Sparks’ Lisa Leslie to start tonight against Indiana

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

Sparks center Lisa Leslie will make her first start tonight against the Indiana Fever after playing for two games off the bench since returning from a right knee injury that sidelined her for 11 games, according to Coach Michael Cooper.

‘She’s playing aggressive, and her mentality is at the top where she needs to be,’ Cooper said. ‘She’s really focused and ready to play basketball. That was really evident in the game against Seattle. She missed a couple of shots and ended up getting a rebound back on a tough physical play. That showed me right there that she’s ready to play.’

Leslie, who averaged 14 points and five rebounds in 26.5 minutes through two games, returns to a starting lineup tonight that apparently looks new. Cooper said that all four U.S. Olympians -- Leslie, Tina Thompson, DeLisha Milton-Jones and Candace Parker -- will start. He declined to say who will be the other starter.

‘You’ll see game time,’ Cooper said. ‘Somebody is going to sit down and there will be some minutes lost. Whoever it is will have to deal with it and play through it.’

It’s safe to narrow at least one name down. Sparks guard Betty Lennox, the team’s second-leading scorer, will come off the bench for an undetermined amount of minutes after missing the past three games because of inflammation in her left knee. Lennox described the knee as ‘feeling a lot better,’ and will take the same hard-nosed approach upon her return.

‘Just focusing on picking up where I left off and bring energy coming off the bench,’ she said. ‘Just try to put in the pieces that’s been missing, energy and trying to keep the spark off the bench and giving the team a spark to play hard and be aggressive.’

-- Mark Medina