Sparks Rise Past Comets
A milestone was reached Friday during the Spark-Comet game, but it wasn’t the one many expected.
Tamecka Dixon scored her 2,500th WNBA point during Los Angeles’ 70-67 victory over Houston in front of 11,480 at Staples Center.
Lisa Leslie’s opportunity to become the first player to score 4,000 points in the WNBA -- must wait until another day. Leslie finished with 16 points, two shy of the mark, and 11 rebounds.
But as long as the Sparks (17-7) continued their impressive ways in July, winning for the sixth time in seven games and increasing their first-place lead to 1 1/2 games over Seattle in the Western Conference, Leslie can be patient.
“The victory is important,” Leslie said. “We’ve done well so far this month, but it’s not over. There are two more road games, games we don’t want to drop. We want to stay focused, which is not easy to do with the Olympics around the corner.”
Still, as Dixon noted, the Sparks can allow a few good feelings about their accomplishments. They continue to get contributions up and down their lineup, from Mwadi Mabika’s game-high 19 points (plus seven rebounds and five assists) to the 10 points and five rebounds from rookie Laura Macchi, who had her third tough defensive assignment this week in guarding the Comets’ leading scorer Tina Thompson. Thompson had 13 points, but made only six of 20 shots.
Sheryl Swoopes led Houston (10-13) with 15 points.
“We’re playing pretty good basketball right now,” said Dixon, who had 12 points. “We’re missing two of our soldiers in Christi Thomas (ankle) and DeLisha Milton-Jones (knee), so we need to rally around them and continue to play as hard as we’re playing. Sometimes when you hit a wounded dog it gets up and attacks. And we’re wounded right now.”
As they done all week, the Sparks started well, rolling to a 23-14 lead on Houston in the first 9 1/2 minutes. Leslie dominated inside, getting easy shots. She had 13 points at the 9:47 mark, and it appeared she would reach her milestone in the first half.
When the Comets tried to clamp down on Leslie, Dixon dropped in jump shots in front of and behind the three-point arc.
But Houston turned the rest of the half in its favor by slowing down the Sparks’ running game and turning up its own intensity. The Comets took over the boards, and their swarming 2-3-zone defense took Leslie out of the game and L.A. out of its rhythm.
The Comets scored the last eight points of the half and took a 38-37 into the locker room.
The warning signs waving in the Spark faces were as red as the Houston uniforms: The Comets had 12 offensive rebounds to the Sparks’ four, and six steals to none for Los Angeles. And Houston’s aggressive play got the Comets to the free-throw line 15 times (making 13) in the half as the Sparks got there only six times, making four.
Houston kept Los Angeles running uphill most of the second half, twice building eight-point leads. But the Sparks, who wound up winning the rebound battle (35-34) and shot more than nine percentage points better than the Comets (42.1% to 32.8%), kept plugging away until they reclaimed the lead, 63-61, on two free throws by Mabika with 1:28 left to play. Houston never got the lead back.
*
(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)
A Bucket Short
Lisa Leslie’s 16 points Friday left her two short of the 4,000-point mark for her career. The top 20 scorers in U.S. women’s professional history:
*--* Player G Pts Avg. 1. Katie Smith * 268 4,732 17.7 2. Natalie Williams * 265 4,292 16.2 3. Adrienne Goodson * 271 4,069 15.0 4. Lisa Leslie 229 3,998 17.5 5. Yolanda Griffith * 222 3,681 16.6 6. Tina Thompson 221 3,470 15.7 7. Tari Phillips * 270 3,407 12.6 8. Shannon Johnson * 275 3,356 12.2 9. Crystal Robinson * 264 3,298 12.5 10. Andrea Stinson 241 3,277 13.6 11. Nikki McCray * 249 3,238 13.0 12. Taj McWilliams-Franklin * 265 3,191 12.0 13. Sheryl Swoopes 186 3,163 17.0 14. Chamique Holdsclaw 161 2,948 18.3 15. Jennifer Gillom 216 2,896 13.4 16. Vickie Johnson 236 2,804 11.9 17. Molly Bolin + 111 2,755 24.8 17. Mwadi Mabika 230 2,755 12.0 19. Nykesha Sales 186 2,638 14.2 20. Cynthia Cooper 124 2,601 21.0
*--*
* includes points scored in American Basketball League. + Bolin played in the Women’s Basketball League, the Ladies Professional Basketball Assn. and the Women’s American Basketball Assn. from 1978 to ’84.