Big fourth-quarter collapse costs Sparks
They threw out the welcome mat in the Sparks’ home opener Friday night, and the Phoenix Mercury were more than happy to pull it out from under them.
The Sparks built an 18-point lead early the fourth quarter, giving the Staples Center fans plenty to cheer about, but Diana Taurasi and Cappie Pondexter were unstoppable down the stretch and the Sparks couldn’t seem to do anything right, adding up to a 85-79 victory for the Mercury.
Not long after the hushed crowd of 13,142 exited the arena, Sparks veteran center Lisa Leslie was still looking for answers. The Sparks (4-2), who made 19 turnovers to Phoenix’s 10 Friday, have blown several double-digit leads this season, including a 13-point advantage to start the fourth quarter Tuesday in Chicago, but they managed to win in overtime.
“I guess if I knew we could fix it,” Leslie said of the late-game collapses. “I think we definitely have to get better with our defensive stops and putting together more stops and also executing our offense.”
Leslie finished with 17 points and 15 rebounds, but had only one point and no rebounds in the fourth quarter.
“The zone was giving us a little bit of a problem there in the fourth quarter,” she said. “Maybe they were a little more aggressive in it. . . . We just did not make the right passes and didn’t make our shots.”
For the second time this season, Sparks rookie Candace Parker came within two assists of a triple-double against the Mercury, finishing with 19 points, 14 rebounds and eight assists. However, she was limited to two points, two rebounds and an assist in the final quarter.
“We get up on teams, and we sometimes play out of our roles and take a back seat,” Parker said. “It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish.”
Before the fourth-quarter collapse, there were plenty of back slaps to go around. In addition to the efforts by Leslie and Parker, forward DeLisha Milton-Jones scored 16 points through the first three quarters, but she also went scoreless in the fourth.
Raffaella Masciadri, a third-year forward from Italy, gave the Sparks an early lift off the bench, scoring seven first-quarter points and totaling 12 through three quarters, but she was limited to one basket in the fourth, when the Sparks were outscored, 32-10. The Mercury (2-4) hardly looked like defending champions through the first three quarters, as Pondexter and Taurasi looked average, at best.
Pondexter, who came in averaging 26 points a game, scored nine of her 28 points in the final quarter. Taurasi, who played at Chino Don Lugo High, was averaging 22.6 points, was even better, scoring 13 of her team-high 29 points in the final 10 minutes.
The Sparks led by eight points three times in the first half, but each time the Mercury fought back and they trailed, 42-39, at the half.
Parker made two free throws with 3:35 remaining in the third quarter, then stole the inbounds pass and laid it in for a 61-49 lead. A three-point shot by Leslie from the top of the key extended the lead to 67-52 with 25 seconds remaining in the quarter.
After the Sparks went ahead 71-53 on their opening possession of the fourth quarter, the Mercury began chipping away, cutting the deficit to two points on Taurasi’s layup with 3:18 remaining, and Pondexter then tied the score, 74-74, on a layup with 2:58 left.
“Candace and Lisa, you can’t really stop them, but we tried to limit them and that worked,” Taurasi said. “In the last two minutes, we made shots and it determined the game.”
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