Ailing Swoopes Provides Comets With Different Lift

Sheryl Swoopes usually lifts her Houston Comet teammates with the scoring exploits and defensive skills that made her the WNBA’s most valuable player, leading scorer and defensive player of the year this season.

Sunday, she lifted them with her words, inspiring them to clinch the Western Conference title and their fourth consecutive finals berth.

Stricken with dizziness, nausea and a headache shortly after she arrived at the Forum, Swoopes fought through her personal misery with the heart of the three-time WNBA champion she is. Although her shakiness and the superb defense of Mwadi Mabika limited Swoopes to two points in the first half and eight overall, her sage advice to teammates helped them suppress a second-half Sparks surge and emerge with a gritty 74-69 victory before a lively crowd of 13,884.

“We saw she was sick and we said, ‘Let’s play together. Let’s play for Sheryl,’ ” said Comet guard Janeth Arcain, who scored the game’s final five points. “We said, ‘Let’s play our best,’ and we didn’t rest any time. . . .

“I talked with Sheryl and she said we have stay focused because this is a mental game, a physical game but also a mental game. Let’s not rest [Sunday] because we have tomorrow to rest if we win.”

Swoopes will make good use of her rest. Although she said she felt fine after the sweep of the Sparks, her expression of sheer exhaustion suggested otherwise.

“There was never a question if I was going to play. I was going to play if I had to crawl out there,” she said, resting her head against the partition of her locker stall. “We hung in there and played the way we needed to play.”

With Swoopes ailing, Houston got some impressive help from Arcain and reserve Tammy Jackson. Arcain sank the running jumper that gave the Comets a 71-69 lead with 39 seconds to play, and Jackson stepped up with a key block of a shot by Spark forward DeLisha Milton. Arcain was fouled by Allison Feaster and made one of two free throws, and she put the game away by sinking two free throws with 12 seconds left, bringing her teammates off the bench to hug and embrace.

“I don’t know that we were that happy after we won the championship,” Comet Coach Van Chancellor said.

Arcain scored 16 points and Jackson added a season-high 12 and four rebounds in 22 minutes.

“Janeth Arcain did a tremendous job, but I think the biggest key today was Tammy Jackson’s block late in the second half,” Swoopes said. “We knew coming in here how physical a game it was going to be, but I thought it was also going to be a mental game. Before the game we talked about that, and I talked to Janeth [later] and said, ‘Janeth, it’s all mental.’

“I’m pleased with the way we performed today, from the fifth, sixth and seventh players to the coaching staff and the people on the bench, who were fired up.”

And it was a victory they savored because of how thoroughly and sternly it tested them.

“People said in Year Two we couldn’t go back-to-back, and in Year Three, they can’t repeat,” Comet forward Tina Thompson said. “We don’t get our motivation from that: We don’t get our motivation from anywhere other than within. This time, when we were called upon, we stepped up to the plate and played. We hit a couple of home runs.

“I’m glad all the talk is over. We’re going to the finals.”