Title is Top Priority for Byears

When Spark forward Latasha Byears made her first trip to Sacramento July 21 to face the team that traded her, she tried to keep things as low key as possible.

She will try to do the same thing when the Sparks play the Monarchs in Sacramento on Friday night in Game 1 of the WNBA Western Conference finals.

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“No mixed emotions going back,” she said. “The first time going back was nice, but that’s over with. This is the playoffs.”

But no matter how much she wants to deflect any attention on her return--”It would be great if everyone overlooks me,” she said--she can’t hide the desire to eliminate Sacramento from coaches and teammates.

“Oh, she’ll have that revenge factor going,” Spark Coach Michael Cooper said. “It’s only natural to want to prove something to the team that traded you.”

“The first time she was back in [Arco Arena] she was real excited to show them what they had traded,” guard Tamecka Dixon said. “And she had a great game. I think any time she plays them, she’ll have that added incentive.”

Byears--whose acquisition last November for La’Keshia Frett has proven one of the best Spark deals--brought added muscle and scoring to the frontcourt this season, averaging 9.3 points and 5.7 rebounds.

Practically unmovable under the basket, she led the WNBA in field-goal percentage (.602) and was the only WNBA player to make 60% of her shots.

“It was nice to be a [stat] leader, but all I want is a ring,” she said.

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Slowing Monarch center Yolanda Griffith, who averaged 28 points and 13 rebounds in the first-round series against Utah, isn’t the only thing on Cooper’s mind.

He must also make sure the Sparks take very seriously a team they defeated in all three regular-season games.

“They are a different team now,” Cooper said. “They look more cohesive and they come to compete every game.

“We can’t think of the team we beat in the past. We have to concentrate on the team we have to beat now.”

Cooper and staff are going back and forth on how to defend Griffith, the 1999 MVP and the top rebounder this season (11.2).

The thinking now is to start with DeLisha Milton, who’s fighting a cold, and then using Byears.

Cooper would rather have Milton or Byears on Griffith instead of Lisa Leslie, to keep Leslie out of foul trouble.

“DeLisha did a great job on [Houston’s] Tina Thompson and will have her hands full again,” Cooper said. “Yolanda is much more mobile around the basket. We really have to box her out on rebounds. When the shot goes up, Yolanda’s work is just beginning.”

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Dixon, who received a cortisone shot in her injured right heel Tuesday, was supposed to sit out 48 hours before resuming workouts.

But she surprised everybody by doing some light jogging Wednesday.

Dixon said the injury--an inflamed plantar fascia, the connective tissue below the arch--felt much better.