Dixon Pays Tribute With Her Play

There were times during the regular season that Tamecka Dixon looked as if she wanted to be anywhere but on a basketball court.

There were spasms of turnovers and bad shots. She was a non-factor in late-season losses to Seattle and Houston.

Coach Michael Cooper put her on the WNBA Western Conference All-Star team, but her scoring average, 10.6, had taken a dip from the 11.7 points she’d averaged in 2001. More telling was the shooting percentage, down to .391 from .417.

There were questions about her fitness. Dixon’s feet had really bothered her last year, and she began the season at less than 100%. She was also experiencing pain in her joints, although she never used it as a reason to sit out.

In fact, Dixon missed only two of the Sparks’ 32 games, both before the All-Star break, when she had to return home to New Jersey to bury her grandmother, Bernice Dixon, who died after a yearlong illness.

The Spark guard said Monday that her grandmother’s failing health and ultimate death deeply affected her. “I grew up in a house right around the corner from hers,” said Dixon, 26, who was born in Linden, N.J. “She helped raise me; she was in my life every day.”

Dixon said she never had a chance to grieve before hurrying back to play in the July 15 All-Star game. “I felt I had to be strong for the family,” she said.

A couple of weeks ago, she said, she sat down in her apartment with the lights out, and had a good cry. She said she also talked to her grandmother’s spirit.

“I finally had some emotional healing,” she said. “I know people expect athletes to still come out and perform at a high level, even after the loss of someone very special to you. But, for me, it was hard to overcome the loss.

“I was depressed for a while. My teammates did a great job of trying to keep me up, and I tried to give them what I could.”

Since the playoffs began, Dixon is more her old self. She has averaged 13.8 points in the four games but, more important, is shooting again with precision, having made 22 of 41 shots. She is scoring early in the game and late, knocking down three-pointers and driving through defenses for layups.

“I’ve dedicated the rest of my season to [Bernice],” Dixon said. “I feel like somebody’s been helping me right now, and I’d like to think it’s her.”

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DeLisha Milton will stay in the starting lineup for the championship series against the New York Liberty, Cooper said. The best-of-three series will open Thursday in New York.

Milton was replaced by Marlies Askamp after the Aug. 8 loss to Houston. Cooper said he wanted more scoring off the bench and suggested that Milton could give the Sparks that kind of lift. Others hinted that Cooper had been less than satisfied with Milton’s one-for-13 shooting against Houston.

If Milton was upset by the change she kept it to herself, and the Sparks won their final three regular-season games, clinching the league’s best record, then swept their first-round playoff series against Seattle.

Los Angeles beat Utah last Thursday in the first game of the conference finals and Milton had a game-high 17 points. At Friday’s practice, Milton learned she was back in the starting lineup. She responded with 19 points in the Sparks’ 103-77 romp Saturday.

“I felt we needed her energy against Utah, especially at home,” Cooper said. “We had to come out and establish ourselves early. We did that, and were able to get that series. Now we have to continue that against New York.

“The key in the series is how we play their inside people, [Tari] Phillips and [Tamika] Whitmore. Phillips reminds me of a young Moses Malone. She’ll throw the ball on the glass to get it up there, then get the rebound to get a better shot.

“It’s up to our big people, like DeLisha, to contain them. We can’t let New York outrebound us.”

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*--* A Spark at Guard Tamecka Dixon’s year-by-year averages, all with the Sparks: YEAR FG% FT% REB AST PTS 1997 456 773 3.0 2.0 11.9 1998 438 779 2.5 2.5 16.2 1999 387 738 2.1 1.7 6.8 2000 454 805 3.4 3.1 10.9 2001 417 791 2.9 3.9 11.7 2002 391 831 3.1 4.0 10.6 Career 424 785 2.8 2.9 11.1 Playoffs 453 871 2.8 3.5 11.2

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