Sparks’ 87-84 Victory Has Them Reeling
CLEVELAND — When it finally ended, after the second overtime, Orlando Woolridge, the Sparks’ assistant coach, leaped high off his seat and yelled: “I love this game!”
And so, it seemed, did nearly all of the announced 9,238 in Gund Arena, even though it was the Sparks who won the best WNBA game yet--and its first double-overtime game--edging the Cleveland Rockers, 87-84.
The victory gave the Sparks--10-12 and in hot pursuit of Western Conference leader Phoenix (10-10)--a 2-0 record on a trip that ends Saturday night in Houston against Sheryl Swoopes and the Comets.
The first win, on Tuesday, was a rout over New York at Madison Square Garden . . . and now this.
Jubilant Spark players whooped and danced out the tunnel, but forgiving Cleveland fans, many of them teenage girls and younger, nearly fell over the railings to high-five laughing Lisa Leslie and Haixia Zheng.
“I played in the NBA 13 years and I was in a lot of great games, but this ranks right with any of them,” Woolridge shouted above the celebration in his team’s locker room.
It was a game the Sparks seemed likely to put away early, before they became mired in foul trouble (33 fouls on Los Angeles, 24 on Cleveland), with Leslie (14 rebounds, 17 points) able to play only 34 of the 50 minutes.
The star, again, was Tamecka Dixon (23 points), the rookie from Kansas who throughout the overtime periods, with the Sparks in the foul bonus, was given the ball at every crucial point and told to drive against Lynette Woodard.
She did, with 2.5 seconds left in regulation and scored a layup, creating a 68-68 tie.
Both teams were exhausted in the first overtime, with Los Angeles scoreless the last two minutes and and the Rockers (11-10) managing only two free throws in the last 1:11.
Two Dixon free throws gave the Sparks a 76-75 lead in the second overtime and the Rockers never caught them again.
In a sprint to the finish, the teams scored 11 points in the final minute, with Leslie sealing the victory with two free throws with 7.3 seconds remaining.
Around the WNBA
Sheryl Swoopes made her WNBA debut for the Houston Comets, six weeks after having a baby, but it took Cynthia Cooper’s 34 points to hold off the Phoenix Mercury (10-10) for a 74-70 victory in front of 10,001 at Houston. Swoopes played tentatively for just over five minutes in the first half. The 1996 Olympic gold medalist sat out the second half as Houston improved to 13-7. . . . Phoenix put guard Nancy Lieberman-Cline on the injured list because of tendinitis in both knees and activated guard Tara Williams from the injured list.
