Comets Lacked Firepower in Series

You would think beating the Houston Comets would merit a special trophy of its own, since no one has done it in a playoff series before.

Yet, even as the Sparks cleared an important mental hurdle by finishing their first-round sweep of Houston at Staples Center on Monday night, there’s a nagging feeling that it wasn’t all it should be.

Yes, they finally avenged those playoff losses to the Comets in the previous two seasons. Spark Coach Michael Cooper said, “This completes the cycle, in a sense.”

But not completely.

These were the four-time defending champions in uniform only. The Comets have been blasted into little bits, like the space rocks on the old “Asteroids” video game.

Cynthia Cooper retired and went to coach in Phoenix, Sheryl Swoopes wrecked her knee in training camp and missed the season. Then, with a little more than 11 minutes to play and the Comets putting pressure on the Sparks, Tina Thompson tore her left calf.

What once was the Big Three left a Big Hole instead.

This seemed to bother Houston more than it did the Sparks.

“It’s unfortunate what happened to Tina when she went down,” Cooper said, “But the old saying, you play what’s in front of you.”

“It feels complete either way,” Spark center Lisa Leslie said. “I’m sure we’ll have that opportunity to do the rematch and that’ll be what the media hype is about next year. At this point, we have to get going. We have to get our championship however we can get it.”

For a team that’s never had to do this before, the Comets were classy in defeat and gave full credit to their conquerors.

But they were also very honest when asked what had changed about this rivalry.

“The difference is we didn’t have Swoopes and Cooper,” Comet Coach Van Chancellor said. “And then [the Sparks] picked it up a level. They’re better.”

Comet guard Coquese Washington said, “You wonder if we would’ve had Tina for the last part of the game, how it would’ve ended. Maybe it would’ve ended different.

“You can’t take anything away from L.A. They had a great season. They beat us before when we had our team at full strength, so you can’t say well, we would have won or anything like that. They played a great game and won a tough game.”

The Sparks squeaked out a three-point victory at Houston in the season opener May 28. On June 21, the Comets handed the Sparks one of their five losses. The Sparks seemed to take special satisfaction in beating Houston at Staples Center to secure their perfect 16-0 record at home, then won the first game of this best-of-three series in Houston on Saturday.

The Sparks looked like the superior team for much of the game, even when Thompson was on the court. They moved the ball well, they hurt Houston from every spot on the court and have the league’s best player in Leslie.

But it was an ominous sign when they couldn’t score even with a temporary power play while Thompson was on the floor in agony on the other end of the court (Mwadi Mabika’s pass for Leslie sailed out of bounds).

It’s not uncommon for a team to rally for a while when its best player is gone. The Sparks did it when they beat Sacramento this season without an injured Leslie. And the Comets looked ready to extend their fight without Thompson.

Janeth Arcain, selected the WNBA’s most improved player this season, looked reminiscent of Cooper with her jumpers and hanging layups in the first half, but she aggravated the tendinitis in a knee during the game and spent much of the second half on the bench.

After Thompson’s injury, Chancellor asked Arcain if she could play some more.

“I couldn’t, but I said ‘I will,’ ” Arcain said.

After Thompson was carried to the locker room, the Comets responded by scoring six of the next eight points to complete an 11-3 run and take a 51-50 lead. Washington, the smallest player on the court at 5 feet 6, even grabbed an offensive rebound.

Arcain made a jumper to put Houston up by two with 5:58 left. But it was their last lead. The Sparks ripped off 14 consecutive points, moving on to a 70-58 victory and moving ahead to a matchup with Sacramento in the Western Conference finals.

While Houston has coped with injuries and even flood damage to their arena, the Sparks have looked like a team of destiny.

“This proves we’ve arrived and we’re here,” Cooper said.

But the Comets don’t plan to leave.

“You’re going to have to get after us next year,” warned Chancellor, who also called out L.A.’s fans for buying only 8,700 tickets for Monday’s game. “We’re going to have Arcain, we’re going to have the Swooper back.”

It reminded me of the climax of “Star Wars,” when the rebels blew up the Death Star, but Darth Vader flew off to safety and you knew it wasn’t really over.

The saga continues.

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J.A. Adande can be reached at ja.adande@latimes.com