Kathy Goodman: Show, don’t tell
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My “real†job is teaching high school English, and one of the most oft-repeated phrases in critiquing student work is “show; don’t tell.†The idea, of course, is that you are supposed to be illustrating your point to the reader with examples and analogies, not just telling them. I thought this criticism applied to the Sparks all season until Monday night’s game against the Indiana Fever. I feel like I have spent all summer “telling†everyone what a good team we have, but tonight, they “showed†it.
Since the beginning of the season (maybe the beginning of training camp), there has been a lot of talk about the Sparks. We have an all-Olympic front line; almost every single award offered by the WNBA has been won at least once (and usually more than once) by at least one (and usually more than one) of our players: Rookie of the Year, League MVP, Finals MVP, All-Star, All-Star MVP, Defensive Player of the Year, All-WNBA First and Second teams, WNBA All-Decade Team, WNBA Championship. The resumes of our players are all very impressive. They have been talked about and talked about. But, except in patches and flashes, we haven’t shown much of it.
On Monday night at STAPLES Center, the Sparks finally showed what we’re about. We faced the Indiana Fever, a team that has lost only four games so far this season and is firmly in first place in the league. Tamika Catchings and Katie Douglas are two of the best ever in the game, but, more than that, the Fever have been playing as a team. As for the Sparks, well, our entire roster was dressed and on the bench for only the third time this season (and our 19th game), but they clearly came to show what they could do.
The first quarter of the game was the exact opposite of so many Sparks starts this season. This time it was the Sparks holding the opponent to two points for the first five minutes of the quarter, finally easing up a bit to let Indiana get away with only eight points in the first 10 minutes. Delisha Milton-Jones played lock-down defense on Katie Douglas, holding her scoreless for the quarter, and Lisa Leslie and Candace Parker got Ebony Hoffman in foul trouble. We had a few too many turnovers (as usual), but we were shooting 50% to their 24%, so that was forgivable.
By the end of the second quarter, there was no slump in sight. Instead, Parker showed she had gotten back into her old form, ending the half with 10 points and six rebounds. Leslie showed why she is the all-everything player she is, scoring her 6,000th point in her WNBA career and scrambling after every loose ball there was. Marie Ferdinand-Harris got into the game and lit it up on two-of-three shooting and two made free-throws for a quick six points in 6 1/2 minutes. And the team showed it really was a team in the second quarter by notching eight assists and only one turnover in 10 minutes, shooting as a team a blistering 62.5%. At halftime we were up by 15 points against the best team in the league. What did that show about the Sparks?
Of course, you never want to leave a Sparks game at halftime. Anything can happen in those third and fourth quarters. Our last two games were great third-quarter games. Often, the third quarter can be ugly, and the Sparks are notorious for sleeping on their leads. Tonight was no different. There is no question the Fever made adjustments at the half. And as exciting as it is to hold a scoring machine like Katie Douglas to four points in the first half, you know you’re going to pay for it in the second half. So it was an upbeat halftime, but we couldn’t get too far ahead of ourselves; the game was not even close to being over yet.
Sure enough, the third quarter was dreadful. We lost all the finesse of the first half and started turning the ball over again. The Fever played some serious defense, getting five steals in 10 minutes and holding down our shooting percentage to a miserable 18%. Their offense took on some life, with Douglas scoring eight points (double her four-point total from the first half) and Briann January scoring seven. Our only salvation in the third quarter was the free-throw line, where we went 10 for 10, allowing us to escape the quarter with half of our halftime lead intact.
Now 10 more minutes. I wondered if I stared at the game clock really hard, could I make it move faster? It didn’t move fast enough. After a brilliant first half — when the Sparks showed who they really could be — the old Sparks started playing in the second half. The fourth quarter didn’t look good, and the Fever closed in hard. They started pressing us and rattling us. They slowly inched back into the game, steal by steal, bucket by bucket, until the Sparks lead was only one point. I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to take a loss. I had tasted the win. The halftime celebration seemed so long ago. Surely we could find that first half intensity again.
And then we did.
Noelle Quinn, who had been pretty quiet in the game, came alive in the last 10 minutes, showing why we traded for her—shooting four for four (including one behind the arc) and racking up 10 points. Leslie showed her determination to get into the playoffs for her final season, ending the game with 21 points on six-for-eight shooting and 11 rebounds. Kristi Harrower showed why she started on the Australian national team, scoring 10 points, three rebounds and no turnovers. And with a minute left in the game, and the Sparks up by nine, the Fever began fouling and I began humming “I Love L.A.†very quietly to myself.
We beat the No. 1 team in the league, 75-63. We showed what we can do; we showed the team we can be. Now we just have to do that 15 more times and we’ll be fine.
Kathy Goodman is co-owner of the Sparks.