It’s Now or Never for the Sparks

Aggressiveness and fan support were topics of the day Saturday at the Lakers’ training facility at El Segundo, where the Sparks and the Houston Comets had their final practices before this afternoon’s WNBA Western Conference playoff game at the Great Western Forum.

Spark Coach Michael Cooper stressed that his team must do a better job defending Sheryl Swoopes, who scored 22 points Thursday in the Comets’ 77-56 victory at Houston, giving the Comets a 1-0 lead in the best-of-three series.

“We allowed her to get into a rhythm early in the game and since she’s the most athletic of their big three, she can really hurt you,” he said.

“Then [Cynthia] Cooper gets in a rhythm, then Tina [Thompson] . . . “

Houston Coach Van Chancellor expects an aggressive attitude from the Sparks, who swept the Comets, 3-0, in the regular-season series.

“I expect L.A. will come after us like a house afire,” he said. “They’ll be aggressive and play really hard. I saw in the paper where [Michael] Cooper said their loss at our place was a blessing in disguise. I hope I don’t get blessed like that.

“This will be championship basketball between two heavyweights. Sure, their crowd will be in the game, just like ours was. But we’ve played before 19,000 at Madison Square Garden and won.

“The key to this game will be who executes their game plan the best under great pressure.”

The Sparks’ Tamecka Dixon wants to erase the memory of Thursday’s loss.

“It was incredible, all the mistakes, the turnovers [23, tying the season high] and the fact we weren’t running. . . . We’re ready. We’re all very anxious to turn the tide. I wish we were playing tonight,” she said.

Cooper also made reference to the turnovers.

“When you throw away the basketball 23 times, it’s hard to get your shooters into a rhythm,” he said. “And that’s also why we only had 15 assists--very uncharacteristic of us.”

One rhythm Cooper doesn’t want interrupted is Mwadi Mabika’s three-point touch. She attempted 12 shots Thursday and 11 of them were from three-point range, of which she made seven.

Houston, since its July 29 home loss to Los Angeles, has improved its defense. The Comets were giving up 64.5 points a game, but cut that to only 59.4 over its last five. In three playoff games, the Comets have given up 63.3.

The Sparks expect a crowd between 10,000-12,000 today.