Shock Absorbers Help Sparks Handle Bumps in the Road
The Sparks stretched their road winning streak to a WNBA-record 10 Wednesday, but in the aftermath nothing seemed to add up.
Not in the Sparks’ favor, anyhow.
How many times does a team shoot 53% and outrebound its opponent, 38-19, and lose?
That’s what happened to the Detroit Shock (12-16) on a night when Tamecka Dixon made two free throws with 12.6 seconds remaining to ensure an 84-81 Los Angeles victory.
The numbers:
* The Sparks (26-3) have won 10 straight overall and their 10th in a row on the road broke the league record of nine they shared with the 1998 Houston Comets.
* They have won 22 of their last 23.
* In games decided by six or fewer points, the Sparks are 8-1.
Assuming Houston keeps winning too, the Sparks can clinch a tie for the Western Conference championship Saturday in Phoenix.
If Houston wins its remaining four, the Comets would finish 27-5. A win at Phoenix would be Los Angeles’ 27th and having swept Houston, 3-0, the Sparks hold the edge in the head-to-head tiebreaker.
In a grinding, physical game markedly similar to their 73-66 victory at Minnesota on Monday, the Sparks were once again obliged to find a way to win in the final two minutes.
And this, Coach Michael Cooper told his team afterward, is how it’s going to be for the final four regular-season games.
“We’re walking around now with bull’s-eyes on our backs,” he said.
“We haven’t won anything. Houston’s still the champ. So we’re now having to play like champions, to beat teams [like Detroit] who think tough, physical basketball is our weakness. But I think tonight we showed we can scratch, dig and fight our way through that and find a way to win.”
Dixon was brilliant in the stretch run. She finished with 17 points, 12 of them in the final 11:05.
For most of the game, it seemed as if the Shock--still in the playoff hunt--just might upend the Sparks, who didn’t lead until 66-65, with 5:56 left.
It was an entertaining finish for the announced crowd of 7,848. After the Sparks went in front, the lead changed hands 10 times in three minutes, or until Mwadi Mabika’s three-pointer gave Los Angeles the lead for good, 77-75.
Detroit came after the Sparks with a surprisingly effective inside game. Astou Ndiaye-Diatt, a 6-foot-3 post player from Senegal with a nine-point scoring average, had 15 points and 12 rebounds. And guard Dominique Canty scored 17.
Lisa Leslie had a game-high 27 points for the Sparks before fouling out with 1:13 to go.
“Ndiaye usually won’t take that many shots, she kind of caught us off guard,” Leslie said.
For Dixon, it was the second time this season she’d made decisive, waning-moments free throws. On July 15, she made two to beat Minnesota, 58-57, with 1.3 seconds left.
When she went to the line with 12.6 left Wednesday, it was to pad an 82-81 lead that Leslie’s backup, Clarisse Machanguana, had created with a put-back with 51 seconds left.
Detroit’s Wendy Palmer had a three-point try with two seconds left to tie it but it wasn’t close.
Cooper was unhappy his inside players didn’t block out better under the offensive board.
As Dixon put it: “The reason they shot 53% was because they were getting shots from point-blank range, right underneath.”
Spark assistant Marianne Stanley was with her ailing mother in Philadelphia on Wednesday.