Sparks Reflect on Transition

Sparks fans and WNBA followers bemoaning the team’s elimination from the playoffs by defending champion Sacramento on Saturday had something to hold onto.

That was a rebuilding year.

In May, when the team was assembled, few would have predicted the Sparks would win 25 regular-season games and reach the Western Conference finals.

The Sparks were in makeover mode. Only four players -- Chamique Holdsclaw, Lisa Leslie, Mwadi Mabika and Murriel Page -- had more than four years of WNBA experience. And only six players on the roster had been with the team in 2005.

General Manager Penny Toler put together a squad that was younger and more athletic than its 2005 predecessor. Then she handed it over to a coaching staff even greener than the team.

But like the players, Coach Joe Bryant and assistants Michael Abraham and Margaret Mohr blended better than expected.

Bryant let Abraham and Mohr handle the offensive and defensive strategies while he concentrated on keeping a positive atmosphere so the players could have fun instead of feeling sequestered.

The ups and downs during the season were extreme. There was the 43-point loss in Minnesota on May 31, when the Sparks gave up a league-record 114 points. Yet there was the stretch between June and July, when they played 15 of their 17 home games and went 13-2. They would finish a league-best 15-2 at home.

There were flaws.

Despite averaging 75.7 points a game, the Sparks were not a great shooting team. Only Leslie (20.0) and Holdsclaw (15.0) averaged double figures. The Sparks shot 43.8% from the field and 29.4% from three-point range. In those categories, they ranked fifth and 13th among WNBA teams.

“We, as a coaching staff, wondered sometimes why more teams didn’t play more zone against us,” Bryant said with a chuckle.

And despite their youth, the Sparks were not a particularly fast team.

Bryant noted that as quickly as point guard Temeka Johnson could ignite a fastbreak, often “there wasn’t anybody for her to throw the ball to.”

More telling, the Sparks didn’t handle adversity well.

Their nine regular-season losses were by an average of 17.2 points. When they got down, they usually stayed down.

And when Holdsclaw was rendered ineffective in the playoffs because of a foot injury, the Sparks could not find enough collective firepower to dethrone Sacramento.

Still, there is plenty to build on. Bryant hopes his players will do things this winter, when many will head overseas to play, to improve themselves.

He wants Lisa Willis, who showed promise in her rookie season, to develop her ballhandling skills and learn to play point guard.

“If she does that, she can play three positions,” Bryant said.

Left unsaid: Willis could make a run at a starting position.

Bryant said Christi Thomas should be prepared to be the starting center if Leslie -- who is 34, recently married and may want to start a family -- decides 10 WNBA seasons is enough.

“I think Christi, going into her fourth season next year, is close to having the baton passed,” Bryant said.

For Holdsclaw, the challenge is to get healthy -- if Holdsclaw returns for a ninth WNBA season. Along with her injury, Holdsclaw was pounded emotionally by the news that her father and stepfather each had cancer. She hinted several times during the season she might retire.

“All these things they have to figure out amongst themselves,” Bryant said. “I’m not going to push them one way or another. But ... you really get better in the off-season.”