Sparks Get First Title Shot Today
The day the Sparks have waited for since training camp began has arrived. Shortly after 12:30 p.m today, before what they hope is the biggest, loudest Staples Center crowd they’ve seen, the Sparks hope to add “WNBA champions” to a resume already crowded with major achievements during the 2001 season.
All they have to do is stomp on the glass slippers of one of the league’s most intriguing Cinderella teams.
But the Sparks may have to go without one of their starters.
Tamecka Dixon, who severely aggravated her injured right heel in Thursday’s victory over Charlotte, is doubtful for the game, even though the Sparks included her in their Friday preparation for the Sting.
“Tamecka is a warrior,” Spark Coach Michael Cooper said. “She’ll get more treatment tonight, then we’ll go from there. A decision won’t be made until [game time].”
If Dixon can’t go, the Sparks will have to replace their second-leading scorer. After Lisa Leslie, Dixon may be the team’s best one-on-one player, one who can drive to the basket or shoot from outside with equal aplomb.
“She is good defensively, but where she has really come through for us is making big baskets,” Cooper said. “If she can’t go, that means other people have to step forward and take the shots. If I was coming off the bench, I’d be thinking, ‘There are 12-13 extra shots to take.”’
The Sting, which trails the Sparks, 1-0, in the best-of-three WNBA finals, is trying to avoid elimination. It is not a strange position for Charlotte, which has had its back against the wall much of the season.
Charlotte overcame a 1-10 start to make the playoffs. To reach the finals, the Sting had to eliminate Cleveland and New York, the top two seeded teams in the Eastern Conference, on those teams’ home courts.
So don’t expect the Sting to be distraught over losing to the Sparks at home Thursday, despite going scoreless for seven minutes down the stretch. Charlotte had a similar meltdown in its home playoff opener against New York, blowing a nine-point lead in the final three minutes. Then the Sting went into Madison Square Garden and beat the Liberty twice.
That’s one reason Charlotte did not leave its confidence back in North Carolina.
“To me it’s still a series whether anybody believes it or not,” Sting guard Dawn Staley said. “We’re not strangers to winning on other people’s home courts. We’ll take that into Staples Center.”
There is one key difference, however, between what the Sting saw in the East and what it faces in the finals. Los Angeles probably has the best combination of offense and defense the Sting has played. As a group the Sparks’ frontcourt of Leslie, DeLisha Milton and Mwadi Mabika is bigger and longer than the Sting trio of Tammy Sutton-Brown, Allison Feaster and Charlotte Smith. That causes the Sting problems in rebounding and defending inside the key. Leslie and Milton were a combined 16 for 25 in the first game, and many of their shots were from five feet or closer. Mabika did not have a good shooting night (one for six), but she can explode at any time.
“There are some adjustments we have to make,” Sting guard Andrea Stinson said. “Lisa is a great player who knows the ins and outs of the game. We’ve got to try and move her farther out of the post so she has to penetrate, and not get layups.”
Still, the Sparks--who have only lost at home once this season--can’t help but expect good things to happen here.
“We know they’ve been a great road team in the playoffs,” Nicky McCrimmon said, “but we’re not going to buy into that.”
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WNBA FINALS * GAME 2
CHARLOTTE AT SPARKS, TODAY, 12:30, CH. 4