With Bryant, Sparks Relax and Stop Shock
The Staples Center home folks, including former Spark coach Michael Cooper, warmly received Joe Bryant on Friday night in his first official game as the Sparks’ coach-of-the-moment. And his team didn’t squander the goodwill.
A 74-67 victory over the Detroit Shock gave Bryant his first win and kept alive the Sparks’ wispy playoff hopes. Los Angeles (14-16), with four games left, slipped ahead of Minnesota for fifth in the West and remained a game behind Phoenix for the fourth and final playoff slot. The Mercury, which beat San Antonio Friday, has the tiebreaker edge over the Sparks.
“You could see the calmness they had on the floor tonight,” said Bryant, who had not officially been named coach when he took over for Henry Bibby on Tuesday. “And they were having fun. We’re not talking about how important the wins are; just have fun, just play, have flashbacks to when you were a kid. And they did all those things.”
Lisa Leslie had 24 points, her biggest offensive output in more than a month, with 22 of her points in the first half. Chamique Holdsclaw added 19, and Tamecka Dixon had 12. Other contributions came from Tamika Whitmore (six points, seven rebounds) and Laura Macchi (five points).
“Tonight we had fun. We just went out there and played basketball,” Holdsclaw said. “I wouldn’t say the fun was missing but
The loss dropped Detroit (14-16) back into a tie with Washington for fourth place in the East. Those teams have two meetings left against each other, beginning on Sunday in Detroit.
But even though the Shock did plenty of good things, such as control the boards (34-27) and get 21 points from Deanna Nolan and 12 from Katie Smith, they could not overcome their 37.7% shooting, especially when compared to the Sparks’ 49.1% effort.
“What you saw tonight was a carbon copy of our season,” Coach Bill Laimbeer said. “When you look back at the games where we don’t play for 40 minutes ... and we didn’t tonight. We’ll play for 20 minutes, 25 minutes, but not 40.”
Before the game Bryant said the two days of preparation didn’t leave much time to add anything new to the Sparks’ playbook, which was something he didn’t want to do anyway. What interested Bryant was the team’s mood, particularly under the pressure of trying to make the playoffs.
“I’d say cheery. A little more energy, a little more pep in their step. A little more relaxed. A little more feel for ‘OK, I get a chance to express myself.’ That’s probably the most important thing,” Bryant said.
The energy and relaxed state of mind was obvious from the outset. In the first 15 minutes, the Sparks flowed like champagne, with a fastbreak and hot shooting streak that percolated throughout the lineup with 20-for-31 shooting. No one was hotter than Leslie, who made nine of 13 shots and scored 22 points during that stretch as the Sparks built a 46-32 lead.
Detroit called time out and came back with new tactics. Rather than simply run the floor, the Shock slowed things down by driving to the basket, getting fouled and making repeated trips to the free-throw line. By halftime, Sparks led, 48-41.
In the second half, Detroit rallied to tie it, at 50-50, with 14:07 left. Then Dixon threw in a running 19-footer that touched off a 9-0 Spark spurt, and the Shock didn’t get closer than four.