Sparks Prepare for Season With Comets in Mind
Not surprisingly, Michael Cooper has a defensive plan for preventing the Houston Comets from a fourth WNBA championship this summer.
The plan, says the defense-oriented former Laker, is to reduce Houston’s Big Three--Cynthia Cooper, Sheryl Swoopes and Tina Thompson--to the Big Two.
“If you take one of those players well below her average, that makes a lot of difference when you’re trying to beat them,” he said.
The Sparks, who begin their 32-game season at the Forum on Wednesday night against Utah, don’t play Houston until June 20 at the Forum, but the Sparks’ first-year head coach already has his outline in place. In his cross-hairs is Swoopes.
The key, he said, will be Los Angeles’ 6-foot-5 rookie reserve from Connecticut, Paige Sauer.
“Paige has shown us in training camp she can play strong inside in this league,” Cooper said.
“That will enable us to move DeLisha Milton out on the perimeter and guard Sheryl Swoopes. DeLisha’s a great defender, she can handle that assignment.”
Good thing. Last summer, no one could. Houston was only 4-3 against the Sparks a year ago, 2-2 in the regular season. But against the entire league the Comets were 26-6 during the regular season. That gave Houston home-court advantage in the playoffs, where the Comets rallied to defeat the Sparks in the best-of-three series by winning the last two Western Conference final games at the Compaq Center, 83-55, and 72-62.
“Defensively, I felt we were just a little soft in those last two games, and I think this time by using Milton outside on Swoopes we can change that,” said Cooper, who at the time was an assistant coach to Orlando Woolridge.
In training camp, Sauer, a second-round draft choice who was a backup center for Connecticut’s national championship team, has paired effectively inside with Lisa Leslie. Spark coaches say Sauer runs the court better than they anticipated, making easier the decision to put the 6-1 Milton on the perimeter defensively.
Swoopes, far and away the league’s quickest player, finished fourth in steals (2.38 per game) last season and third in scoring (18.3). Against the Sparks, she scored 25, 21, 20, 25, 17, 8 and 23 points.
Can Milton stop Swoopes? That, more than any other question, defines the Spark challenge in the summer of 2000.
Last season Houston was the only team with a better regular-season record than L.A., which was the only team to defeat the Comets more than once.
Whether the Milton-Sauer combination will work against Houston is unclear, but interestingly it wasn’t Sauer that Cooper originally had in mind for the role.
Months ago, although the Sparks did not reveal it publicly, they were close to a deal to bring New York veteran Sue Wicks to Los Angeles, a trade that dissolved when Rebecca Lobo reinjured her knee, creating a shortage for the Liberty at forward.
Cooper won’t say which players were offered to New York in the proposed trade.
This season it remains to be seen if the Sparks are better than they were a year ago. For reasons yet to be fully explained, the club exposed two solid players in the expansion draft, starting point guard Gordana Grubin and backup center Nina Bjedov.
Grubin was snapped up by Indiana, and Los Angeles drafted Nebraska point Nicole Kubik to help fill the void, then cut her Sunday in training camp.
Ukari Figgs will start the season at the point, with Milton, 6-5 Leslie, 6-0 Mwadi Mabika and 5-9 Tamecka Dixon expected to join the 5-9 second-year point guard, with 6-3 La’Keshia Frett the first player off the bench.
Ballhandling and depth at guard may be a question, considering the Sparks lost not only Grubin but also their backup point guard, veteran Penny Toler, who has become the team’s general manager.
Figgs started last season but fell out of the picture because of an injury and ended up with only four minutes of playing time against Houston in the playoffs. This season Figgs has a hip-pointer and a troublesome back, so Cooper will be holding his breath. Former ABL reserve Nicky McCrimmon, once a USC teammate of Leslie, did not make a WNBA roster last year but has emerged this year as a backup at the point.
A leaner, much faster Dixon will get most of her minutes at off guard, but also could be available at the point. Allison Feaster will fit into the guard rotation too.
Mabika, one of the most gifted athletes in the league, will start at the wing.
Milton will start inside and brings a unique up-tempo attitude and style to the club, a trait it lacked before she arrived last year from the ABL. She and Leslie reported from the Olympic team in superb condition.
Leslie, 27, is near the peak of her career, starting at center for her second consecutive Olympic team. She was the WNBA’s No. 8 scorer and No. 4 rebounder last year.
Frett, arguably the team’s best defender, was brilliant at times in last season’s second half after languishing at the end of the bench in the first half. For example, in the first Comet-Spark playoff game, at the Forum, Frett guarded Cynthia Cooper for 30 minutes and limited her to 12 points in the 75-60 Spark victory.
The team has considerable inside depth, with 6-5 veteran Clarisse Machanguana on call. Two 6-4 rookies, Carly Funicello and Marte Alexander, are on the injured list.
A recent arrival from the Brazilian season is Croatia’s 6-3 Vedrana Grgin, who impressed Cooper on Saturday in her first full practice.
This figures to be the Sparks’ final Forum season. A switch to Staples Center this year wasn’t feasible, with the Democratic Convention booked there during the heart of the team’s season.
Three of the Sparks’ first four games are at home before L.A. plays June 11 at Sacramento, June 13 at Seattle and June 17 at Portland.
L.A. finishes the season with the longest trip in club history, six games in 12 days. Beginning July 29, the Sparks play at Houston, Minnesota, Detroit, Phoenix, Seattle and Utah.
(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)
SCHEDULE
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DATE OPPONENT TIME TV Wed. Utah 7:30
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JUNE
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3 at Minnesota 5 6 Portland 7:30 10 Phoenix 12:30 11 at Sacramento Noon NBC 13 at Seattle 7 17 at Portland 7 18 Charlotte 5 20 Houston 7:30 23 at Miami 4 25 at New York 1 NBC 26 at Washington 4 ESPN 28 at Indiana 5
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JULY
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1 Cleveland 5:30 2 Detroit 5 5 at Sacramento 7 6 Washington 7:30 9 Utah 5 11 Portland 7:30 14 Houston 6 Lifetime 15 Minnesota 7:30 20 New York 7:30 21 at Phoenix 6 Lifetime 23 Sacramento 5 25 Orlando 7:30 27 Seattle 7:30 29 at Houston 1 NBC 31 at Minnesota 4:30 ESPN
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AUGUST
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2 at Detroit 4:30 5 at Phoenix 1 NBC 8 at Seattle 7 9 at Utah 6
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All times Pacfic
ROSTER
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No. Player Pos Ht College/Nation Age 14 Marte Alexander* C 6-4 Arizona 24 21 Tamecka Dixon G 5-9 Kansas 24 5 Allison Feaster G-F 5-11 Harvard 24 15 Ukari Figgs G 5-9 Purdue 23 00 La’Keshia Frett F 6-3 Georgia 24 44 Carly Funicello* C 6-4 UCLA 21 17 Vedrana Grgin F 6-3 Croatia 20 9 Lisa Leslie C 6-5 USC 27 4 Mwadi Mabika G 6-0 Congo 23 33 Clarisse Machanguana C 6-5 Old Dominion 23 6 Nicky McCrimmon G 5-8 USC 28 10 DeLisha Milton F 6-1 Florida 25 31 Paige Sauer C 6-5 Connecticut 22
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Head coach: Michael Cooper. Assistants: Glenn McDonald, Marianne Stanley
*--Injured list