon knocking away a Ticha Penicheiro jump shot and Milton swatting a desperate pickup-and-launch shot by Lady Hardmon.
The crowd of 9,216 got its money’s worth in this one.
To start with, it was a matchup of two of the best low-post players in the women’s game, Sacramento’s Yolanda Griffth and the Sparks’ Lisa Leslie.
Griffith won the numbers battle--25 points, 15 rebounds, three steals, two assists--but Leslie, playing with a brace to protect a sprained right wrist, won the game.
The two knocked each other down many times, and more often than not helped each other up.
“I was determined that if I couldn’t get the rebound, she wasn’t going to get it either,” said Leslie, who had nine points and seven rebounds.
The Sparks’ center put her team ahead with 1:11 to go. She crashed into the paint and lofted a six-foot, left-handed hook shot that went in for a 73-71 lead. Sacramento scored only one basket after that, while Milton and Ukari Figgs made three free throws in the last minute.
“I am so proud of these players tonight,” Woolridge said. “What you saw tonight was world-class defense, for 40 minutes. If we bring that effort from now on, we’re going to be a very good basketball team. And I’m so proud of Lisa. She was up against one of the best players in the league [Griffith], playing with one hand, and she competed.”
Milton, who was the team’s first draft pick from the ABL, had her best WNBA game yet--20 points, five steals, four assists, three blocks and nine rebounds. She was assertive offensively, which is another element in Woolridge’s gospel.
“She was playing to make Lisa better, deferring to her,” Woolridge said. “I just told her to stop that, to take it to the hoop, to take the shot when she had it.”
Said Milton: “Lisa encourages me, too, to take my shots when I had them. My best game? I’ve had other good games. But the best is yet to come.”
Another stellar Spark defensive effort was registered by Mwadi Mabika (15 points), who put the clamps on long bomber Ruthie Bolton-Holifield, who made six of eight three-point shots and had 27 points in Sacramento’s 107-69 win over Utah Thursday. She had two points Saturday. Mabika held her to one-for-nine shooting, 0 for 3 from the behind the arc.