Comets Aim for Three-Peat : WNBA finals: Two-time champion Houston opens at New York in a best-of-three series showcasing Cooper vs. Weatherspoon.
The WNBA championship series begins tonight, and it features a matchup even the players--and at least one coach--would pay to see.
It’s the league’s premier scorer, Cynthia Cooper of the Houston Comets, against the league’s premier perimeter defender, Teresa Weatherspoon of the New York Liberty.
Van Chancellor, the Houston coach, gets in free tonight at Madison Square Garden, but he talked Wednesday as if he’d pay to see the best-of-three series.
“This is the ultimate offensive player and the ultimate defender, and both are inspirational leaders of their teams,” he said.
“It’s a matchup second to none.”
New York was the surprise winner in the East, getting a rematch of the 1997 championship against Houston, the only champion the three-year-old league has known.
Cooper, 36, is the only scoring champion the league has known, and Weatherspoon, 33, who has twice led the league in steals, draws the challenge.
“Cynthia is a great offensive player because she’s very smart, in the same sense Michael Jordan was so smart in the men’s game,” Weatherspoon said Wednesday.
“And she’s most dangerous when you’ve got her and she hasn’t taken her dribble yet. You can’t read her at all--she doesn’t tip you off at all.”
Weatherspoon had more steals than anyone else in the league, 78, but had a fractionally lower average than Yolanda Griffith, the leader.
Cooper has three consecutive scoring titles, 22.1 points this season, 22.7 last summer and 22.2 in 1997.
“Teresa is very strong, very physical and she loves to play defense--that’s her heart and soul,” Cooper said.
When these teams played a one-game championship final in 1997, the Comets won at Houston, 65-51. Houston (26-6) and New York (18-14) split their two meetings this season.
When the Comets routed the Liberty at Houston in July, 65-50, Weatherspoon held Cooper to 13 points (four for 17 from the field) and forced six turnovers. When New York won in August at Madison Square Garden, 74-71, Cooper had 26 points (nine for 17), and another six turnovers. She also missed a three-point shot at the final horn.
Fouling Cooper, Weatherspoon knows, isn’t an option. She shot far more free throws than anyone else in the league and made 89%, the WNBA’s third-best percentage. In the Liberty win, Cooper was eight for eight from the line.
Weatherspoon led the league in assists-per-turnovers ratio at 2.56, and only Sacramento’s Ticha Penicheiro had more assists, 226 to 205. Weatherspoon averaged 7.2 points, 10.0 in three playoff games against Charlotte.