Sparks Cruise Past Mercury
The Sparks tore apart WNBA playoff pretender Phoenix on Friday night, 86-71, in Game 1 of their Western Conference playoff series at America West Arena.
The Sparks can make the Mercury disappear in Game 2 of the best-of-three series at the Great Western Forum on Sunday afternoon.
Actually, Phoenix disappeared early Friday. The Sparks jumped out to a 31-14 lead with 11 minutes left before halftime on the strength of their 72% field-goal shooting. They finished at 51.5%, outrebounded Phoenix, 38-26, and committed only eight turnovers.
Lisa Leslie logged her 17th double-double of the season, 20 points and 11 rebounds, blocked two shots and altered the path of many others.
“We came in with the intent of getting off to a fast start, take the crowd out of the game and our game plan worked, our shots were falling and we stuck with it,” Coach Michael Cooper said.
Actually, there wasn’t much of a crowd to begin with.
Only 6,127--the smallest crowd in Mercury history--showed up. The explanation: Phoenix clinched its playoff berth only six days previously and had little time to promote the game.
The Sparks expect about 10,000 Sunday afternoon.
Leslie had a strong effort at both ends.
With 9:11 left in the first half, she rebounded on the defensive end, pivoted and rifled a 70-foot pass to a streaking Nicky McCrimmon, who scored for a 29-12 lead.
Then, she put two big plays together in less than a minute in the second half.
With 11:09 left, Leslie went airborne inside and forced a driving Brandy Reed and to miss her shot.
At the other end, when guarded tightly inside by 6-foot-3 Jennifer Gillom, Leslie missed a 12-footer but followed her shot and went up and over Gillom with a putback.
That made the score 55-40.
The Spark lead grew throughout, going to 65-44 when Ukari Figgs scored on a breakaway.
Defensively, Cooper’s team shackled the Mercury and Reed, one of the league’s best offensive players. When the Sparks won here last week, 77-63, Reed had 25 points.
This time, she had 17 on seven fewer attempts.
Cooper assigned Mwadi Mabika to guard Reed and it was four minutes before Reed even had a touch.
With 9:30 left before halftime, she only had a jump shot and two free throws to show for her effort.
Tamecka Dixon (14 points, five assists) had this to say: “We played a pretty good game. On the road, any time you can play a first 10 minutes like we did tonight, you take the crowd out early.”
The Sparks must guard against a Sunday letdown, she said.
“We’ll need this same effort Sunday because [Mercury Coach] Cheryl [Miller] will have her team ready to play better than they did tonight,” she said.
“It’s amazing what the playoffs can do for you,” said Leslie, alluding to two subpar efforts to close the regular season, an overtime win at Seattle and a 12-point loss at Utah on Wednesday.
“We were able to get very focused, to play hard tonight. Our biggest thing in preparing for this game was not to have any letdowns.”
There was only one, four minutes into the second half. Phoenix’s Lisa Harrison score inside and, on the next possession, Reed got away from Mabika and scored a three. Then Dixon, alone on a breakaway, blew a layup.
That made the score 48-35 and Cooper, furious, called time.
Mabika righted the Spark ship, however, scoring a three from the corner at 13:32, making the score 51-35.
The Sparks never looked back.
(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)
WNBA PLAYOFFS
SPARKS
vs. PHOENIX
L.A. leads best-of-three series, 1-0
THE SERIES
Game 1
Sparks86
Phoenix71
Game 2
at Forum,
Sunday, 2:30 p.m., ESPN2
Game 3*
at Forum,
Tuesday, TBA
* if necessary