Sparks Get Win, Not Satisfaction

HOUSTON â€”  The Sparks made sure they were nowhere near the Comets’ ring ceremony before the season opener Monday, arriving late to Houston’s home court and, after a brief warmup, staying in their locker room until the cheering stopped.

The rings Houston received for their fourth consecutive WNBA championship should have been theirs, the Sparks believed. Or at least the Sparks should have been playing for them, except they couldn’t get past the Comets--again--in the playoffs.

Los Angeles waited all winter for the 2001 season to start, with a new chance to get back at Houston and establish what the Sparks thought they were last year--the WNBA’s best team.

They wanted to make a resounding statement to the Comets and the league in front of a national TV audience. Instead, the Sparks settled for a 66-63 victory before 16,285 at the Compaq Center.

It was the Sparks’ fourth consecutive regular-season win over Houston, not to mention the first time the Comets have lost a season opener. It came through grit rather than glitz: Los Angeles outworked Houston on the boards (31-29), forced the Comets to shoot only 35% from the field and held Houston to only two field goals in the final 5 minutes 27 seconds.

They contained Comet star forward Tina Thompson as best they could. Thompson had a game-high 23 points but made only seven of 20 shots. And Thompson looked as worn out as the rest of the Comets--who were a combined 14 for 40--trying to battle the Sparks.

But Spark Coach Michael Cooper wanted more. The Comets are missing two of their (and the WNBA’s) biggest stars from last year; Cynthia Cooper has retired and coaches in Phoenix, and 2000 most valuable player Sheryl Swoopes sustained a season-ending knee injury in April. This is the season the Sparks or somebody is supposed to end the Comets’ annual ring party.

“What you saw wasn’t a pretty game, but it was a game we wanted to win and we got that one,” said Cooper, whose team had 15 turnovers and was the victim of 10 Comet steals.

“But it’s kind of disappointing because I thought we would play a lot better, especially on national TV. The message we sent to them is that they can play with us, as well as the rest of the league. As you can see we still have a lot of work ahead of us.”

What annoyed Cooper most was having to depend more on matchup zones than straight man-to-man defense--especially after the Comets took a 46-38 lead early in the second half. “For us to go into a zone that long was disheartening. But you do what you have to do to win the game.”

On the other hand, Cooper got a grand view of two new Spark players that could make a difference--Rhonda Mapp and Latasha Byears, who came to the Sparks in two off-season trades.

Mapp (6 feet 1, 190 pounds) used her size and strength to neutralize Houston’s power forward tandem of Tiffani Johnson and Tammy Jackson underneath the basket. Byears was even better. The 5-11, 206-pound Byears matched Lisa Leslie as the team’s high scorer with 15 points and grabbed a game-high 10 rebounds, including a crucial offensive board in the final 10 seconds that she put back in for the game’s final basket.

“Rhonda Mapp and Latasha Byears did exactly what we got them here to do--play tough down the stretch,” Cooper said. “If we get that kind of play from them, and the people we’ve had here before in [DeLisha] Milton and Leslie and [Mwadi] Mabika and [Tamecka] Dixon, we’re gonna be OK.”

Byears, who played in Sacramento last season, knew it would be hard to beat Houston at home even without Swoopes and Cooper.

“They’re still the champions, so you have to respect that,” she said. “We knew they would play off the emotion of the crowd and the ring ceremony. They’re not going to lay down and just let anybody come in here and run over them.”

But Mapp, who came from Charlotte, said the Sparks didn’t utilize all their strengths.

“I don’t feel good about the win,” she said. “We’re a better team than we showed. But it’s also the first game. We have to form some kind of chemistry.

Despite controlling the tempo and shooting 55.6% in the first half, Los Angeles left the court tied with Houston. They also got a scare when Leslie strained her left knee just before the half ended, although she did come back in the second half.

“She was making a defensive slide and said she felt a little pop,” said Cooper, who didn’t seem to think the injury was serious.