Leslie Reaches 5,000 Points, Scores 41 in Sparks’ Victory
Lisa Leslie needed one point Sunday night to surpass 5,000 for her career. Rest assured, she had a lot more in her.
Leslie scored 41 points, a career high for the 10-year WNBA pro, as the Sparks beat the San Antonio Silver Stars, 105-80, at Staples Center. She became the only player in league history to score more than 5,000 points. The 105 points scored by the Sparks were a franchise high.
“If she’s not the greatest player to ever play, I don’t know who is,” Sparks Coach Joe Bryant said of Leslie.
It took 53 seconds for Leslie to surpass 5,000 points, her 18-foot jumper from the wing sending the crowd into a frenzy. Play was stopped during the next timeout to honor the two-time league most valuable player from USC. After being presented with the game ball, Leslie made a beeline to the courtside seats, where her husband and mother sat.
Leslie kissed her husband, Michael Lockwood, and handed over the ball. “That’s the fringe benefits that come with” being her husband, joked Lockwood, a pilot for UPS.
Then Leslie joined her teammates on the bench where she was overwhelmed with hugs. Just before play resumed, Leslie ran over to her mother sitting courtside and gave one more.
The Sparks (11-3) took that brief stoppage to reward Leslie for her consistency. She used the rest of the game to demonstrate her dominance. She employed a bevy of post moves to overwhelm the Silver Stars (6-7). Leslie made 16 of 23 shots and grabbed 13 rebounds. Thirty of her 41 points were scored in the second half, as the Sparks, who won their eighth in a row, turned an eight-point lead into a 25-point rout.
“The day that I scored 101 points, that’s the same way I felt today,” said Leslie, who accomplished that feat at Morningside High in Inglewood.
After the game, Leslie’s mother, Christine Leslie-Espinoza, gave her daughter a standing ovation. She knew, of course, that Leslie would surpass 5,000 points. But Leslie-Espinoza was just as shocked as everyone to see Leslie score a career high in points. Her previous high was 32, which she’s hit multiple times, most recently June 17 against Connecticut.
“She kept on shooting,” her mother said. “I thought, ‘She’s just in the zone.’ ”
She might have been. Leslie scored nine consecutive points during a 2 1/2 -minute stretch late in the fourth quarter. When she was removed with 2:31 left in the game, Leslie received another standing ovation from the crowd.
“It makes my heart happy to see her enjoying her moment,” Leslie-Espinoza said.
* WNBA BOX SCORES, D10