Comets Crowd Out L.A.
In the money season--that is, the playoffs--the Houston Comets still rule the world of women’s pro basketball.
No one can question that now, not after the manner in which the three-time WNBA champions turned out the lights on the Sparks Sunday afternoon, sending Houston into its fourth consecutive championship series.
Before 13,884 at the Great Western Forum--in probably the last basketball game to be played there--two unlikely Houston players, starter Janeth Arcain and reserve center Tammy Jackson, made the money plays at the finish of one of the most fiercely contested WNBA games at the arena.
The Comets won the Western Conference championship with a 74-69 victory. Today, they have their first day off in two weeks, awaiting the winner of the Cleveland-New York Eastern Conference series.
On an afternoon when the Sparks had the second-largest crowd in franchise history--the biggest was 14,284 for the 1997 opener--cheering their every move, they did what ordinarily would beat Houston. They limited league most valuable player and scoring champion Sheryl Swoopes to eight points and Tina Thompson to seven.
The Sparks outrebounded the Comets, 34-25, but they had no answers for Arcain and Jackson in the final minutes on a day when Cynthia Cooper had a game-high 29 points and five assists in 37 minutes.
And so after a 28-4 regular season, which included two 12-game win streaks and three wins over Houston, the Sparks are done, swept in two games in the best-of-three conference finals.
Arcain, with Tamecka Dixon’s hand in her face, made one of the plays of the game--a running jump shot in the lane with 39 seconds left on the game clock and two seconds on the shot clock--to give Houston a 71-69 lead.
Then the 5-foot-11 Brazilian, who averaged 8.4 points in the regular season, made three of four free throws in the final 20 seconds to seal the victory. She finished with 16 points.
Van Chancellor, the Comet coach, corrects anyone using the term “Houston’s ‘Big Three,’ ” meaning Swoopes, Cooper and Thompson.
“It’s the Big Four,” he always points out. “You left out Arcain. There’s no way we’d have three championship rings without her.”
Jackson, the 6-4, 36-year-old reserve who averaged 11.7 minutes this season, played 22 minutes and had 12 points and four rebounds Sunday. When the Sparks seized a 64-60 lead on a Dixon three-pointer with 6:32 left, it was Jackson who broke their hearts seconds later by scoring on a drive.
With 5:19 left, she scored inside to get Houston another lead, 65-64.
After Allison Feaster of the Sparks made an 18-footer with 1:09 left for a 69-69 tie, L.A. didn’t score again.
“What a great women’s professional basketball game,” Chancellor said after a second half in which neither team led by more than four points. “The last 10 minutes seem like a blur to me, but it seemed like Janeth made a bunch of big plays for us.”
Chancellor praised Cooper, who after the game affirmed her plans to retire after the season.
“Cynthia made the plays that kept us in it,” he said. “And you should all know Sheryl [Swoopes] was sick before the game. She threw up.
“We beat a great team on their court today--I don’t think I ever saw my players as happy as I did just now in our locker room.”
Spark Coach Michael Cooper praised his players for their season, but expressed disappointment at the season’s end, adding: “We ran up against champions today and we gave it our best. . . . But I guarantee you, if you asked Houston if they’d want to play us again tomorrow, they’d say no.
“I tip my hat to them--they made all the big plays they had to make to beat us.”
Lisa Leslie, who had 12 points and 14 rebounds, was already thinking about next year.
“We feel like we did a great job this year and we just lost to a very good team,” she said. “I don’t know that we have to make so many changes other than just the experience of playing in the Western Conference finals once again.”