Familiar Problem Is First for Sparks

Even if the Houston Comets were not the four-time defending WNBA champions, there’s no other team the Sparks would rather eliminate from postseason play.

The Sparks have reached the Western Conference finals the last two years. They were ousted by the Comets the last two years.

So yes, the Sparks want the Comets, and want them bad. But not at all costs.

“I don’t know if we’ve talked about ‘getting’ Houston as much as we have talked about getting to the playoffs and winning the championship,” guard Ukari Figgs said. “We knew we’d have to beat them to get there. And this is it; you play all season to get home-court advantage, to put ourselves in first position. And we had a great regular season.

“But a great regular season doesn’t get you a ring. We know we have to win six more games to get a ring. But we’re just gonna focus on Houston right now, and try to get that first game.”

That first game, which tips off in Houston’s Compaq Center at 1 p.m. Saturday, will do more than set the tone for the best-of-three series, which will move to Los Angeles on Monday.

The Sparks, who have the same record as last year (28-4), have to prove to themselves as much as the league that they can beat Houston when it counts.

They swept the regular-season series from Houston last year, and were then swept, 2-0, in the playoffs. In 1999, Houston won the playoff series, 2-1.

“We have to take advantage of [this series],” said Lisa Leslie, the Sparks’ leading scorer and rebounder. “There are no excuses to be made. To win a championship is not going to be easy, but we definitely have the talent and ability to do it.”

Said DeLisha Milton: “The only baggage we could carry into the game is our own. We’re a great team, and when we come to play, teams have a hard time dealing with us. But when we pack our T-shirts that say ‘Second-guess ourselves,’ and we pack those socks that have ‘no intensity,’ that’s when we get in trouble. If we leave that baggage at home, we’ll be that great team everyone knows we can be.”

Winning a fifth consecutive championship will be Houston’s biggest challenge yet.

The Comets (19-13) began the season without two of their best players. Cynthia Cooper retired and now coaches in Phoenix, and reigning MVP Sheryl Swoopes was sidelined by a torn ligament in her right knee in April.

The Comets were second in the West at the All-Star break. They finished fourth, despite the presence of all-stars Tina Thompson and Janeth Arcain. They limp into the playoffs having lost five of their last eight games, including a 56-38 season-ending drubbing by Phoenix on Tuesday.

In one year, Houston has gone from the team that couldn’t lose to the team no one expects to win.

“Hearing stuff like that can do one of two things,” Milton said. “It can make you mad and want to shut everybody up. Or all that negative energy is going to stay with them and they’ll carry it into the game. We’ll see it in their eyes at the jump ball. When you shake hands and see your opponents’ eyes before a game, you can tell what kind of game it will be.

“I expect it will be a dogfight.”