Sparks Flame Out Early
A loud cheer echoed throughout Staples Center just before the start of the Spark-Sacramento Monarch game as the home crowd fully enjoyed New York’s knocking defending champion Detroit out of the playoffs.
Little did they know that two hours later the other finalist in last year’s WNBA championship series would also make a first-round exit.
Sacramento completed the bicoastal night of upsets by beating the Sparks, 73-58, in front of a disbelieving crowd of 7,008.
Riding a balanced offense that produced four players in double figures, including Tangela Smith, Kara Lawson and DeMya Walker with 17 points each, the fourth-seeded Monarchs -- who opened the year 3-7, were still 7-10 on July 1 and seemed headed for the draft lottery -- now move on to the Western Conference finals. They play host to Seattle on Friday in Sacramento.
“We got over that hump. We’re done with that jinx,” said Smith, referring to the Monarchs’ playoff series losses to the Sparks in 1999, 2001 and 2003. “But we also know we’ve never made it past the Western Conference finals. Now we have to get past Seattle. We’ll celebrate tonight, but that’s it.”
One of those who planned to celebrate was Monarch center Yolanda Griffith, who had 14 points, eight rebounds and the responsibility of defending Spark center (and probable league most valuable player) Lisa Leslie.
“This is a great accomplishment,” Griffith said. “Like I told my teammates, I’ve been on this team for six years, and this is the best we’ve been playing. We’re strong mentally and physically. And no matter what happened this season, we had trust in each other.”
On the other side the top-seeded Sparks, who had the league’s best regular-season record, were left to contemplate being out of the first round for the first time.
“We made history today,” said a rueful Leslie, who had only eight shots in the game and scored 11 points to go with 12 rebounds. “It’s a very unusual feeling for us.... but the Monarchs were the aggressors. They took the game from us.”
“They definitely played more aggressively than us,” said Mwadi Mabika, who led the Sparks with 19 points. “I just don’t know what happened. We should have come out and played the way we did on Sunday. But we didn’t.”
Sacramento did so with another solid defensive effort, especially in the second half, when they held Los Angeles to 25 points.
Monarch Coach John Whisenant made liberal substitutions to keep his team fresh .
“I felt like I made a coaching error [in Sunday’s loss] by leaving our starters in the game too long in the first half,” Whisenant said. “It didn’t show in the first half, but it showed in the second half after we nearly caught them. We didn’t have enough gas left to go on and win.
“Tonight I made sure we had people fresh. We feel if we play people like Mwadi Mabika, Tamecka Dixon, Nikki Teasley and Lisa one on one, we can’t win. So we have to play with nine, rotating four guards and five frontline players. We have to wear them down, make their legs rubbery. Then their shots don’t fall as much.”
The Monarchs’ plan worked much better than the Sparks believed it could. Even though the Sparks won the rebounding battle, 35-28, they hurt themselves with 21 turnovers, and their inability to establish a rhythm against the Monarch defensive pressure resulted in a 38% shooting from the field (19 or 50).
“My hats off to Sacramento. They were the better team tonight,” Spark Co-Coach Karleen Thompson said. “I don’t know if I can say they wanted it more than we did. But they went out and got it.”