Sparks Keep Their Streak While Ending Comets’

For three-fourths of a basketball game Tuesday night, it looked as if the Sparks were the three-time WNBA champions, not the Houston Comets.

The Sparks, playing strong defense against the league champions, weakened down the stretch but Lisa Leslie led a finishing surge and the Sparks snapped Houston’s six-game winning streak with a 90-84 victory.

The Sparks (7-2), before 8,371 at the Great Western Forum, won their third in a row and strengthened their grip on second place in the Western Conference, behind Houston. It can now be called a race after Houston dipped to 9-2.

The Sparks, beating Houston for the fifth time at the Forum since 1997, committed only eight turnovers in a game they led for good after going ahead, 14-12, with 13:41 left in the first half.

All five Spark starters scored in double figures and Leslie was a low-post powerhouse in the stretch, scoring 11 points in the final 6 1/2 minutes. She finished with 21 points and 14 rebounds.

Houston’s Sheryl Swoopes, limited in the early going by Mwadi Mabika, erupted late to finish with a game-high 27 points. Cynthia Cooper had 24, but for a change, Houston was reduced to the Big Two instead of its usual Big Three.

Tina Thompson, in 40 minutes of being guarded by the Sparks’ DeLisha Milton, had only 11 points and seven rebounds.

Spark Coach Michael Cooper seemed annoyed anyone was surprised at the outcome.

“I’ll say it again: When this team plays the kind of basketball it’s capable of, it can beat anyone in this league,” he said.

“Our perimeter players played great defense and D’Nasty [the team’s nickname for Milton] did a great job on Thompson. Our low turnovers was a key--the one thing we didn’t want to do tonight was beat ourselves.”

Houston Coach Van Chancellor shrugged when asked about the Spark defense.

“We scored 84 points,” he said. “I don’t think either team guarded the other very well. But I thought their offense played remarkably well, with every starter in double figures. Lisa was great down the stretch for them, but as a team they made all the big plays--seemed like they got every loose rebound, every loose ball.”

The Sparks took Houston out of the game for nearly 10 minutes of the first half, after the Comets had opened with a 12-7 lead. From the 16:08 mark to 6:17 remaining in the half, Houston didn’t score a field goal while the Sparks at one point had a 24-16 lead.

The crowd seemed to become energized when Shaquille O’Neal took his courtside seat during a timeout, getting a rousing standing ovation. His timing was perfect--he appeared midway through a 9-0 Spark run.

Houston looked as if it might catch the Sparks late in the half, creeping to within 40-38, largely on free throws. But Ukari Figgs and Mwadi Mabika sank three-pointers in the last 49 seconds, Mabika’s with three seconds left, to provide the Sparks with a 46-41 halftime lead.

Mabika had 17 points at the half.

Notes

Chancellor and his assistant coach, Kevin Cook, attended the Laker-Pacer NBA finals game Monday night, left Staples Center and within minutes, he said, “I was fearing for my life.” He said a mob of about 500 people were running toward him, some of them shouting “Gun! Gun!” he said. He said he saw some of them throw smoke bombs at a police car and also tried (and failed) to set it on fire. He eventually got a ride from a town car driver to a downtown hotel and from there rode a cab to the Comet hotel in Marina del Rey. . . . Rookie Spark center Paige Sauer, kneed in the back in practice last week, did not dress for the third consecutive game.